The union representing Montgomery County government employees is trying to compel the County Council to vote on a plan to offer buyouts of $40,000 to dozens of its employees.
In a lawsuit, the Municipal & County Government Employees Organization said the County Council had acted illegally by not indicating whether it supported or rejected a proposed buyout plan. But the county’s attorney said the council made it clear that it was rejecting the buyout agreement between the union and County Executive Ike Leggett when it deferred a vote indefinitely.
The union said the long-term savings of giving buyouts to employees who were within two years of retirement would be $2.6 million. But earlier this year, council members balked at approving the collectively bargained agreement after a council report found that a previous round of buyouts hadn’t properly targeted the right employees and was going to wind up costing the county $12.8 million over 10 years.
At a County Council hearing in May, Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg, D-at large, said the council was rejecting the agreement until “the executive branch sends over a strategic proposal … that we would consider to be cost effective.”
At that meeting, MCGEO head Gino Renne said: “So there’s no ambiguity, if this body chooses to defer, then you’re rejecting the agreement as negotiated and we will demand renegotiations on this matter. Just so we’re clear.”
Council President Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville, said the council’s deferment was a clear signal that it rejected the buyout agreement and no one on the council gave Renne “any reason to think otherwise.”
But in its lawsuit, the union said the council had to follow the rules when approving or rejecting a collective bargaining agreement that’s been sent to the council from Leggett, which meant an up-or-down vote. Forcing the council to vote on the issue would “ensure that the council does not turn to deferral as a tool to frustrate the county code-imposed collective bargaining system,” the union said.
The director of the county’s human resources department, Joe Adler, said the county hadn’t tried to renegotiate the buyout agreement after the council deferred a vote, adding that the county considered the issue “moot.”
The County Council also deferred voting on an agreement between the Fraternal Order of Police union and Leggett that would have allowed rank-and-file police officers to drive 15 miles outside of the county in their patrol cars on personal business.
