A pay ceiling for certain high-ranking Montgomery County employees will soon be implemented, thanks to legislation passed Tuesday by the County Council.
The legislation will require the county to set a salary schedule for department directors as well as for high-ranking positions appointed by the county executive.
The bill requires County Executive Ike Leggett to create the salary schedule, which the council would then approve. The council will also be required to determine a salary schedule for its own high-ranking legislative employees.
The legislation does provide some flexibility—the county executive can exceed the salary schedule if necessary to retain or attract a qualified candidate; however, the council would have to approve the higher salary. The legislation also does not apply to current workers, only those who are hired after the bill is signed into law.
The legislation was championed by County Council member George Leventhal, who focused last year on salaries at the top levels of county government as he was completing his one-year term as council president.
When Leventhal introduced the bill in December, he said the county is paying “beyond what is necessary to attract the best and brightest.”
After the bill passed unanimously Tuesday, Leventhal said in a statement, “This legislation will ensure that salaries are not determined arbitrarily or randomly, but instead through a mechanism that is approved by the County Council, ensuring transparency and accountability.”
An Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) report released in November that examined salaries in the county found the county’s department directors were paid on average 15 percent more than those working in neighboring jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia.
However, Leggett contested that report’s findings by saying that the county employs fewer department heads than other jurisdictions, thus saving the county money overall. For example, Fairfax County, which has a similar population to Montgomery County, employs 39 department directors at an average salary of $169,623 while Montgomery County employs 27 directors at an average salary of $206,685.
A comparison by OLO of the pay of Fairfax’s 27 highest-paid directors showed their average salary, $182,526, still came in below Montgomery’s.
Patrick Lacefield, a spokesman for the county executive, said Leggett plans to send a salary schedule to the council to review in about a month.
