Raises: four years ago

By Bryan P. Sears
Posted: November 23, 2009

If one needed further evidence that last week’s vote by the Personnel and Salary Advisory board was unusual, you didn’t have to look beyond the actions taken by the board just four years ago.

County Charter and state law require the quadrennial review to be done by fourth year of the term.

Last Wednesday, the board fulfilled its duties during a hearing on raises for both the county executive and council that lasted a little more than seven minutes (give or take).

The board recommended an 8 percent raise for the incoming county executive and a 2 percent increase for the 2010 county council. Pensions and other benefits appear to have played a role in the decision.

Things were quite different four years ago.

In 2005, the board voted to recommend 20 percent increases for both the county executive and the council. The change, which the council approved by a 5-2 vote, increased County Executive Jim Smith’s salary from $125,000 to $150,000 and salaries for the council from $45,000 to $54,000, with the council chairman increasing from $50,000 t0 $60,000.

All seven current councilmen were on the council at the time. Only Democrats Joseph Bartenfelder and John Olszewski Sr. voted against the increases at the time.

William Flattery, the chairman of the Personnel and Salary Advisory board, told the Baltimore Sun in 2005 that the county was well managed and “people should be appropriately compensated for doing a good job.”

Flattery added that the board held a “two-hour conversation about a four-year commitment” before voting to recommend the raises.

Comment on this entry • No responses