By Adam Pagnucco.
County Executive Marc Elrich has a long and generally supportive history with labor, having been endorsed by nearly every county union during his long political career at one time or another. And yet, none of the three non-MCPS unions – MCGEO, the fire fighters and the police – have endorsed his run for county council this year.
Why?
Elrich was supposed to be the most labor-friendly county executive ever when he was first elected in 2018. In a letter to the Washington Post, he wrote:
Far from saddling taxpayers with higher bills, I will streamline county government. Unions and their members, our county’s workforce, know and trust me. That is why we announced our plan to restructure county government together. Our county is facing difficult financial times; without thoughtful changes, employees will face across-the-board cuts.
Eight years later, we all know there has been no restructuring but there have been many tax hike proposals from the county executive. But that’s not why the unions took a pass on his council campaign this year.
In the view of the county government unions, dealing with Elrich has posed a conundrum. In terms of collective bargaining agreements and COVID pay, Elrich has been generous and they recognize that. However, in terms of how he runs the government – or doesn’t run it – he has disappointed them.
Most of this has occurred behind the scenes but occasionally specific issues have emerged in public. The first sign of trouble occurred in September 2019, less than a year into Elrich’s first term, when the unions blasted Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Kleine for “undermining” labor-management collaboration. Kleine resigned a year later.
Next came mounting problems in the police department as Elrich recommended cutting positions in the FY22 budget and withdrew police officers from schools. The department has had staffing and morale problems ever since.
In 2023 and 2024, Elrich got into an ugly dispute with the career fire fighters union over his nominee for fire chief, whom the union opposed. Elrich ultimately gave up on the nomination but later exchanged bitter remarks with the union’s president.
The unions are no fans of Kleine’s successor as chief administrative officer, Rich Madaleno, and have attacked him in writing over issues connected to management of the county’s pension and retiree healthcare funds. Who knows if they’re right but the rancor was there for the world – and the county council – to see.
More recently, MCGEO – the largest of the three unions – has filed a grievance after its members were physically attacked, blasted a “culture of favoritism and nepotism” in the housing department and (with the police union) demanded an investigation of the county’s human resources office.
Again, I suspect there are multiple sides to all of these stories. But I also suspect that if the executive branch had responded to these concerns when the unions first raised them, none of this would have become public.
MCGEO President Gino Renne and Elrich in happier times back in 2017. Photo credit: Kevin Gillogly.
Folks with knowledge of these issues point to the example of former Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Romer, who worked for former County Executive Doug Duncan from 1994 through 2006. Romer was a low-key guy who once told the Washington Post “I don’t like talking about me,” but he had a knack for fixing problems quietly. Labor didn’t always agree with him, but they could live with him. Romer would be a good model for the next executive to consider when deciding on the appointment of the county’s top manager.
So why did the two big MCPS unions (the teachers and SEIU Local 500) endorse Elrich despite the thumbs-down from the county unions? The answer is that Elrich has no management role in the school system. All he does is recommend money and he has usually been generous about that, especially on operating budgets. If money were the only issue, I bet the county unions would have been much more favorable to Elrich than they are now.
But money isn’t the only thing that matters. MCGEO President Gino Renne told Bethesda Today, “He was a great partner at the bargaining table—but what he could not appreciate was that once the contract is ratified and funded, and people get their [benefits] and get their wage increases, the contract takes a back seat to what they have to deal with on a daily basis in the workplace environment.” Gino went on to call him “tone deaf.”
Elrich went from being regarded as potentially the most labor-friendly executive ever before he took office to being snubbed by all three unions that represented employees of his administration. It’s a remarkable part of his record as he prepares to leave the executive branch.