The following letter was disseminated by Harford County Executive David Craig on Wednesday to all Harford County employees. A copy was provided to The Dagger for publication:
Dear Fellow County Employee:
For last four years, you have been patient and dutiful in working for the citizens of this great county, and during that time, you have been asked to trim budgets and make personal sacrifices to help get this county through these very tough economic times. Your hard work and sacrifices have not gone unnoticed. I have been closely monitoring the county’s revenue projections and comparing them with actual revenue numbers year after year.
Last year we were able to provide a small bonus with the promise that if we maintained our budget the next year, that we would look to providing a pay raise. I am pleased to announce to you that the Department of Human Resources has reached an agreement with our unions to provide our employees with a 4% merit increase. A copy of that agreement is attached to this e-mail.
It is our intent to have this raise take effect in December, and make it retroactive to July 1, 2012. The back pay will be included in a normal pay check, so it will be taxed at regular rates and not at the special pay tax rate at which the bonus was taxed. In an effort to be equitable, we have reached out to the allied agencies which did not fund pay increases this year to help them offer a similar package to their employees. As this plan will require County Council approval, I will be sending over legislation tomorrow for their consideration.
The merit increase will be provided to those employees who received a “meets standards” on their last annual evaluation, which covered the period ending March 31,2012. If an employee was not evaluated, or if an employee was not eligible to be evaluated because the employee was not off of probation by the end of the evaluation period, then the employee may not receive the raise consistent with §38-32 B. Employees are eligible for this raise regardless of whether they are classified, exempt, grant funded, or temporary.
This raise is possible for a number of reasons. First, our ability to grow and diversify Harford’s economy has been evidenced in increases in income tax revenues to which we credit a majority of these small, yet sustained revenue increases. Equally important is that our employees have done a yeoman’s job at looking for efficiencies and making do with less. I am pleased that we can finally reward those efforts.
While this is good news, we are not out of the woods just yet. I still remain vigilant and concerned with the fragile nature of our nation’s economy and the slow steps that have been taken towards recovery. More important is the state’s continued habit of passing unfunded mandates to the counties. We will continue to struggle to come to terms with the full impacts of those actions by our state leaders.
Thank you for being patient with me and my administration as we have weathered some pretty tough times. It’s about time, this is for you.
Cordially,
David
David R. Craig
County Executive
As long as it can be done without raising taxes I’m all for it. Good fiscal management by the county.
You could get a local tax refund instead.
Thank you for this. Our County employees have waited without many complaints for an increase. They do an incredible job and I appreciate the dedication they show.
“In an effort to be equitable, we have reached out to the allied agencies which did not fund pay increases this year to help them offer a similar package to their employees.” Does anyone know what is meant by “allied agencies”?
Allied agencies would mean BOE, Sherrif, Community College etc. Of course some where able to find room in their budget for this. What I wonder is how often an employee is “evaluated” If this was applied to teachers who upon recieving their APC only get evaluated every 3 years that would mean if a teacher was not evaluated last school year they would not be eligible even if they did a good job. I wonder how many good county employees did not get evaluated simply cause they where not due and are not eligible?
I could be wrong but I do not believe the BOE is considered an allied agency.
I see… thankya.
All county employees are evaluated every year, regardless of the intention of the administration’s intent to fund raises. Employees who do not meet expectations can be put on a path to dismissal if their performance does not improve. I read a lot about not giving county employees raises and send money back to tax payers. If every time there is money available for raises that money is somehow sent back to tax payers then county employeees will never get a raise, go broke and there will be no one willing to work for the county. All services willcease. And last, the assertion that county employees make huge sums of money- only Directors or other cabinet level staff do.
So the 70 or so new SENIOR DEPUTIES who already got a 10% raise will be getting another 4% according to paragraph 3 of the agreement. Must be nice.
Yes once again the “Master Deputies” get more money. This is what happens when they have their hand in the county executives backpocket. Pretty sad when HCSO could have spread the money out so that all deputies got a piece of it. Most of the Master Deputies are only masters of how to do as little as possible in one day, meanwhile the little guy suffers. What a joke. Either way in the next 2 years everyone at HCSO will get a big raise, its election time Jesse is going to try to buy the union out.
Imagine that, give someone something, and they still find a way to complain. Get off your ass and lobby the Executive and Council if you think it will get your lazy rear end anywhere. Tired of the whining from the lazy so called workers
Well, hot diggity dog. Of course, this does nothing for me for the four years I didn’t get a raise before I left HCPS. Sorry, just a teensy bit bitter about the whole situation. Truly am happy for those who are getting something after years of nothing. Just kinda wish I was part of it.
