Carroll County Commissioners Vote to Keep Money for Employee Raises in New Budget

The board of Carroll County commissioners voted on Thursday to allocate the equivalent of a 3 percent employee raise in the proposed county budget for fiscal year 2014, beginning July 1.

The money for raises would be $1.5 million. The proposed budget is $486,447,131 million, a .87 percent increase over the current budget.

The vote on the raises was 4-1 with Commissioner Robin Frazier voting against the motion. 

On Thursday, the commissioners received their final budget update from Department of Management and Budget Director Ted Zaleski who told the board, "It's in your hands now." Zaleski will present the proposed budget at five community meetings around the county in the coming weeks. 

The board's first budget discussion dealt with county employee salaries. A 3 percent across-the-board increase for county employees was built into the new budget.

Commissioner Doug Howard moved to have the raise kept in the budget and paid as a salary increase to all current county employees. 

Frazier said she did not want to see a salary increase but preferred to explore the option of using one-time money for a bonus. According to Zaleski, the county will have about $10 million in one-time money at the end of the current fiscal year. 

Commissioner Richard Rothschild said he would rather see performance-based raises rather than across-the-board raises. Rothschild suggested allocating the money for raises at this time and then deciding how to distribute it later. 

The vote followed with the commissioners keeping in the budget the equivalent of the 3 percent salary incease.

In the coming weeks, Zaleski will discuss the proposed budget at the following public meetings. 

• April 25 at 7 p.m. at the Eldersburg Branch Library, Large Meeting Room, 6400 Hemlock Drive, Eldersburg
• April 29 at 7 p.m. at the Carroll County Office Building, Reagan Meeting Room, 225 North Center Street, Westminster
• April 30 at 7 p.m. at the Taneytown Senior & Community Center, Dining Area, 220 Roberts Mill Road, Taneytown
• May 1 at 7 p.m. at North Carroll Branch Library, Large Meeting Room, 2255 Hanover Pike, Greenmount
• May 2 at 7 p.m. at Mt. Airy Branch Library, Large Meeting Room, 705 Ridge Avenue, Mt. Airy. 

This article was corrected April 12 to reflect that Ted Zaleski will have the community meetings, not the commissioners.