Steve Burns
WMAL.com
UPPER MARLBORO — (WMAL) The political finger-pointing keeps coming in Prince George’s County. County Executive Rushern Baker blames the County Council over a new police station in Fort Washington that won’t be staffed when construction is done next year, indicating the Council’s budget cuts didn’t leave enough money to train new recruits and Baker does not want to siphon officers from existing stations. “The County Executive cannot appropriate the money. The money comes from the County Council, so the money they gave me, I have to work with,” Baker said at a gathering Wednesday.
But Council Chairman Mel Franklin said their cuts were only temporary and would have no bearing on staffing the new police station. “We haven’t really got any communication from this administration on (the police station),” Franklin said.
This follows protracted proceedings to get a budget passed for Fiscal Year 2016, where a large rift over property taxes developed, and Baker’s staff threatened legal action before allowing the Council’s proposed budget to move forward.
“You would hope that it’s not a continuing divisiveness over the budget battle that we went through,” Franklin said. “I don’t take any of these matters personally, and I would hope the County Executive does not either.”
Franklin said their personal relationship is fine, but their working relationship needs some improvement. “The working relationship between the Council and Executive is not great now in terms of communication. That’s going to continue to hurt our efforts to move our county forward if we don’t address them in short order.”
Baker did not return calls from WMAL on this story.
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