Montgomery County councilmembers introduced a special appropriation Tuesday at the request of County Executive March Elrich for $1.4 million in hazard pay for some non-unionized county employees who were required to work through the pandemic.

The appropriation comes after 83 managerial employees in the departments of fire and rescue, police, and the sheriff’s office filed grievances against the county, asking for hazard pay because they were working under the same conditions as unionized subordinates. The employees initially made their grievances to the county’s office of labor relations and were subsequently denied. The grievances were then appealed to the county’s Merit System Protection Board, the three-member panel that handles disputes between the county and its employees, which brought about the special appropriation.

During the height of the pandemic, Elrich agreed to provide hazard pay to union members from those departments. Union employees who dealt directly with the public received an additional $10 an hour, and those required to work onsite with little public interaction received an additional $3 an hour. The agreement with the unions expired in Feb. 2021. Between April 2020 and February 2021 the county paid $89 million in hazard pay, according to The Bethesda Beat. The council never reviewed the agreement or the appropriation of funds, Council President Tom Hucker told councilmembers at Tuesday’s meeting.

In July 2020, Elrich wrote a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency requesting $20 million in reimbursement for the hazard pay and said that the county was experiencing a ‘general emergency.’

Council President Tom Hucker and Marc Hansen, the county attorney, both said they were not made privy to the July letter requesting reimbursement from FEMA. Hansen added that he was unaware of it until an associate attorney in his office was defending the county against the employee grievances and came across the letter in April 2021.

A ‘general emergency’ would have triggered a county regulation giving non-union employees additional pay. Elrich never declared a state of emergency, but the FEMA letter could still support the cases of those filing for emergency pay, Thomas DeGonia, an attorney for the police and sheriff office employees who filed the grievances, told DCist/WAMU. In addition, if the council votes not to approve the payment, the case could go back to court or the board, and the county could end up paying more should there be a ruling in favor of the appellants.

Hucker told councilmembers on Tuesday the $1.4 million to non-union employees “was a very unusual supplemental appropriation.”

“This is not about hazard pay, it’s about the process,” Hucker said. “It’s about having a county government that scrupulously follows the law, and having a government that’s transparent, responsible, and respects our tax payers.”

Councilmember Nancy Navarro said the bigger issue was the lack of a clear definition for a state of emergency in the county almost two years on in the pandemic.

“My worry going forward is that…the terms defining what this emergency conveys has not been addressed by the administration,” Navarro told her colleagues.

During his Wednesday afternoon press conference, Elrich said he didn’t know how the letter was sent to FEMA without it being reviewed by Hansen.

“I didn’t make a decision not to share it,” Elrich told reporters, adding that it was outside his office’s normal operating procedure.

He said that the definition of an emergency can be arbitrary and no one anticipated an emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We should look at some of these [policies] going forward,” Elrich said.

The council is expected to hold a public hearing about the special appropriation next Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.

This story was updated to correct that date that the county’s agreement with the unions expired.