CAT | Police
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“Moco Council panel approves pay hikes for county unions”
Comments off · Posted by admin in Budget, FOP, Labor Contracts, MCGEO, Police
From the Washington Post of April 25, 2013:
A Montgomery County Council committee voted unanimously Thursday morning to recommend approval of $31.6 million in pay raises for members of its police, fire and general employee unions for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Read the full story at the Washington Post.
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Pay up, or else:
“Now, not to comply with the law would be a very dangerous and short-sighted approach by Mr. Leggett because in the years when we have lost we have always honored the arbitrator’s award,” [Walter] Bader [chief negotiator and past president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 35], said.
The union could “run to the County Council and turn the process into chaos,” he said.
No special interest left behind:
Gino Renne, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1994/Municipal and County Government Employees Organization, said he also planned to lobby the County Council to reverse Leggett’s proposals.
“It all goes to council. We’ll fight it out there,” Renne said.
Read the full article at the Gazette »
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17
Post: “Montgomery’s inspector general says county officials have interfered”
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Did top county officials obstruct the gun investigation? Yes, says the IG:
Montgomery County’s inspector general said Tuesday that unnamed county officials have withheld information and interfered with several investigations by his office, including some that have proved embarrassing for county government.
The Post’s editorial board takes on special interests:
The schemes that allowed officers to score guns on the taxpayers’ dime are finished, and presumably, so is the county’s laxity when it comes to tuition assistance programs for employees. What seems alive and well, however, is the sense of entitlement among public employee unions in Montgomery County, which have been coddled by politicians for too long.
Read the full editorial at the Washington Post »
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The County’s Investigator General released a report uncovering $600,000 in no-bid contracts for police “training”:
Montgomery County awarded more than $600,000 in no-bid payments to nine companies that had ties to county police officers and were part of a controversial tuition-assistance program, Montgomery’s inspector general said in a report released Monday….Inspector General Thomas J. Dagley concluded that the close ties among the companies, employees and students enrolled in the classes have ‘and will continue to expose county taxpayer dollars to waste and abuse until more comprehensive guidelines and monitoring are put in place.’
Read the full story and Council reactions at the Washington Post »
Isiah Leggett · Michael Knapp · Raymond Kight · Thomas Dagley · Valerie Ervin
The county improperly subsidized the purchase of private firearms:
The weapons classes were set up by a firm with ties to a Montgomery police officer. Fellow officers enrolled in the classes, and their tuition was paid by the county’s tuition assistance program. A suit filed by the county Wednesday accused the firm and officer who helped run it of fraud. Officials allege that the classes were designed with a special enticement to get officers to enroll: County-subsidized guns they could take home for personal use. The tuition program is not supposed to cover books or other materials, including guns.
