Montgomery Council members are unanimously backing legislation to strip County Executive Ike Leggett of his power to pursue certain grants without their approval, saying Leggett ignored council advice and pursued projects requiring millions in county funds.
Over the summer, Leggett’s office applied for public safety grants that, if awarded, would force the county to pony up about $7.8 million in local cash to receive about $2 million in federal aid.
Council Vice President Phil Andrews and Council Member Duchy Trachtenberg wrote Leggett in July, asking him to withdraw the requests for federal funds, saying they were “extremely concerned about the long-term costs to the county.”
Leggett’s office refused. Patrick Lacefield, Leggett’s spokesman, said the council has the ability to reject the funding after the grants have been awarded, if it is so inclined, but any effort to restrict Leggett’s power to seek grants violates the county’s charter.
“To tie the executive’s hands about pursuing grants that could bring more resources to the county, on the face of it may not be wise and may not be legal,” Lacefield said.
One of the two grants secures money to add six police officers to stations throughout the county and four to work with state and federal task forces on fugitive and human-trafficking investigations, the regional gang task force and sex offender registry. The other would add 12 firefighter positions to expand four-person staffing on some fire trucks.
Lacefield said both grants’ objectives are consistent with overall county goals, but council members said the money may be needed for additional police recruit classes or adding staff to existing fire stations, rather than supplementing regional task forces or putting four firefighters on trucks.
“We need to have a consistent approach from the beginning,” Andrews said. “It saves everybody time, and we don’t want to have a grant application go in from one branch of county government and not be accepted by the other.”
The legislation would require Leggett to get council approval before applying for grants of more than $500,000, or if compliance would require the council to appropriate more than $250,000 or add two or more positions to county government.
