Elected city officials, including Baltimore’s mayor and city council president, will get a 2.5% pay raise this year.
City elected officials are entitled to such raises whenever a city employee union receives a raise, according to a 2007 law.
The raises were presented to the city’s Board of Estimates, which includes Mayor Brandon Scott, Council President Nick J. Mosby, and Comptroller Bill Henry, at a meeting Wednesday. The law does not require the board’s approval, but the changes were presented to the board “in an effort to be fully transparent,” according to an agenda summary.
Mayor Brandon Scott will earn $199,000, up from $194,000, according to the summary. Mosby and Henry will each now earn $131,000, up from $128,000. City councilmembers will earn $76,000, a $2,000 raise.
The Managerial and Professional Society of Baltimore Inc., a union representing the city’s professional and supervisory employees, negotiated a 2% cost of living adjustment that went into effect July 1, 2021. The raises for elected officials took effect Jan 1.
Breaking News Alerts
Baltimore Police officers also are expected to receive varying pay raises in the coming year after the city and the Baltimore City Lodge #3 Fraternal Order reached an agreement on a new contract.
FOP President Mike Mancuso has said the police department raises have not gone into effect because the contract has yet to be submitted to the Board of Estimates.
“[T]he City has been dragging its feet to bring the agreed upon [memorandum of understanding] to the Board of Estimates for approval,” Mancuso wrote in a letter to rank-and-file officers Wednesday.
Mancuso said he filed an unfair labor practice complaint Tuesday against the City and Labor Commissioner “for their inability to enact certain contract provisions in a timely manner. We are once again waiting on the City to provide us with a corrected MOU.”
The contract, agreed to in October, is expected to boost starting salaries for new officers by $5,000 to $60,000 a year. That will make Baltimore the highest paying major law enforcement agency in the state for new recruits, a step designed to help the understaffed agency with recruiting. It also provides pay increases for officers with degrees, those assigned to patrol, and those working evening and night assignments.
Additionally, officers have been receiving a COVID stipend since 2020, after the pandemic first emerged, which did not require any approval by the board of estimates. But the latest COVID stipend is part of the contract that had yet to be approved, and officers need to be paid, according to Mancuso’s letter.
“This is 71 days after the city publicly stated the hazard pay would take effect and 5 days since the rest of the pay incentives were to go into effect,” Mancuso wrote.