The County Council is considering a bill that would authorize the county's Office of Law to take civil action against the county school system to enforce terms of a financial audit.

Chairman Calvin Ball, who filed the measure introduced last week, contends that the school system has resisted the county auditor's requests for information pertaining to the audit.

The measure is scheduled to be discussed at a public hearing as part of the next council meeting, 7 p.m. Sept. 19 in the George Howard Building in Ellicott City.

Ball's bill stems from the contentious budget season that pushed the council to pass a measure in July calling for the audit of the school system and creating an oversight committee to review the school system's budget.

The council chairman said legal action would be the county's “last option” to force the system to provide requested information necessary.

School system officials were “caught off-guard” by the council legislation, said John White, school system spokesman.

“We think that this [audit] can be accomplished without wasting time and resources on legal action,” White said.

The financial audit includes a review of the school system's special education services, legal services and health and dental fund, which covers health benefits for employees.

That committee began meeting in late August and is intended to provide the council with a comprehensive review of the school system's budget by next July.

In an Aug. 30 email to Ball, Howard County Schools Superintendent Renee Foose said staff have been “responsive and cooperative” with the county auditor's requests for information.

Foose wrote that the requests came at “the busiest time of year in the school system,” the beginning of school, and when the accounting office is closing financial books and preparing annual financial statements as it shifts to a new finance system.

School staff told the county auditor they expect to work on the auditor's requests by mid-September, Foose wrote.

County auditor Craig Glendenning declined to comment on the audit's progress because the review is continuing.

The school system is also audited by the Maryland State Department of Education, the Maryland Public School Construction Program and the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits.

The county's audit is part of a broader push for more accountability and transparency in the school system's budget process.

The school system is waiting on a letter from the county's auditor outlining the scope and timeline of the financial audit, White said.

The letter will set “a clear and understandable direction” for a collaborative process between the county and the school system, he said.

Ball said the county auditor has discussed the scope of the audit with the school board's own external auditor and was advised there was no space for the county auditor staff to work alongside the board external auditor in a trailer on site.

Foose, on the other hand, wrote the county auditor ignored a request to follow school system protocol for coordinating interviews through the office of the school system's chief financial officer. The superintendent also noted the county auditor should coordinate with the board external auditor to coordinate the review.

Ball also said the school system requested the presence of a Board of Education employee during county auditor interviews of staff, a request he called “unprecedented.” He said that in a move he described as “highly unusual,” the county auditor struck a compromise by offering to provide a list of selected interviewees to the school system and allow an external auditor to sit in on interviews.

As both sides discuss the issues related to the audit, White said the school system is committed to providing the requested information.

“It is a collaborative process, and it does take both sides to accomplish the work,” he said.