Montgomery County added 1,300 employees at a cost of $25 million to $30 million to its payroll during a two-year hiring freeze, according to a government employees union.
Though most of the new hires have been for public safety officials or seasonal summer workers, the county added more than 300 new full-time workers who aren’t in public safety, according to county staff.
Municipal and County Government Employees Organization President Gino Renne said the county had “no business” hiring those 300 new employees with the county’s finances so bad. The county faces a budget gap of more than $760 million, and the union expects “hundreds” of layoffs, wage reductions and possible furloughs in County Executive Ike Leggett’s proposed budget.
“They called a hiring freeze … but they ignored it, and they just kept hiring and they’re still hiring,” Renne said.
The county has about a half-dozen full-time jobs listed on its Web site, with all but one open to the public.
Leggett’s spokesman, Patrick Lacefield, said the union’s role is not to make hiring decisions and that new hires had to be approved by two of the county’s most senior staff. He added that new employees have been “essential to operations or necessary to continue to receive a state or federal grant.”
The county has had to hire bus drivers, code inspectors, nurses, heavy-equipment operators and other positions during the freeze, Lacefield said. He added that the county, which has about 10,000 employees excluding teachers, loses about 500 to 600 employees through retirements and resignations a year and the county has not filled many of those vacancies.
MCGEO and the county are at loggerheads over how layoff decisions should be made, according to union officials. The union wants layoff decisions based on seniority, while the county wants to consider other factors as well, according to the union.
The matter has gone to arbitration, and a decision is expected in a few weeks.
