
By Meymo Lyons
In Montgomery County, Maryland, newly released records reveal that county employees used taxpayer money to take sailing lessons and attend a New Age spiritual retreat.
The tuition assistance program for county employees has been suspended amid oversight questions. The program was supposed to allow employees to take courses to help them grow in their jobs. But detailed records were released by the Office of Human Resources at the request of the county council. They provide descriptions of some of the classes county employees took. Previously, only the school and course names had been publicly available.
The records show that a course labeled "health education" was actually a spiritual retreat in Texas. A member of the fire department took a sailing class that cost $995.

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