Montgomery Council President Mike Knapp said Tuesday that salary increases given to county department heads and other top officials may have “raised the bar” for the Washington area.
Knapp, who is also head of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, said colleagues in the regional leadership organization have mentioned to him that they believe salary increases given by County Executive Ike Leggett to his top staff members when he took office in 2007 could set new pay thresholds for local government positions.
“We have become an example of interesting management pay increases,” Knapp said. “There are a number of directors and chief administrative officers that were very excited at the salary increases our folks have received and said they were going to pursue similar increases. I didn’t realize we were the model for that.”
Leggett’s spokesman Patrick Lacefield did not immediately return requests for how Leggett amended salaries of top management positions when he took office in 2007.
Council Vice President Phil Andrews has been a vocal critic of labor contracts that promise cost-of-living adjustments and salary step increases that total about 8 percent a year for county government employees.
Andrews opposes raising the property tax rate beyond the rate of inflation unless the council agrees to address what he sees as excessive promises to labor unions. Leggett has proposed an 8.3 percent increase in the property tax rate as part of his budget plan.
“It is not tenable to ask taxpayers to pay higher prop taxes to fully fund pay increases that average 8 percent,” Andrews told The Examiner. “I want the council to address what I see as unaffordable and unsustainable increases in compensation before we raise property taxes. This is a lot to ask of taxpayers when hardly anybody else is seeing that kind of pay increase.”
Other council members also opposed to increasing property taxes have eyeballed labor costs in the county. Council Member Nancy Floreen said the county has an obligation to uphold the agreements it has signed, but she wondered whether it was necessary to maintain the current number of jobs. Data from council leaders say the county has added 15 percent more positions, or 1,300 jobs, in the past five years, while population has increased by only 4 percent.
“Is there a way to provide the same services with fewer individuals?” Floreen asked The Examiner. “Should we retain a hiring freeze, things of that nature cross my mind.”
