Salaries for the Baltimore county executive, council members and the county’s head administrator will increase by roughly 10% after Baltimore County Council members approved a pay raise for future county councils and top county officials.

The council also voted by a 5-2 margin to hike a cap on pension benefits for council members to 70% of their averaged final compensation, up from 60%.

Although council members had considered removing the cap entirely, Democratic councilmen Julian Jones, Izzy Patoka and Tom Quirk, and Republicans David Marks and Wade Kach instead voted to raise the cap on pensions paid to council members 55 and older who served at least one term.

Councilwoman Cathy Bevins, a Democrat not running for reelection, and Republican Councilman Todd Crandell voted against the amendment and the raises, which will go into effect when the next council term begins in December.

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County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s administration proposed the raises with the input of the Personnel and Salary Advisory Board, which is expected to recommend pay changes for the executive, administrative officer and council members every four years. The County Council is empowered by local code and state law to approve raises for their seats and the county executive.

Pay for the county executive will increase at the start of the four-year term in December to $192,000 from $175,000.

Council members will see their pay increase for the first time since 2014, when it was set at $62,500 for members other than the council chair (an honorific currently held by Jones), who earns $70,000. The board wasn’t directed to consider pay changes in 2018, Jones said.

The council chair pay will increase to $77,000; pay for the council’s other six members will bump to $69,000.

Jones said council members’ salaries are “way below par, in terms of what [government] employees make,” because their pay has remained static while municipal workers have received cost-of-living adjustments and raises over the last 12 years.

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But Kach said “there’s such inequities across the board” when it comes to the county’s retirement systems.

“As a council we need to take a look at all those ... and come up with systems that are going to be more equitable,” he said.

Jones and other council members iterated the need for a countywide pay study reviewing job classifications — many employees, including council members, are classified as part time — retirement systems and compensation. The council approved a $400,000 work order at the Tuesday meeting with PRM Consulting, Inc., to do so.

Bevins, who took office in 2010, questioned why the change was being proposed now “all of a sudden” — more than a dozen years after a previous County Council voted in 2009 to institute the 60% cap on the pensions of incoming members.

“Twelve years go by, and now all of a sudden there’s a concern about the pension, and getting it back,” Bevins said.

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“Why are we so worried about the next body?” she said, adding that neither she nor Quirk are running for reelection, and therefore won’t be affected by the change.

“Let the next body worry about the next body,” she said. “Why are we so concerned ... if it’s not going to affect any of you? I don’t get it.”

Jones said the county is “doing a lot of housekeeping.”

“There’s a lot of other things to do,” he added.

The council also approved a resolution by a 6-1 vote to boost pay for the county administrative officer, a position currently held by Stacy Rodgers, to $263,000 from roughly $241,000 beginning in July next year. Crandell voted against the measure.

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The pay for the administrative officer, who runs municipal operations, was last increased in 2017 by the late former County Executive Kevin Kamenetz.

taylor.deville@thebaltimorebanner.com

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