Who needs to show up anyway?

Who needs to serve on the School Board Nominating Commission when you can just blow it off for a few months:

One of the 11 members on the School Board Nominating Commission will give his vote to a colleague this spring when the commission selects two new members for the county Board of Education.

Richard Kovelant, who was appointed to the commission by the Association of Education Leaders, will give his vote to Robert Ferguson.

Mr. Kovelant is executive director of the association, which is the local school-based administrators' union. He said he is going out of town to attend the birth of his grandchild at the end of April and will not be able to hear all the school board testimony. He said he'd return to the commission this summer.

Candidate hearings are set for 7 p.m. tonight and April 28 in County Council chambers, and 7 p.m. May 5 and May 12 at sites to be determined.

Mr. Ferguson is an assistant principal at Old Mill High School in Millersville and president of the association.

Joshua Greene, chairman of the nominating commission, said since the association holds the seat, its members can appoint another person to fill it in Mr. Kovelant's absence.

Why on Earth would somebody be appointed to the seat who knows they will be unable to attend the process? Why does this outfit get a seat at the table, but average parents and taxpayers get no voice in the process?

Can we for the love of God please replace this convoluted, undemocratic system with something that gives a voice to the people of Anne Arundel County? Stories like the one above makes a mockery of the entire process.

And speaking of a mockery of the process, I can't wait to hear the news coming out of the first hearing that is going on right now...