Montgomery County panel indicates support for union raises

A panel of Montgomery County Council members indicated on Monday that they support a plan to give thousands of unionized county employees double-digit pay raises over the next two years.

After months of bargaining with County Executive Ike Leggett, the unions — whose members haven’t received raises in several years, although they received $2,000 payments in the current fiscal year — struck a deal that would give about half of the county’s paid firefighters a 19.5 percent pay raise over two years, county government workers a 13.5 percent raise over two years and police a 14.7 percent raise over two years.