Leggett's Israel Trip Is on Taxpayers' Tab

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) is in Israel this week as part of a seven-day trade mission. It is the first of several international trips he hopes to make.

Leggett has scheduled meetings with executives of Israeli companies with offices in Montgomery County and those looking to expand in the county. Between meetings, he'll visit the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, in Jerusalem, a history museum and Yad Vashem, the national memorial to victims of the Holocaust.

The trip was organized through the county's office of economic development with the help of the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Maryland/Israel Development Center. Taxpayers are picking up the $11,028 tab for Leggett and special assistant Chuck Short. Leggett is covering the cost for his wife, Catherine Leggett, to join him.

An earlier trip planned by the Jewish Community Relations Council for several community leaders was called off after questions were raised about the funding. The council, a private organization that lobbies and does charitable work, had planned to have a foundation reimburse it for the expenses, about $4,000 a person, of the Montgomery delegation.

But an ethics commission opinion prepared in response to questions by County Council member Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large) said that trip would violate the county's ban on gifts from lobbyists.

"Even if the parts of the gift for which the lobbyist received funding from the foundation were considered to be gifts from the foundation and not the lobbyist, the lobbyist would still be giving the employee an impermissible gift by making travel arrangements, providing staff to serve as guides, and coordinating all arrangements for and during the trip," the commission said in its opinion.

Gender Bill Targeted

Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, which has led opposition to the sex education curriculum in Montgomery County's schools, has a new target. In a recent e-mail, the group highlighted legislation before the County Council that would prohibit discrimination against residents based on gender identity.

"This bill has far-reaching implications, from allowing any male expressing as a female to use the women's bathroom, to forcing religious schools to hire gays and transgenders," according to the message to members.

The e-mail tells members how to voice objections with Council President Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County). The bill is sponsored by Trachtenberg, who has said she was inspired in part by her senior policy adviser Dana Beyer, who is a transgendered woman.

Beyer called concerns from the group "utter nonsense." The language in the bill has not been finalized and might touch on the issue of public accommodations such as restrooms, Beyer said.

The issue, she said, occurs when a transgendered woman is at the beginning of her transition and might still have a masculine appearance.

"Are you going to send her into the men's room? You'd be putting her physically in harm's way. Men do not like women in their bathrooms," Beyer said. "This is only an issue in people's fevered imaginations. You've got a lot of misperceptions and ignorance."