On the bright side, in my new job I’m earning significantly less but I’m sleeping better, I’ve lost weight, I enjoy getting up and going to work, and I don’t have my job being used as a political football anymore. I can no longer be blamed for being the reason that my generally lazy, unmotivated, “I’m entitled to everything” students didn’t perform well on standardized tests that they know don’t matter because NO ONE fails to graduate from a HCPS school because they failed the HSAs.
Glad you found a job more suited to your abilities and interests. Money isn’t everything. Not everyone recognizes that they are not cut out for a particular profession.
I hate to say “I told you so,” but I did argue during the teacher raise issue that the county had money. In fact, I urged those who disliked my comment to wait and see how money would appear once the pay debate was solved. Well, there it is. Not sure if teachers will receive this or not nor do I really care. Again, just pointing out that the county cries poverty when convenient, yet always seems to find money when they actually want to find money.
Again, not arguing that surpluses are bad. Surpluses are good. Just arguing that the county loves to play the shell game when it comes to revenues. The county has them when they want them and cries poverty when it is convenient to do so.
And yes, I know that the BOE and the County are not entirely one and the same. But the county did have the funds to increase the budget to provide for pay raises at a time where they claimed the opposite was true.
Again, for those who read half of a post….surpluses are good!
The county claiming to be broke is no less disingenuous as the teachers claiming to be broke.
With all due respect, Money Tree, you still don’t get it. No teacher claims to be broke. Virtually every teacher will, however, claim to be the victim of a contract broken by the BOE.
If it would make you happy, keep the 4% or 40%, I don’t care. I only want what I earned and the BOE promised to provide (steps) if I did as stipulated. Well, I did as stipulated. I just want the contract honored.
not going to happen and you know it
Teachers would get more money through a refund than teachers are going to get through negotiations.
In reality there is no overpayment. Your income doesn’t go up just because you begin to stiff your servers when you go out to eat…
Considering the negotiations that affect my income will also affect my retirement… uh, keep the refund. I’ll take what I earned. No more and no less.
Keep the 4%… make it 40%, no, double my pay – keep it. I want only what I was promised I would earn. I don’t want gifts. I don’t want lip service or hush money. I just want my contract and the pay I have earned respected.
Great political move Craig, to little to late, I suppose this has nothing to do with your potential run for Governor, nice try but it don’t pass the smell test
You know I am really getting sick and tired of hearing all these teachers complain when they received a raise already THIS YEAR! Teachers received their FULL “bonus” last year and the County employees only received HALF!! How greedy can you be? County employees have not had a raise in four years and you just received one, plus the full bonus. It is time for the County Employees to get something! The County GIVES the Board of Ed money each year and THEY decide exactly how to spend it. So maybe it is time for you teachers to fight the Board of Ed on how they choose to spend their money, and stop fighting the county!
County employees work very hard for the public, without them, our roads will turn to crap, snow would not be plowed, animals would be left dead on the road, trash would litter the streets. You think these things just magically happen??? NO the employees of the County Government take care of these issues! And they work hard to do so, and even put in long hours. They deserve to have a raise too. Stop the selfishness. It is the County’s turn to receive a raise!
Teachers did not receive the full bonus, just half like everyone else. The BOE cut almost 70 teacher positions to fund a 1% raise. If the CE had given the BOE the money to fund a 3% raise like they asked for those teachers would not have been lost and your kids would not be sitting in larger classes. Last year the CE claimed the county had no money for anything (except for the slight of hand he pulled for certain people in the sheriffs office) but suddenly we have enough money for raises and to build all kinds of facilities including a new high school for his hometown. Everyone should remember that Mr. Craig wants to run for governor in 2014 and he is hoping you will have a short memory. It’s not about being selfish it’s about the kind of politics being played by the CE.
I forgot to add that the year before there were about 15 staff in administration that had their jobs eliminated or were laid off.
And we are sick and tired of people providing misinformation. Teachers DID NOT receive the full bonus as you have claimed. We got the first half like all other county employees, just a little later. We did not receive anything additional over any other county employee.
I hope the BOE figures out a way to get a piece of this surplus, our budget needs the influx of additional funds. Whether its spent on making up for years of No Step increases for teachers, or for programs and instructional materials, it doesn’t matter to me. I just hope HCPS gets its fair share, along with the HCSO and HCC.
