Next week, Baltimore County residents will learn the fate of a ballot initiative to expand the County Council, a measure aimed at bringing diversity to the all-male and mostly white council. The seven councilmen, meanwhile, will learn whether they’re getting a large pay raise and pension bump as a result.

The charter amendment on the ballot clarifies that the job of a council member, now part time, would become full time. What it does not explicitly state is that placing council members into a full-time bracket amounts to a large pension bump.

The pension change was not a driving force of this legislation, council members say. Indeed, most council members opposed expansion until Council Chairman Izzy Patoka persuaded enough colleagues to put the proposal on the fall ballot. The measure also stipulated that the county would use new political boundaries that the councilmen drew with an eye toward maintaining the current balance of Republicans and Democrats. (It’s now 4-3; under the new maps, it’s likely to be 5-4.) But a convergence of legislation, some passed before council members Mike Ertel and Pat Young were on the council, has set up the council to benefit from the expansion in their retirement years.

What are the relevant laws?

In 2022, Council Chairman Julian Jones, a West Side Democrat, introduced Bill 56-22. It would have repealed a provision passed in 2010 that capped the pension benefit at 60% of their salary. Then-Councilman Kevin Kamenetz introduced the cap because it had become apparent that a colleague who served five four-year terms could collect retirement benefits equal to a full salary for life. (It was former five-term Councilman Vince Gardina, who would retire from the council and then take a position as director of the Department of Environmental Protection and Stability, effectively drawing two full salaries.)

Kamenetz was running for county executive as a reformer, but did not want to alienate his fellow councilmen, so the bill only applied to future council members. Kamenetz died while serving as county executive in May 2018. But Jones said he always felt the cap was unfair.

Many people opposed a complete repeal, so the council amended the bill to increase the maximum pension benefit to a council member who’d served at least 16 years to 70% of their salary. That means if you made $100,000 annually as a salary, in retirement you’d get $70,000 annually as a pension benefit.

With a more generous cap in place, the next task was to address compensation; when salaries increase, so do pension benefits.

In 2023, Jones codified executive and council compensation with Bill-8-23. It increased the range of a councilman’s pay from $69,000 to $78,000 for the term that began in December 2023. If the council expansion passes, the chairman, who is now Patoka, could make up to $115,000, a significant raise over his current salary of $77,000. The county’s Personnel and Salary Advisory Board officially recommends salaries, but those are the ranges.

This change will put salaries on a trajectory to have nearly doubled since 2006, when the council passed legislation increasing the pay for the 2010-2014 term to $54,000 for members, and to $60,000 for the council chair.

In 2024, Councilman Wade Kach, a Republican who is not running again, introduced Bill 40-24. This bill changed the calculation for retirement benefits for council members who retire after Jan. 1, 2025. It allows retired council members to get a pension increase every time that current council members get a pay increase. Kach, who is 78, already draws two pensions — one from his work as a teacher, and the other from his 40 years as a state delegate. He said this change aligns the county pension rules with the General Assembly’s.

Finally, Bill 47-24 placed the question of expansion from seven to nine members on the ballot. Should it pass, council members’ salaries will increase to a different, as yet undetermined amount for full-time employees. For example, Montgomery County Council members have been full time since voters approved the change in 2006. There, council members make $156,284 per year and the council president makes $171,912.46 annually.

‘Legislation I just didn’t agree with’

Councilman Mike Ertel, a Towson Democrat, was not around for the cap or the compensation bill, but he did vote against the pension increase this year. In an interview after the vote, he said he did not feel right voting for his own pay raise.

He was not the only uncomfortable one. County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. let the measure become law without his signature, something he said he occasionally does to voice his disapproval.

“It was legislation that I just didn’t agree with,” said Olszewski, a Democrat running for Congress. “I certainly respect that the council has the ability to make those changes and those determinations. We thought, given my position, letting it become law without my signature was the best path forward.”

Olszewski and Ertel have both been vocal about wanting the council to expand. Ertel campaigned on the issue, and Olszewski favored an expansion to 11 members before a commission recommended going to nine members.

Why raise salaries?

Some councilmen have second jobs; some don’t. But constituents expect the same level of service whether their representative has another job or not. Each council member has several full- and part-time staff to assist about 122,000 constituents. With the expansion, each district will drop to about 95,000 members. Councilmen will have to leave their other jobs if they wish to serve.

All of the changes must go through the Personnel and Salary Advisory Board. But, even under the 70% cap, they could get a substantial pension bump when their salaries rise.

“Ultimately, if the voters approve the ballot question, the PSAB recommends a change in salary, and the Council passes legislation to approve the change, the amount Councilmembers would pay into the pension system may also change,” said David Marks, an Upper Falls Republican. “That will be part of any review by the Office of Budget and Finance and the County’s actuarial consultant of legislation to change councilmember salaries.”

Members of the council also have the highest required minimum contribution to their pension system of all county employees, Kach said. It’s 13.4% of gross pay. Council members can’t get raises or promotions.

“Members of the council are subject to election every four years, and their salaries remain static until at least the next council or, as history has shown, future councils, agree to increase them,” Kach said.

Giving yourself a raise

Kach is correct that the county changes mirror the General Assembly pension system in that legislators do not get cost-of-living raises, and retired legislators get a pension bump when current representatives get a raise.

But there are differences. Every four years, the General Assembly Compensation Commission decides on new salaries and benefits. From 2002 to 2014, legislators got no raises; in 2018, they received a raise — from $45,207 in 2015 to $50,330 for delegates and senators, and from $58,718 to $65,371 for the Senate president and House speaker.

The County Council meets 52 days a year; the General Assembly meets 90 days a year. Both have additional duties outside of those sessions. Instead of maxing out on their pension benefit in 16 years, delegates and senators max out at 22 years and three months. And instead of getting 70% of their salary as pension, General Assembly members max out at 66.67%. The council’s pension is more generous.

In 1970, a constitutional amendment authorized the General Assembly Compensation Commission to set the salaries of lawmakers, saving them from the awkwardness of increasing their own compensation and establishing a set of parameters — inflation, cost of living, housing — to make decisions. The General Assembly cannot ask for an increase; it can only cut. The package becomes law if the General Assembly does not vote.

Can the county afford the bump?

Kach maintains that a 70% pension level means the cost will be minimal because it impacts only seven councilmen. County auditor Lauren Smelkinson and council attorney Thomas Bostwick did not respond to requests for comment.

The total operating cost of expanding from seven to nine members is about $1.4 million, according to county figures. Those don’t include pension bumps or capital improvements, such as office renovations. The County Council’s current share of the county’s general fund is $4.9 million — a small fraction of a percent.

Despite his reservations about the pension bump and the council maps, Olszewski supports the council expansion. And he said he would vote for it.