Glenarden City Council freezes 2027 salaries at 2026 levels and sets aside a 3.5% bonus pool pending evaluation plan

Glenarden City Council voted to hold proposed 2027 staff salaries at FY26 levels and to put a 3.5% payroll bonus pool on reserve until the council approves an employee-evaluation program that will determine bonus distribution. The motion, made by Mayor Curtis and seconded, passed on a voice vote after extended debate over how past pay adjustments were applied to the city's official pay scale.

Council members spent more than an hour detailing discrepancies between the pay-scale spreadsheet staff presented and the salary ordinance the council adopted in 2023. Councilman Herring said he could not reconcile the numbers and raised alarms about employees being placed on inconsistent grades and steps. "I have a problem with this schedule," he said, arguing that some starting steps and grade assignments in the staff's matrix did not match what the council previously approved.

City treasurer Mr. Stewart explained the city's salary practice and the components staff used in its calculations, saying the increases in recent years included step increases, occasional bonuses and two separate 3% adjustments that had been placed in the budget. "The increases are, I think, in three phases: step increase, COLA and merit," Mr. Stewart said in response to council questions about how salaries moved.

Council members disagreed about whether the 2025 and 2026 increases should have been labeled and applied as COLA (which moves the full scale) or as merit-type adjustments for current employees. Several council members said that label confusion and ad-hoc changes contributed to roughly half the staff being "off scale," and asked staff to provide the original 2023 pay-scale ordinance and the source documents showing how later adjustments were implemented.

Under the council's motion, staff will: (1) freeze salaries at FY26 levels for the FY27 budget, (2) set aside roughly $129,600 (3.5% of the FY26 payroll total as shown in staff's matrix) in a bonus pool for distribution only after an approved evaluation plan is adopted, and (3) return with reconciled spreadsheets (the mayor asked for the pay-scale files in Excel) and a proposed evaluation process. Staff estimated that freezing salaries and reserving the pool would increase the FY27 budget by about $31,400 compared with the higher proposed salary figures.

Mayor Curtis and others emphasized the need for a transparent, consistent approach going forward so hiring decisions and advertised salary ranges for new hires are clear. Mr. Stewart agreed to provide the source spreadsheets and to work with HR to present a clear reconciliation to council at a future meeting.

Next steps: staff will compile the 2023 ordinance and the subsequent payroll calculations, circulate the reconciliation spreadsheet in Excel, and return to council with a draft employee-evaluation plan for approval before any bonus funds are distributed.