Refund My Overpayment Now
Refund what over payment? You weren’t taxed any more than normal and didn’t pay any extra.
we got five days without pay did you teacher get that KNOW
You seem to forget county employees get paid vacation time every year, usually two plus weeks. Teachers do not. And summers off do not count because we don’t get paid for that time either.
Are you tell us you don’t get pay leave at all. I find that hard to beleive.
@Tax Joke:
If I recall correctly, teachers get three days of paid leave per year that do not roll over. They are designed for personal emergencies that do not fall under the sick leave policy, but they can be used for a random day off. However, please know that there are certain principals in the school system that look very unfavorably on teachers who take days off for any reason, and I know of a situation where a teacher was placed on a Plan of Assistance for attendance issues.
And understand this; the county employees were promised steps to. Did we get them? No. We did however, eat layoffs and furloughs 4 years prior to these so called draconian reductions in the BOE budgets. Come to think of it our health care costs also increased to a higher level earlier than yours. All these measures were taken so that the sacred cow of education would not be touched. ( never mind the fact that for the last thirty years, no matter how much money we dump into the school system the product keeps getting worse as indicated by half the students HCC, which is not Harvard or MIT, needing remedial math or english). The BOE currently accounts for over 50% of Harford County’s budget, leaving the rest for DPW, the sheriffs office and administration. The teachers have had there raise, stop bleeding us!
I am all for spirited debate and discussion, as long as those who attempt to make arguments use logic and facts. This post is not based in fact. Instead, it is based on a misleading statement that isn’t remotely true.
In the future, please keep posting and debating. It is what makes America great! Just make sure that you use TRUE facts and figures. By making things up, you look the fool.
Ticked off Citizen, I want to sincerely thank you. You couldn’t have expressed my thoughts better. I am a hard working, long suffering Harford County Government employee as well as a life long Harford County taxpaying resident and homeowner. During the past four years without any increase in my pay, my family and I have had to continue paying our property taxes, our mortgage, our electric bill, buy our food, pay for our health care and out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, gas for transportation, to name only a few of life’s necessities that have continued to increase while my pay has continued to decrease.
When the county employees were told last year that they would receive a bonus in two installments of $650 each, the first one to be given just before Christmas, I was skeptical. When the first installment came through as promised, which was $390 after taxes, I felt somewhat more optimistic about the forthcoming second installment. When we were told there would be no second installment of our promised bonus this past spring and then the employees of the Board of Ed received the entire promised bonus in one lump sum, I lost a more faith in my employer and became much more skeptical than before.
You might imagine what a boost in morale and sigh of financial relief was experienced when the recent announcement was made that county employees will finally receive a raise in two more months that will be retroactive to July 1. However, that raise is yet to be realized and I have to admit that a fleeting thought crossed my mind that anything can happen between now and December, so I’d better not count my pay raise before it becomes a reality.
But again, thank you for seeing the recent pay-raise announcement through the eyes of those most affected by this long pay drought, the Harford County Government employees, and for so articulately stating our case on this forum.
We got half. If someone told you all of it, they lied.
How can one articulately present an argument when it’s based on a total lie? Not to mention insinuating that the raise teachers received was the result of money from the county that could have gone to HC government employees. Our raise was funded by the loss of 70 teaching positions, causing class sizes to rise.
We stand with our fellow employees in the County Government, Sheriff’s Office, and HCC. We are all the backbone of this county and I am glad to see some of the get their due, even if that doesn’t include myself and my colleagues in HCPS.
Also we have already been told this 4% raise does not apply to us.
No, we received only 1/2 of the bonus. We only received 650 not 1200. Then we received a 1% due to attrition.
I am a teacher of 36 years and here is what was promised and never gotten. a 7.5%, an 8%, a 3%, and others that we never got over all these decades. Too many to even remember.
We do not get a paid vacation in the summer. Most teachers work a second job or teach summer school. We are not complaining. We ARE county employees,too. We are have tighten our purse strings to help the education budget. When we can only have 10 books for 130 kids to share because the budget is too tight, something is drastically wrong. Almost 30 years ago, new items were bought for every child not just 10 booklets that can’t be duplicated. This is what we deal with every day.
Teachers buy their own supplies, and we buy supplies for our students who can’t afford them. Do you buy supplies for your colleagues at work? No, I forgot…they are given to you on your job. We spend thousands out of our own pockets for our school kids. We give them lunch money, buy extra paper,pens, pencils and binders. Yes, my 1% went to my school kids this year. Why can’t David Craig give ALL county employees money. Certain deputies got a raise,but others did not. All Harford County employees should get their fair share as we also help tighten purse strings. The other 3% would be greatly appreciated and needed.
