Maxwell to County: Drop Dead

This is not the way for Kevin Maxwell to win friends and influence people:

As school and county leaders tango through the budget season, Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell took a bold step yesterday to seize the lead.

Dr. Maxwell bought a $4.6 million payroll software system two days after the County Council voted against granting money to pay for it....

...The council wanted to delay the purchase for 30 days to determine whether the pricey human resources system could be used for all county employees. Administrators on both sides were midway through discussions to bring that to reality when Dr. Maxwell issued a letter yesterday saying he signed the contract anyway.

"It undermines the whole spirit of what we were doing," county Budget Officer John Hammond. "We have one part of the government march off on their own direction and say you're either with us or we'll leave you in the dust."

County Auditor Teresa Sutherland questioned whether the expenditure violates state law, and referred the action to county attorneys.

Dr. Maxwell said county officials shouldn't be shocked, because the schools face a crisis.

So now we have an unaccountable Superintendent of Schools, supervised by an unaccountable Board of Education (who are still bitching about the budget), going completely off of the reservation to spend money in a way that was shady at best and illegal at worst.

So now I have to ask this question: if the school system can afford to buck the county by spending $4.6 million on something that is clearly not related to classroom instruction, why are the schools in such dire straits financially? That's not to say that the system doesn't need a payroll program. But why would Maxwell decide to strike off an do his own thing in the middle of negotiations with the rest of the County apparatus? And does Maxwell really think that he is going to get what he wants through petulance?

And need I remind people that neither Maxwell nor the Board who supervises him face the voters or the public in any meaningful way , shape, or form?