{"id":6881,"date":"2016-07-13T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2016-07-13T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=6881"},"modified":"2016-07-12T23:09:36","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T03:09:36","slug":"mcgeo-gets-ready-to-rumble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=6881","title":{"rendered":"MCGEO Gets Ready to Rumble"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

On Monday night, July 11, some MoCo residents received the following robocall.<\/p>\n

I’m Tara Huber. I live in Montgomery County and I’m a county worker in child protective services. My job is to protect the vulnerable children in the county and can be very stressful. My job is made even more stressful by the fact that the County under the leadership of Council President Nancy Floreen has failed time and again to give me and my co-workers the right tools to effectively do our jobs. Floreen has mismanaged the county budget to such an extreme that we don’t have enough staff or tools to manage the high case loads. Protect your Montgomery. Call President Floreen at 240-777-7959 and tell her you expect better management of our tax dollars. Paid for by UFCW Local 1994, 600 South Frederick Avenue Gaithersburg Maryland 20877.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a new shot fired by MCGEO, the county employee union, in its on-again, off-again conflict with the County Council.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a risky one that could backfire.<\/p>\n

First, some background.\u00a0 MCGEO has a number of problems with the council, including:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The council\u2019s trimming of employee benefits during the Great Recession.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. The council\u2019s vote to end effects bargaining for the police union, which was later upheld by voters.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. The council\u2019s vote to cut MCGEO\u2019s raise in half<\/a> as part of its recently passed budget.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. The introduction of legislation<\/a> by Council President Nancy Floreen that would change collective bargaining procedures in ways that the union claims would weaken its ability to negotiate.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          These events and more have caused MCGEO President Gino Renne to tell the Post that his union might support Robin Ficker\u2019s term limits amendment<\/a>.\u00a0 And on the night before the hearing on Floreen\u2019s collective bargaining bill, the above robocall went out.\u00a0 None of this is a coincidence.\u00a0 Indeed, the union is gearing up for battle.\u00a0 And no one, whether friend or foe of MCGEO and its fearsome President, has ever claimed that the union backs down when it is under threat.<\/p>\n

          The problem is that the robocall has little merit and such tactics may provoke the council to do even more against the union\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n

          Montgomery County has a gigantic Health and Human Services (HHS) budget.\u00a0 In FY16<\/a>, HHS had an approved budget of $289 million, with 1,359 full-time positions and 327 part-time positions.\u00a0 Children, Youth and Family Services, for which the robocall speaker (a MCGEO Vice-President<\/a>) works, had an FY16 approved budget<\/a> of $79 million with 525 full-time equivalent positions.<\/p>\n

          Using FY09 data, your author found that Montgomery County had the biggest HHS budget (along with housing) of any local jurisdiction in Maryland<\/a>.\u00a0 On a per capita basis, MoCo spent more than double the state average and lagged only the City of Baltimore.\u00a0 MoCo spent more than 8 times on HHS and housing than did Prince George\u2019s County.\u00a0 From FY10 (the peak year prior to the recession) through FY16, MoCo\u2019s HHS budget grew by 13%<\/a>.\u00a0 And as for the County Council specifically, it adds millions of dollars on top of the Executive\u2019s recommended budget for HHS every year.\u00a0 Below is a list of the HHS items<\/a> added by the council to the Executive\u2019s budget this year, financed with a nine percent increase in property taxes.<\/p>\n

          \"HHS<\/a><\/p>\n

          It\u2019s hard to argue that the council pinches pennies on HHS.\u00a0 MCGEO has pooh-poohed the tax hike on its website<\/a>.\u00a0 What would the union like to see?\u00a0 Does the council need to raise property taxes by 20% to get its approval?<\/p>\n

          There is more.\u00a0 MCGEO is considering supporting term limits for county elected officials.\u00a0 Fair enough.\u00a0 The union has some legitimate grievances and any union would fight against a breaking of its collective bargaining agreement<\/a>.\u00a0 But let\u2019s remember that the collective bargaining bill detested by MCGEO only had two sponsors at introduction, Nancy Floreen and Craig Rice.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t speak well of the bill\u2019s chances under normal circumstances.\u00a0 But if MCGEO amps up its tactics and really does come out for term limits, could it actually help to recruit votes for Floreen\u2019s bill?\u00a0 After all, what do term-limited Council Members have to lose?\u00a0 And let\u2019s not forget that this council will decide on funding two more MCGEO annual compensation packages before the next council is seated.<\/p>\n

          In May 2011, when the County Council met to pass a budget that included cuts to employee benefits, a group of nine clowns<\/a> appeared in the audience.\u00a0 One of them wore a name tag with the first name of the Council President.\u00a0 The police union refused to admit responsibility but was widely blamed.\u00a0 Less than two months later, the council voted unanimously<\/a> to repeal the police union\u2019s right to bargain the effects of management decisions.<\/p>\n

          What goes around comes around.\u00a0 Is MCGEO next?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          By Adam Pagnucco. On Monday night, July 11, some MoCo residents received the following robocall. I’m Tara Huber. I live in Montgomery County and I’m a county worker in child protective services. My job is to protect the vulnerable children in the county and can be very stressful. My job is made even more stressful … Continue reading MCGEO Gets Ready to Rumble<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,22,44],"tags":[1545,1469,1478],"class_list":["post-6881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-mcgeo","category-nancy-floreen","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-mcgeo","tag-nancy-floreen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-1MZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6881"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6883,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6881\/revisions\/6883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}