Council Presses For Briefing on Early Retirement Incentive

Its been more than a month since employees began leaving under an early retirement incentive program and members of the Baltimore County Council say they want to know how much the county has saved.

Several members of the council asked county Budget Director Keith Dorsey questions about the program during a Tuesday work session.

Doresy explained that the figures would be part of the budget message County Executive Kevin Kamenetz will deliver to the County Council 10 a.m. Thursday.

"We did have an agreement that we'd be briefed on the reorganization and how much money it would save," said Councilwoman Vicki Almond.

The council last October.

The individual retirements needed the approval of County Administrative Officer Fred Homan. Most of those employees were expected to leave as of February 29.

County officials hoped as many as 200 employees would retire under the program. Savings related to those retirements was expected to be as much as $15 million.

In December, county officials said upwards of .

Exactly who took the buyouts and how much the county saved has not been released publicly. Patch requested information on the early retirments on March 1.

Don Mohler, Kamenetz's spokesman and chief of staff, declined to release the information pending a council briefing.

"Before we share any information publicly, we will need to brief the County Council," wrote Mohler in an email reply to a request for information. "Mr. Homan will brief the council in the next few weeks and simultaneously to that briefing we will release the final numbers.  I am sure that you understand that we can't release any information prior to the Council having the data to review."

A March 27 briefing with the council was postponed.

Mohler, in another email, wrote in another email: "Budget is still crunching data.  Fred will postpone briefing at this time.  Much of the early retirement information is intertwined with budget preparation."

Almond said Tuesday that the council still hopes to be briefed on the program before Thursday.

"We asked because we would like to be briefed," Almond said.