Under the Montgomery County Code, § 11B-14, the County can award non-competitive contracts. With these contracts, multiple businesses or entities are not required to compete on the price of services.
The results of a recent Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request were recently sent to CleanSlate MoCo that outline the 154 non-competitive contracts that the county currently has in place.
With a recent emphasis being placed nationally on contracts and grants awarded by government agencies and the unveiling of contracts and grants by DOGE that could be labeled at best wasteful, we found it fitting that the community’s eyes look inward on how some of its tax dollars are being spent. This is especially relevant when you are talking about tax dollars that are being awarded without any competition based on price or value.
The total encumbrance, which is defined as the financial commitments recorded in the County’s budgeting system, for the 154 contracts totals, over $104 million dollars. There are 8 contracts in which a financial amount was not provided through the MPIA.
While a statement of work for each contract was not provided by the county, a short description of the contract purpose was provided. In reviewing the list there are many services that are clearly needed and required by the County. Items such as DNA Analysis for police services, OEM parts for buses, defibrillators, and lab equipment. Whether these items could have been procured at a lower cost to the county if they were competed would certainly be worth exploring, but in this article, we would like to bring transparency to some of the other areas and items your tax dollars are being spent on.
There are 13 Knowledge Transfer contracts. Each of these contracts are awarded to an individual who we speculate use to be employed by the County. These contracts total over $3.7 million dollars. Looking at one of the contracts, the individual was employed by the County as a program manager in 2023 but managed to receive a non-competitive knowledge transfer contract from 2024 to 2025 valued at $384,000. In another example, this one awarded by the County Executive office, the individual was employed by the County in multiple jobs between 2014 and 2023. They were awarded a contract starting in 2025 to 2026 totaling $1.13 million dollars.
Here are some more examples.
$20 million for the maintenance and repair of artificial turfs in the county
$240,000 for basic program to support families with young children
$420,000 for the collection of donated deer and transport of deer to participating meat processing facilities
$32,000 to design, build and maintenance of a hydrogen fuel cell electrolyzer facility
$4.6 million dollars to educate tenants about their rights under current laws
$15 million dollars for emergency dental kits and replenishment services
$48,000 for fresh, culturally appropriate, nutrient-dense produce from local farms to families in need at MCPS
$34,000 for minor home repairs to senior homeowners participating in the county’s home sharing program
$239,000 to conduct a job class analysis to determine the multilingual proficiency level and recommend minimum threshold for scoring positions
$315,000 for a library services vehicle
$41,000 for the Wheaton Arts Parade and Festival
Cost unknown for providing clinical assessment and psychological evaluation and treatment for sex offenders residing at pre-release facilities
$331,000 for coaching and technical assistance to minority owned businesses
$1.8 million to provide neighborhood revitalization activities in Long Branch and Lyttonsville
$4.6 million to provide support for development of a leadership program that is committed to fostering more impactful, adaptable, and connected leadership across the Continuum of Care (HUH?)
$45,000 for network building and leadership training to increase racial and economic equity in county
$617,000 to social services to immigrants from Caribbean and African communities
$3.9 million for Rapid Rehousing case management services
$120,000 to promote health habits to children and adults
$500,000 for the attraction of tourism to Montgomery County
$327,000 to provide a program for the control and irradiation of noxious weeds throughout the county
There are many more, but these begin to paint a picture on the County spending. More to come.
