June 20, 2003|BY SUN STAFF WRITERS
Three days after public safety workers persuaded the County Council to block County Executive Janet S. Owens' pay freeze proposal, Owens answered by laying off 16 new police officers and two clerical workers.
"We don't have the money," Owens said at a news conference yesterday.
The move makes Anne Arundel the first county in the state to resort to layoffs during this financially unfavorable year, according to the Maryland Association of Counties. It also marks the first layoffs in Anne Arundel government in a decade.
Owens also raised health care contribution rates for some union members, canceled the coming fire academy, cut funding for 13 vacant positions and postponed construction of the Severn Fire Station.
Some council members and employee union officials immediately questioned Owens' claim that the county is strapped for money. Owens, a Democrat, said she is expecting additional cuts in state aid as soon as next month.
"To dole out pink slips before any revenue shortfalls is just insane," said O'Brien Atkinson, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police.
Owens, in turn, blamed the County Council.
The two sides have been sparring over labor issues for more than a month.
Owens proposed a budget that called for pay freezes for nearly all county employees.
Council members countered by trimming nearly $7 million from her proposed budget and lobbied Owens to use that money for the raises.
She refused.
Instead, she set aside about $5 million of the savings and put it toward a cushion against further state cuts.
Despite not getting their way, council members May 30 unanimously passed Owens' $895 million operation budget, which was based on pay freezes.
But Monday, a divided council rejected pay freezes for the five unions that include public safety and clerical workers. That threw the budget out of balance by nearly $1.5 million.
After their vote, council members again said Owens should tap the money they cut from her budget.
But Owens' chief administrative officer, John Brusnighan, said yesterday that the administration wouldn't draw from the reserve simply because the council members "changed their minds." The council gave raises to clerical and public safety workers. That's why the administration turned to those areas for cuts, he said.
It was an odd scene yesterday as Owens announced the layoffs. She gathered reporters in a room with top advisers, as well as Police Chief P. Thomas Shanahan and Fire Chief Roger C. Simonds. Instead of minimizing the effect of the layoffs, she and her chiefs stressed their impact.
"It's horrible," said Shanahan, an Owens appointee.
Brusnighan said they "will erode the quality of services that people will get."
The two council members who defeated the wage freeze - Democrats Barbara D. Samorajczyk and Pamela G. Beidle - and some other members said it wasn't necessary to make cuts yet. They suggested Owens should have waited until the arrival of the state cuts.
"The county is not broke, it's broken," said Samorajczyk. She added later, "For some reason, she's got to make people believe the sky is falling when it's not. If it starts to fall, we'll address it."
She said that if Owens was so concerned about having a cushion against state cuts, the county executive should have built it into her original budget.
Beidle said she believes the cuts were excessive and that the council will be examining them.
The fired employees will work until July 7.
The police officers were part of the department's 60th recruit class, which graduated from the academy April 2. The police union's Atkinson said they were emotional but are likely to be hired by other police agencies.
