The Montgomery County firefighters union agreed to give up a cost-of-living wage increase in exchange for up to five extra paid days off, the free use of county gyms and pools, and a promise that County Executive Ike Leggett himself won’t accept a raise.
The agreement, which was finalized Monday, comes on the heels of similar deals with the county’s police and county employees unions. The police union agreement lets rank-and-file police officers drive their patrol cars to their homes up to 15 miles outside the county, while the other deal gives 1,450 county government union members an extra 60 hours of paid leave that is equal to $2.6 million in wages.
Leggett in a statement expressed his “deep appreciation” to the hundreds of members of the International Association of Fire Fighters for “agreeing to make sacrifices” that were in the best interests of county residents.
He said in February that he would forgo his $4,000 raise, according to his spokesman.
Getting all the unions to agree to a cost-of-living freeze was crucial to Leggett’s efforts to bridge a budget deficit of more than $550 million. The total cost of the cost-of-living agreements countywide would have been $123.5 million during the next fiscal year.
But not everyone is happy with what the county gave up in return for the wage freeze.
Council President Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville, has lambasted the deal Leggett made with the police union, which allows officers to drive up to 15 miles outside the county’s borders in their squad cars to conduct personal business. The agreement also would allow 205 officers to drive a squad car to their homes within the same 15-mile border, which stretches all the way to the West Virginia border and includes parts of Baltimore.
Andrews said the proposal was the “worst” part of Leggett’s budget and effectively subsidizes public safety in surrounding counties on the county’s dime.
Andrews said Tuesday he hadn’t looked at details of the firefighter union agreement.
County Council staff also have questioned the costs associated with the additional paid leave and said the total cost of all the concessions granted to the unions could be “several million dollars.”
But Leggett’s officials said the concessions were “absolutely necessary” to get the cost-of-living freezes and added that the unions had been under no legal obligation to negotiate new contracts.
“In order to get the savings we needed to get, I think we have struck a good deal,” Leggett spokesman Patrick Lacefield said.
BRINGING HOME THE BACON
Growth in Montgomery County unions’ pay from fiscal 1999 through 2009:
Firefighter union: 122 percent
Police union: 112 percent
County employee union: 96 percent
Increase in the consumer price index: 37 percent
Source: County Council staff
