Some elected officials willing to sacrifice

This is in response to Cathleen R. Smith's recent letter where she asks, "What are elected officials willing to sacrifice?" ("Ordinary Americans have lost plenty in this recession; what are politicians willing to sacrifice?" Aug. 4). Ms. Smith wrote that as a state employee she was required to take a salary reduction. Anne Arundel County employees have also been required to take salary reductions of approximately 5 percent each year for the past two years.

This financial sacrifice and hardship experienced by county employees was shared by County Executive John R. Leopold. The writer suggests that elected officials should also take a salary reduction and that is exactly what Mr. Leopold did. Due to the fact that his salary is set by state law, his actual pay could not be reduced by 5 percent. As he did not want to ask county employees to do something that he himself was not willing to do, he wrote a check to the county in an amount equal to 5 percent of his pay and is returning his statutory pay raise, as well.

This is one example of an elected official who acknowledges that we all must share in the sacrifice necessary to get us through these difficult economic times.

Andrea M. Fulton, Annapolis

The writer is personnel officer for Anne Arundel County.