Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett has approved a raise for police officers who serve on a proposed helicopter unit, a move that signals Leggett’s continued interest in a program the County Council says is too expensive.
Leggett approved paying pilots an additional $3,500 a year, and observers $1,500 per year as part of a labor agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police union. The extra pay, which would total about $10,000 a year, would be paid only if the proposed helicopter unit gets off the ground, county staff said.
Leggett’s spokesman, Patrick Lacefield, said a lack of support for the program from the County Council and current budget problems — the county is facing a budget gap of nearly $1 billion — have stalled the program, but only temporarily.
“It’s on hold, but the idea’s not going away,” Lacefield said.
The program would cost about $1.6 million a year once fully operational, according to police estimates.
Lacefield said two former Army helicopters given to the county are being stored in a state-owned hangar near the county airpark in Gaithersburg — at no cost to the county.
Last year, Leggett tried to persuade the County Council to approve a two-year trial period for the helicopter program that would be paid for by a drug-asset forfeiture fund and a federal grant. Police officials said the helicopter would assist in high-speed chases, missing person searches, and drug investigations.
The County Council rejected the proposal, citing the county’s long-term forecast of budget shortfalls. The county is projected to have shortfalls of hundreds of millions of dollars for several years.
Leggett said last year that some opponents were “burying their heads in the sand.”
Councilman Phil Andrews, an outspoken opponent of implementing the helicopter program, said he plans to submit a resolution that would bar the county from spending any money on a helicopter program next fiscal year. Andrews said Leggett shouldn’t have agreed for a pay raise for helicopter police “so people don’t haven any illusion that we are going to have a helicopter unit in the near future.”
