It can’t happen here
The dust-up over raises to Mayor Sheila Dixon and other city elected officials raises the question:
Could mid-term raises happen here?
The short answer is no, because the two jurisdictions set raises for their respective elected officials differently.
In 2006, city voters approved a change to the charter that created an independent committee to review salaries of elected officials and make recommendations for raises. The recommended raises, which do go into effect mid-term, must be approved by the city Board of Estimates.
Last month, the city Board of Estimates voted to approve raises for certain employees only identified through pay classes. The Baltimore Sun reported yesterday that Dixon, Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake and members of the city council were the recipients of the raises. Dixon, Pratt and Rawlings-Blake all sit on the Board of Estimates but abstained from voting on the raises at the Nov. 26 meeting.
Dixon announced Dec. 11 that she was reversing her position a day after telling reporters she would keep the raise. She now says she will give her 2.5 percent raise to charities that will be selected later, according to a press release.
The county has a salary advisory board, appointed by the county executive, that makes recommendations on raises for all county employees. County elected officials are only eligible for a raise once every four years.
“We can’t raise our salary during our term,” Council Chairman Kevin Kamenetz explained. “We can only raise the salary of an elected official in a future term.”
The raises are introduced as a bill this is discussed in work session and voted on in public.
Previous councils have voted in plans in which elected officials received raises each year during a four year term.
“We’ve never done that,” Kamenetz said. “Every other county employee gets a pay raise, a step increase or a cost of living raise, each year.”
Kamenetz said that during his 15 years on the council, the members only received one raise every four years.
The last increase was awarded prior to the 2006 election and became effective in this term.
The number of elected officials eligible for the raises also is different.
In the city, 17 elected officials received the raises — the mayor, comptroller, City Council president and 14 councilmembers.
In the county, there are seven councilmen — just under half the number in the city. The city elects a council president independently where as the County Council chairman is elected from among the seven members and that position rotates on an annual basis. The county also does not elect a comptroller. That office, known as the county auditor, is part of the council staff.