Prince George’s County lawmakers are proposing that union employees at the agency that provides water for Montgomery and Prince George’s counties receive raises while others get lump sum payments.
Union members, who make up roughly one-third of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission’s employees, would receive 3 percent merit raises and 2 percent cost of living increases. Nonunionized employes would receive $2,000 one-time payments.
Both counties, which fund the agency, must agree on the employee compensation or the WSSC would receive the raises it has requested: 3 percent merit raises and 2 percent cost-of-living increases for all of its employees.
The Montgomery County Council objects to Prince George’s suggestion because it favors unionized employees, according to Montgomery County Council Staff Director Steve Farber.
Instead, Montgomery lawmakers have proposed $2,000 one-time payments, the same compensation that all Montgomery government employees are likely to get next fiscal year.
Lump sum payments do not increase salaries for pension purposes and are not counted when calculating future raises.
The two councils are scheduled to meet Thursday for their annual meeting. Every year, they meet to set the agency’s budget and set water rates. But if they cannot agree, WSSC gets what it asked for by default, which is what happened last year.
A representative from the Prince George’s County Council could not be reached for comment. A representative from WSSC did not return requests for comment by deadline.
Thursday’s meeting will be largely “pro forma,” said Montgomery County Councilwoman Valerie Ervin, D-Silver Spring, which is why she said she’s not going.
“It’s a joke,” she said of the meetings she has attended for the last six years. “We’re going to vote on something that we think is a mistake.”
The councils have not met for real discussion on the matter in six years, Ervin said.
“If we really expect to change the direction the Prince George’s Council is going, we actually have to talk to them,” she said.
