Furlough Days

The Baltimore County teachers' union rallied yesterday at Board of Education headquarters in Towson to protest mandatory furlough days that Superintendent Robert Y. Dubel imposed last week.With signs saying, "Furloughs, the most unfair of taxes" and "These cuts won't heal," about 150 educators stood outside the board offices on Charles Street yesterday as evening rush-hour traffic breezed past.The teachers were upset over Dr. Dubel's plan to impose the furlough days during time the teachers would normally be working in school without students.

Fort Meade announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with the union representing Department of Defense employees on how proposed civilian furloughs will be handled. Civilian employees face up to 22 days of furlough - about a 20 percent pay reduction - after lawmakers failed to reach a budget deal to stop $85 billion in automatic spending cuts this year called the sequester. Furlough notices to civilians could be issued sometime between Thursday and Monday, according to Fort Meade.

Even though she knew she wouldn't get paid for it, Kawther Zaki, a professor at the University of Maryland in College Park, came to work yesterday."I don't particularly like this, but I have things to do," said the electrical engineering professor, the only person working in her office yesterday. "If I didn't come in, work would have been delayed, papers I need to sign for my students would have been delayed."Dr. Zaki is one of the more than 2,500 faculty and staff workers scheduled for up to three days of furloughs to save money at the state's flagship campus.

Baltimore school employees would be forced to take furlough days if the district has to absorb millions of dollars in education cuts outlined in the state's "doomsday" budget, city schools CEO Andrés Alonso said Tuesday as he prepared to present the fiscal year 2013 budget. In preparation for a massive cut to public education should lawmakers fail to approve higher taxes in a special session starting Monday, the school system has developed a plan to negotiate with labor unions to have employees take four unpaid days off. Alonso said the system found that the four furlough days, which would not include instructional days, would yield enough savings to hold school budgets untouched, a guiding principle of the system's budget.

Ron DuPree took time off from his job at the University of Maryland downtown to pay a parking ticket in Towson, but the tall black doors to the old courthouse in the Baltimore County seat were inexplicably locked."

The Anne Arundel County Council unanimously approved Tuesday the county's $1.18 billion operating budget for the next fiscal year, keeping intact most recommendations by County Executive John R. Leopold, including furlough days for most county employees. The budget reduced spending by $6.5 million over last year, and cuts pay to almost all county employees by about 5 percent, in the form of 12 furlough days. "This was a very difficult budget that required hard choices, but I am confident that our county will rebound from the troubled economic times of the last two years," said Leopold, who praised the council for approving "99.5 percent of the priorities recommended by the administration."

Leaders of Baltimore's fire unions told the city's spending board Wednesday that they are concerned that the Fire Department is adding emergency medical shifts after the unions had recently agreed to cuts. "We made an agreement in good faith," said Bob Sledgeski, head of the firefighters union. "Even if this money was found two weeks ago, we feel it is incumbent on the city to come to us and to say, 'What we told you five weeks ago has changed.' We think it's sort of unfair to our members."

County and school employees were told this year to take several furlough days to help balance the budget. Employees already had been denied salary increases because of the fiscal woes.However, recently the commissioners and school board reversed their decision, canceling any remaining furlough days and refunding the money lost for those already taken. However, it's doubtful at this point that they will receive pay raises.Do you agree with the original furlough policy? Once the furlough policy was implemented, should the commissioners and school board have canceled them?

Arundel school system reduces furlough days 2 The Anne Arundel County Board of Education voted Wednesday to cancel one of its planned furlough days for all school system employees. The board voted unanimously to reduce the number of furlough days to between one and four. Principals and senior and executive staff will incur the most days; teachers will have two. The move, which was recommended to the board by Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell, was possible because of a number of cost-saving actions, school officials said.

Fort Meade announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with the union representing Department of Defense employees on how proposed civilian furloughs will be handled. Civilian employees face up to 22 days of furlough - about a 20 percent pay reduction - after lawmakers failed to reach a budget deal to stop $85 billion in automatic spending cuts this year called the sequester. Furlough notices to civilians could be issued sometime between Thursday and Monday, according to Fort Meade.

Several city services will be affected by a mandatory furlough day for Baltimore employees and the upcoming Christmas holiday. All city buildings, except police headquarters, will be closed on Friday, Dec. 23 because of a furlough day. Residents will not be able to pay bills or obtain permits in person though some services will be available online. Trash and recycling will be collected according to the normal schedule but there will not be bulk trash collection. Parking meters will be in effect.

Earlier this year, Baltimore County promised job security through 2014 for members of three public employee unions, but county officials say they can't make the same guarantee for other labor groups. The Kamenetz administration is in talks with the Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees, the police union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, whose contracts expire in June. Together, the unions represent about 4,300 employees, more than half the county's workforce.

Kudos and a huge tip of the hat to the mayor and city council of Hagerstown for recently voting to give each of their full-time city employees a one-time bonus of $1,000. After years of salary freezes, those city employees had previously taken 10 furlough days (a 3.8 percent decrease in salary) and had their workload increased through attrition (56 positions were left unfilled at a savings to taxpayers of $2.9 million). Accordingly, this municipal action and grateful recognition of their dedicated public service of their employees simply was the right thing to do. Larry D. Kump, Falling Waters, W. Va. The writer is a West Virginia state delegate representing Berkeley and Morgan counties.

Baltimore city residents' next opportunity to leave household hazardous waste at the Northwest Citizen Convenience Center on Sisson Street will come between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Dec. 2 and 3. The center's regular dropoff days would have been held the last Friday and Saturday of November, but that event was postponed because of a mandatory furlough day for city employees on Nov. 25. The center, at 2840 Sisson St. in Remington, will accept hazardous...

It's a sad state of affairs when Baltimore police officers have to resort to this type of activity ("Dishonoring the badge," Feb. 25) because they do not get paid a decent salary. The police had to take a pay cut. I suggest, as a show of good faith, that politicians get an epiphany and take a pay cut or furlough days as well. Judy Berlin, Baltimore

The Baltimore police union voted overwhelmingly Thursday to reject a one-year contract that would have reduced wages by nearly 2 percent in exchange for five additional vacation days. Ninety-five percent of the members of the Fraternal Order of Police voted against the proposal; they were angered by pay cuts coming on the heels of an overhaul of the public safety pension system implemented by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, union president Robert F. Cherry said. "It's not just a rejection of the city's best offer," said Cherry.

In response to The Sun's suggestion that Maryland should raise its gas tax to pay for infrastructure ("The tax that saves jobs," Nov. 10), I shop the specials at the Giant in order to save 20 to 30 cents a gallon at the pump. My friends and family are currently unemployed for the last year, had their salaries reduced 20 to 50 percent (not through furlough days) or make salaries less than a "living wage," according to City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke's standards. These are the people on whom The Sun wants to raise taxes.