Tempers flare over Wicomico Sheriff's Office collective bargaining agreement
Wicomico County Council's collective bargaining agreement with the sheriff's office reached another impasse, straining the already tight deadline, after a contentious meeting Tuesday morning.
During the meeting, the current draft of the agreement was struck down in a unanimous vote after members of the council voiced doubts that the pension would remain solvent at the proposed Cost of Living Adjustment rate of 2.5% for retirees. The proposed agreement also included a revised pay scale for deputies and other measures to keep the financial package for current and prospective sheriff's office employees competitive.
According to the Office of the County Executive and Pam Oland, the county's Director of Finance, CBIZ, the county's firm hired to ensure the data and projections are financially viable, found the proposed agreement to be sound.
"We've been meeting about this and the reservation I have in talking with other council members is we haven't been provided the information we need to make a decision on one portion of this agreement. I would say we need to say no to this until we get that," said District 5 Councilperson Joe Holloway.
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Wicomico County executive: 'We feel confident in the CBA'
During the session, council members noted they were unaware that the projections received in an email sent by the county executive on May 13 had been examined and approved by CBIZ. In that email, the county executive contended "after analyzing actuarial data from CBIZ, we feel confident in what is proposed for the 2025 CBA. Based on current estimates, it appears the collections for the contract period are sufficient to cover this estimate."
The email also posited collections of 1% will help offset continued growth in pension pay out. Among the conditions were adjustments to the salary scale after two years that will impact deposits but have limited impact on the payments.
"In this scenario, those will have been set based on current salaries. This was based on a sample of retirees and their actual actuarial calculations. This assumes all 20 will retire in FY 2025 after July 1, 2024. As with any estimate, if the factors change, the estimate will change," the email stated.
Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano, in a statement released Tuesday after the vote, decried the council's decision as one detrimental to law enforcement
“It is very disappointing to see this happen. We need this contract, especially the COLA, to help attract and keep our deputies. All other parties were in agreeance to the contract, and it’s a shame the Council could not support our law enforcement," Giordano said.
Wicomico County Council President John Cannon added that much of the strain on the agreement was due to a time crunch to approve the deal stemming from receiving it late from the Office of the County Executive.
"The real genesis to this is the fact that the process was delayed from the very beginning. If you don't think the process wasn't delayed, ask yourself why this council had to schedule an 8:30 a.m. closed session this morning to try to evaluate the data and the concerns about them. That's how close the deadline was pushed for this council," Cannon said.
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Bob Benson, the attorney asked to represent the County Council in collective bargaining agreement discussions, explained if an agreement was not reached by Feb. 1, either the FOP or the county executive can declare an impasse. The county executive was tasked with providing the county council with a completed CBA by April 1, which was not done. An agreement is to be approved by the council by May 1, with the option to extend the deadline if that is not possible. Such an extension was applied in this case.
"The reality is that the county executive didn't provide the council with a proposed CBA by April 1, nor did her office provide the status for the bargaining or likely conclusion of it. The county executive sent a draft copy of the CBA to the council on April 30 for the first time, but it wasn't complete," Benson said.
What follows is a meeting in the coming week with Cheryl Brown, the attorney for the Fraternal Order of Police, Benson and the Office of County Executive to reaffirm that such pension projections are affordable for the county.
District 3 Councilperson Shane Baker doubled down on his opposition to the agreement, saying it was still unclear that the county could afford the proposal amid continued testimony by Oland that estimates were reviewed and cleared by CBIZ.
"I requested, along the other members of this council, to have an actuary done by CBIZ because (Oland) is not," Baker said. "Added to that request is that we have 30 deputies, is my understanding that can currently retire. It should be easy to get an actuary to see if what we're proposing is sustainable or not. Even if the Director of Finance says the email is from CBIZ, it doesn't have that on it anywhere except in the notes."
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FOP 'extremely disappointed' in county council vote
Scott M. Hamilton, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, released a statement Wednesday following the county council's vote to reject the collective bargaining agreement.
"The FOP is extremely disappointed with the Wicomico County Council's decision to unanimously reject the Fiscal Year 2025 through 2026 Collective Bargaining Agreement or CBA. This is the first time a County Council has rejected a CBA since the voters overwhelmingly approved Collective Bargaining with Binding Arbitration in 2006. Moreover,it is particularly upsetting that even those who previously enjoyed the benefits of agreements like this can no longer vote in support of those they left behind to hold the line," Hamilton said in a statement.
According to Hamilton, the proposed agreement resulted from a "collaborative negotiation process involving the county executive, the sheriff and the FOP's Collective Bargaining Unit Negotiation Committee."
Hamilton noted the new agreement was ratified by an overwhelming majority of the FOP members.
"It would address concerns with pay compression, and critically, would provide a new Cost of Living Adjustment for officers who retired after July 1, 2024," the statement said. "This provision would have allowed Wicomico sheriff's deputies to join the vast majority of law enforcement agencies in Maryland who provide a COLA for retirees, including the Salisbury City Police Department, Fruitland Police Department, and Sheriff's Office from Somerset, Dorchester, and Worcester Counties."
Hamilton added the charter states that the next step is arbitration. The FOP Negotiation Committee has instructed the organization's legal team to draft the required paperwork to begin the impasse procedure.
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Behind the Collective Bargaining Agreement numbers
Oland reiterated that individual actuaries would not be in direct contact with county officials, even if names and other personal data was redacted, as that would present a legally tenuous situation for the county itself. She further noted that projections were calculated using CBIZ approved data.
The estimates presented by Brown and Oland during Tuesday's meeting totaled:
Sworn Officer Salaries equaling, in FY 2025, $7,761457, with an additional pension deposit of $77,615;
in FY 2026, it is $7,955,493 and additional pension deposits of $79,555;
in FY 2027 it is $8,154,380, and $81,544 in additional pension deposits;
in FY 2028 it is $8,358,240 with additional pension deposits of $83,582;
In FY 2029, salaries will be $8,567,196 and $85,672 in additional pension deposits;
in FY 2030 salaries will be $8,781,367, with $87,814 in additional pension deposits;
in FY 2031, salaries will be $9,000,910, with $90,009 in additional pension deposits;
in FY 2032 Salaries will be $9,225,933, with additional pension deposits of $92,259;
in FY 2033 salaries will be $9,456,581 and $94,566 in additional pension deposits; and in
FY 2034, salaries will be $9,692,996, with $96,930 in additional pension deposits.
Over a decade-long time period, estimated pension contributions will total $869,456, with an additional liability of $772,000 and $97,546 difference between the two sums.
A new collective bargaining agreement must, by law, be approved and in place by July 1, 2024.
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This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Sparks fly over sheriff's office collective bargaining agreement