Teaching is a thankless job just like being a police officer is, too, and without us, where would we all be? We persevere and do it because we are driven by a compelling force to help others in need of an education, a safe environment to live, work, and play. I would not give my job up for the world, but David has money for raises, then does not have money, and next he finds money again. I can’t believe in a county executive who was once a teacher and AP. When he was in the schools, life was easier on the teacher and students. I would invite him to do our job for 2 weeks, and then he would probably give us a 25% raise after he worked and fulfilled all the expectations of a 2012 teacher. What we do from day to day would take up pages. If you do not work in the school system today, you have not a clue. All I am saying is be fair.
So the county executive offers a raise to county employees and you end up with the entire thread of teachers once again whining about their money and benefits and this right after they get a bonus and a raise. Cry me a river.
What thread are you reading?
Teachers ARE NOT getting this 4%. WE got a 1%. Read the facts.
It’s more than 1% depending on some different factors. “The union and school system came to an agreement that will give teachers, guidance counselors and other HCEA members a 1 percent cost of living raise next school year, plus a step increment raise for those who are eligible and a longevity increment for others.”
So all get a 1% and most will also get step (if eligible, pretty much means get a good review) and longevity increment for the ones who have been there so long they no longer fall into the step and cost of living. So really most got 2%. Maybe if your mandatory contributions that you pay to the state pension increased at the rate of the county employees there might have been a little more money left over to give you more than 2%. Teacher pensions have shifted to the local govt,and teachers are not paying their fair share into this fund
I’m sorry that I lost my head for a moment and actually spoke my mind. I should have known better, for it gave the “teachers are all greedy, lazy, and incompetent” movement another opportunity to spout their nonsense. To respond to whomever it was that responded to me, I did not leave my profession for something better suited for me. I left HCPS. I am still teaching. I am in a wonderful place, one that except for the pay cut I had to take provides me with everything I every imagined my ideal teaching situation would be. I left HCPS because I was tired of being lied to by the BOE and by the County. I was tired of my job being used as a political football by those who claim to have the students’ best interest in mind while they do what benefits them politically. I was ticked off at a system where the teachers negotiate with the BOE for compensation, the BOE goes begging to the County for money to pay that negotiated compensation, and when the County doesn’t fund 100% of the budget the FIRST place the BOE makes cuts is in that negotiated compensation. I was tired of being in a system where parents, administrators, supervisors, and most importantly the students themselves are all absolved of any responsibility for the failure of a student (or of a school, in a larger sense) while 100% of that blame is placed at the feet and on the shoulders of me and my fellow classroom teachers. I was tired of an environment where a parent would believe the lies that their children told about me over the truths that I told about them, where self-absorbed adults were abandoning their parenting responsibilities and leaving that job up to the school system and its employees. There are so many more things wrong with public education in America that I could fill up my own forum with them.
All that being said, it is not the point of the original post. I’m glad to see that County workers are getting pay raises. It’s about time, because they have been shafted as well.
I think there is confusion. I was talking with a teacher when they learned a few months ago that they were getting a raise, and when I told him that we haven’t gotten anything in 4 years, he said “us, too”. Then, he proceeded to tell me that they got steps within the past four years. Teachers view steps as something built into contract, so that technically isn’t a “raise”. County employees view a raise as any money added to last year’s base salary. So, this year, teachers got a 1% cola plus a step, which equals 4%. County employees have gotten no raise for four years, which means ZERO. Not steps, not colas, nada. And, in fact, in the year that there were furloughs, county employees lost 2%, and were never made whole.
So, teachers–I feel for you, but let’s just give the county employees their due. Your roads are paved because of county employees. Your toilet flushes if you are on water and sewer because of county employees. Stray animals are picked up because of County employees. Your children play ball on fields maintained by County employees. Senior centers are open because of county employees. Get the picture?
Teachers have a salary schedule that tells them exactly what they should be making based on what their certification level is and how many years they have been in the school system. The increase from one year to the next in the salary schedule is called a step increase. HCPS teachers went for four years without one. A teacher who was hired in 2007 started the 2011-2012 school year at the same rate of pay (with less money in their paycheck, as the cost of medical insurance rose).
A “raise” would be a unilateral increase of x percent of every number in the salary schedule. The last time that happened before the court ordered negotiations this past year was 2005.
