Deputy sheriffs in Baltimore County have been pining for a fully paid, 40-hour work week for years. They went down to Annapolis in the spring asking for the raise and, yet again, didn?t get one ? but their boss did.
For the first time in years, the county sheriff is set for a pay raise that will bring the leader an additional $5,000 in each of the next four years, topping out at $90,000. Aside from the yearly cost-of-living adjustment that boosts all county employees? salaries, the deputies will get paid for 35 hours of work each week.
They say they often end up working a full 40 ? putting in five extra hours for free.
“It?s just kind of a kick in the teeth that he got his raise, and we didn?t get it,” said Lt. Richard Kelly, of the deputies? union. He said County Executive Jim Smith pushed hard for the sheriff?s raise, but let die legislation that would have given the deputies a longer work week. “I don?t believe Mr. Smith will get us anything.”
A spokesman for Smith said he actually didn?t take a stance either way on the deputies? pay raise. He opposed their efforts to force the longer work week through Annapolis, rather than win it at the bargaining table, spokesman Don Mohler said.
“It was a technical dispute,” Mohler said. “You don?t want to set the precedent of having labor agreements set in the legislature.”
Sheriff?s deputies in Baltimore County provide courthouse security, among other things. It?s a lonely policy among law enforcement agencies statewide that requires them to take unpaid lunch hours every day, a local delegate said, even if they end up working right through them.
Sheriff R. Jay Fisher, who is running for re-election this fall, said he wrote a letter to the state Fraternal Order of Police approving of the deputies? efforts.
“Obviously, I support my deputies and they obviously do deserve a raise,” he said.
The legislature approved several law enforcement pay raises this year “just for the top guy,” said Del. John Cluster, who supported the county deputies? bill.
