Cops say council, Leggett violated contract The Montgomery County police union is threatening the county government, saying the liberal bastion violated police officers’ civil and constitutional rights when it passed the budget for the new fiscal year.
The Fraternal Order of Police sent a “Notice of Claim” letter to Montgomery County Council President Valerie Ervin and County Executive Ike Leggett — a step taken before a lawsuit is filed against county government.
County Council attorney Bob Drummer said he believes the union will sue, although it still could decide not to. Fraternal Order of Police President Marc Zifcak and Bill Chen, the union’s lawyer, both declined to comment.
The letter points to the council’s decision not to fund some health and retirement benefits, a wage increase, and a tuition-assistance program that was criticized as a source of waste and fraud, as the council looked for ways to cut $300 million from the fiscal 2012 budget. Not funding the perks, which were part of an agreement reached through the union’s collective bargaining process with Leggett’s administration, is a violation of the police contract, the letter says.
“[…] Actions of the council in failing to include full funding of the collective bargaining agreement were in violation of the rights of the [Fraternal Order of Police] and all Montgomery County police officers,” the letter reads.
The letter lists damages of lost wages and employment benefits.
The union’s letter comes as the council is set to vote on a bill that would create a multi-tiered disability pension system for police by basing the amount of pension received on the severity of the employee’s injuries. The county’s spending on disability pensions has soared as 116 police officers have filed for a disability pension since 2004 — compared with three in similarly sized Fairfax County.
The bill — which would go into effect July 1, 2012 — also would alter the bargaining process by allowing the executive to negotiate the terms of disability pensions separate from the rest of the unions’ contracts.
The Municipal and County Government Employees Organization may follow the Fraternal Order of Police’s lead and sue as well, said President Gino Renne, who has asked the union’s lawyers to research its legal options.
“We’re not simply gonna rest and accept the council and the executive’s unilateral disregard for collective bargaining,” he said. “They’re undermining collective bargaining by utilizing the legislative process to mandate … terms of employment.”
The public employees’ unions took their complaints to arbitration during the budget process, but arbitrators — and in the general employees’ case, a Circuit Court judge — ruled that Leggett was within his rights to consider the county’s finances when setting the budget and cutting benefits.
County officials say the council was within its rights when it cut the perks.
“The council has the total authority to either fund or not fund the collective bargaining agreements,” said Leggett spokesman Patrick Lacefield.
Compensation and benefits for county employees account for about 80 cents of every dollar of taxpayer money the county spends.
Over the past decade, the costs of employee pension and retirement benefits jumped from $59.3 million to $193.4 million and health benefits for active employees soared 134 percent, from $134.4 million to $314.6 million, according to the independent Office of Legislative Oversight.
Benefits increased more than 120 percent, while employee salaries grew 50 percent.
Councilman Marc Elrich, D-at large — who voted against the disability pension bill when it was in committee — said the council should have tried going through the bargaining process to make the changes proposed in the bill. But he also said the union “is wasting their money on a lawsuit.”
Councilman Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville, one of the bill’s sponsors, agreed.
“The buck stops with the County Council.”
