For Immediate Release: Friday, April 14, 2017
Montgomery Council committees to discuss
Fiscal Year 2018 budget requests
for libraries, Fire and Rescue
Also on Monday, April 17: Park Police review
ROCKVILLE, Md., April 14, 2017—The Montgomery County Council’s Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, April 17, will review the Fiscal Year 2018 operating budget request of the County’s Department of Libraries. The worksession is part of the Council’s review of County Executive Ike Leggett’s recommended budget.
The Council and its committees will review the recommended budget over the next five weeks as they work toward adopting a budget for the new fiscal year. The Council is scheduled to reach tentative agreement on the budget on May 18 and to formally adopt the budget on May 25. The new budget will go into effect on July 1.
The HHS Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember George Leventhal and includes Councilmembers Roger Berliner and Craig Rice, will meet in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The meeting will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM). The channel can be viewed on Cable Channels 996 (high definition) and 6 (standard definition) on Comcast; Channels 1056 (HD) and 6 (SD) on RCN; and Channel 30 on Verizon.
The session also will be available live via streaming through the Council web site at http://tinyurl.com/z9982v8 .
The County Executive recommended FY18 funding of $42.7 million for the County’s public libraries, an increase of 2.6 percent from the FY17 adopted budget. The FY18 recommended budget:
At 9:30 a.m. in the Third Floor Conference Room, the Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Nancy Navarro and includes Councilmembers Sidney Katz and Hans Riemer, will review the budget request of the Department of Technology.
At 2 p.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room, the Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Nancy Floreen and includes Councilmembers Leventhal and Riemer, will review the budget request of the County’s Park Police.
For FY18, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission requested a budget for Park Police of $14.7 million and 112.2 work years. The proposed funding represents a 3.8 percent increase over the approved FY17 operating budget. No new positions are requested.
The department is still in negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police about a program to have officers wear body cameras, although an agreement is expected shortly. At that time, the department will begin a full roll-out of the program.
When fully implemented, the department expects to provide 90 cameras to all sworn officers.
The PHED Committee also will review the overall budget request of the Park and Planning Commission.
At 2:30 p.m., the Public Safety Committee will address the budget requests of the County Fire and Rescue Service and the County Office of Consumer Protection.
For FY18, the County Executive recommended a budget of $214.4 million for the Fire and Rescue Service, a .71 percent decrease from the FY17 approved budget. Overall, staffing would be reduced by a net total of 21 positions, but that reflects the shift of 27 call taker positions to the Police Department for the Emergency Communications Center. The proposed budget also adds five positions to staff a Paramedic Chase Unit (PCU) at the Aspen Hill Station.
The Fire and Rescue budget includes a 65-member recruit class. A new agreement with the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association has been bargained and takes effect July 1.
# # # # Release ID: 17-121