BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WBFF) \u2014 Baltimore County Council members voted unanimously Monday to retroactively end a controversial pension policy in an effort to prevent any council member from retiring under old rules that critics said created an unfair windfall.<\/p>\n
The council approved a bill that ends the policy effective April 10, rather than May 11. The move was aimed at preventing the possibility of any council member retiring under the previous rules, which had initially been approved by council members and later rejected. Under that policy, pensions for retiring council members could have increased substantially and, in some cases, doubled.<\/p>\n
Among those who could be affected is longtime Councilman Julian Jones, who is not seeking re-election because he is running for Baltimore County executive. \u201cTo me, full time pay for part-time work is not a good deal for the citizens,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
ALSO READ | 7 candidates vying to fill vacant Baltimore County Council seat<\/a><\/p>\n The pension issue has become a flashpoint in the county executive race. Democratic candidate Nick Stewart called it \u201cprobably one of the worst scandals in Baltimore County\u2019s recent history.\u201d Stewart also criticized the council\u2019s actions around pension calculations and council pay, saying, \u201cOn the very same day keep in mind that Baltmore County Council passes a law that changes the way that their pensions are going to be calculated in the future.. they\u2019re going to be tied to whatever future council members make in salary on the very same day they passed that law \u2013 they introduced a new law that says those future salaries will go from part time to full time..\u201d<\/p>\n Jones pushed back on critics, particularly other candidates in the county executive race. \u201cWell, that’s because they haven’t done anything. And when you’ve done nothing, my wife always reminds me, heavy is the head that wears the crown. When you’re sitting here trying to make things better for the citizens of Baltimore County, and you’re running against people who have done nothing, they have nothing to talk about, they have no record of anything they’ve done. So all they do is point fingers at other people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The issue came to a head Monday in the wake of Councilman Wade Kach\u2019s resignation in early May. Shortly afterward, amid public scrutiny, the council passed a bill aimed at preventing Kach from receiving a substantial pension boost. The council then passed a bill to eliminate an old law that linked council members\u2019 retirement pensions to future salary increases.<\/p>\n ALSO READ | Baltimore County Council passes $4.96B budget; increases for schools, public safety<\/a><\/p>\n With Monday\u2019s vote, Jones said, \u201cI think the council is making the right steps today. I (also) wished they would have supported my measure to get rid of full time pay for part time work.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether the council was acting because critics said it \u201cgot caught with your hands in the cookie jar,\u201d Jones responded: \u201cNo, it’s not true That’s not true, because the reality is no one voted to double their pension.\u201d<\/p>\n The new bill requires future changes to council members\u2019 pensions to be reviewed by the Personnel and Salary Advisory Board.<\/p>\n Follow FOX45 reporter Keith Daniels on X <\/a>and Facebook.<\/a> Send tips to Kdaniels@sbgtv.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WBFF) \u2014 Baltimore County Council members voted unanimously Monday to retroactively end a controversial pension…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-681657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}