I believe I am correct on my dates. I apologize to the nitpickers if I am slightly off.
Teachers have not gotten steps (prior to this year when they eliminated 60+ positions to pay for 1 step) in several years just like the HCSO and every other county agency. I don’t know who you were talking to, but either they can’t count or you misunderstood what they said. Even with getting 1 step for this school year teachers are 3 steps behind where they should be. HCSO is 4 steps behind (and deputies hired in 2006 are still on step 1 just like deputies hired in 2011.)
Just like whatever idiot keeps claiming that teachers got the entire $1250 bonus in the spring while everyone else only got half of it, there is a lot of bad information floating around either because people are deliberating making stuff up to further their own agendas, or because people are talking about stuff they don’t have any clue about.
Your friend was wrong. Teachers did not get raises OR steps over those 3-4 years. There was NO chane in their paychecks. This past year, for the first time in 4 years, they received 1 step of their contract and a 1% cost of living increase….which was funded by cutting 60-70 positions.
County Employees deserve a raise. Just wanted you to have the facts about what teachers did and didn’t receive.
Oops “chane” should be “change”
Rather than whining and lamenting about who got their due and who got cheated, EVERYONE should be asking where the monies came from to fund this increase. We are not 5 months past the adoption of the 2012-2013 county budget, just months away from the county NOT being capable of paying the second installment of the “bonus” and suddenly we can fund a 4% increase across the board for county employees. NOT to say that they are un-deserving, just unsure where the funding is REALLY coming from this year AND in all the future years. As income tax revenues fluctuate, if that is where they are relying on the money to come from, it may not be too far in the future that a tax increase will be needed to sustain this increase……just fyi. Anyone know the total dollar amount for this 4%?
I think Craig used our 650 dollars he did not fund for the new found pay increase.
I could never vote for Craig if he decides to run for Governor. I think he won’t carry Harford County because of his playing political games with the educational system and the employees. In addition, how can money come and go in the County budget? Where was all this money hiding when he did not give us the other 650? I have lost absolute faith in Craig. He promised to get a new high school for the community he lives in, and he complained about it until the BOE said fine. Campaign promise fulfilled, but so many employees in Harford County no longer believe in Craig or how he governs in Harford County. David has forgotten where he started and where he ended before becoming County Executive. Remember David was an HCPS employee for many years at AMS among other places. If he is this way with a county, who knows what he would do to ruin the state of MD! It is already ruined by the now political crew we have in Annapolis. WE don’t need another horrible governor in the future. WE already have had plenty of them.
With all due respect, the lacking $650.00 from your bonus doesn’t factor into this raise. Remember the county was so low on $$$, but felt the need to do something for the employees that they found money for a “bonus”, not to be a raise. Because a raise would be an increase in the employee’s salary for years to come. This merit raise is a re-occurring increase in all employee’s pay. And 4% on $30,000. would be a $1200. increase, look at 4% on $65,000. and up (which we have MANY of). A 4% increase in county payroll is a huge dollar amount that will have to be funded forever. Again, my point is questioning where the funding came from, recognizing that county employees were due an increase. Our economy must be booming or is this just more Craig/Obama economics.
It is kind of peculiar and strange that $$$ were not available for the 2nd half of the bonus and no raises proposed for the 12-13 fiscal year, but now all of the sudden the CE has found the $$$ needed for a 4% raise? Don’t they know how much money taxes bring in? A lot of unanswered facts and details missing from this piece. Also, if there is money for county employees, sheriff, HCC and Library, why isn’t there $$$ to pay teachers one or two steps that have been missing for the past 4 years?
Several people have mentioned the raise that educators received this August of 1%. What was buried in our health insurance information was the fact that our contribution was increasing by 1%; therefore the raise was a wash and saved our pay from going backwards for the first time in 3-4 years due to increases to insurance, retirement, social security, etc. I am a 26 yr.employee of HCPS and am bringing home about $200 month less than I was 5 years ago. This is a fact that is often hidden by the media and Board.
If a 1% salary increase, in your mind, equals a 1% increase in what you pay for health insurance then I am hoping very much that you don’t teach mathematics.
I was just reading the upcoming Aegis article (online) about this raise and I did not see anything in their reporting that said services would be cut or employees lost to fund this raise. The school system did both to give their employees 1% and a step. Where are the savings coming from in county government to pay for this? In the article the county spokesperson compared the raises for individual school system employees as having dollar parity with the 4% being proposed for county employees. I don’t think so.