County GOP plans rally against furloughs for Charles workers

Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009

There's nothing like a protest to ring in the holiday season.

The Charles County Republican Club is encouraging local residents and workers to spend their lunch hours on Wednesday at a rally in front of the county courthouse in support of more than 600 furloughed county employees.

Thanksgiving Eve is the first of four days in which county offices will be closed as part of a furlough plan that will save $2.6 million. The commissioners approved the plan in September, which they said was forced upon them by state cuts in aid to local government, requiring county workers to take 10 unpaid furlough days during the current fiscal year.

County buildings will also be closed on the business days preceding Christmas, New Year's Day and Memorial Day. Employees get to choose when to take their remaining six furlough days.

A survey of more than 500 county employees showed a large majority favored the furloughs to a reduction in holiday pay.

County Administrator Rebecca Bridgett said in September that the lost salary as a result of furloughs was to be evenly subtracted from employees' paychecks over the remaining course of the fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Rally organizers said the mandatory furloughs are particularly deplorable given the recent recommendation by a citizen commission to increase county commissioner salaries, beginning in 2011, which the board will take up in the coming months.

Such decisions are "par for the course for the poor decisions on spending our tax dollars for their personal gain" that the commissioners have done repeatedly since their election, said GOP club president Mike Phillips in a news release.

abrody@somdnews.com