Glenarden City Council presses staff over overtime, pay scale and transit hours during 2027 budget review

Glenarden City Council opened a budget workshop at 7:31 p.m., focusing on the administration, finance and police department budgets and pressing staff for documentation on several sizable line-item changes. Council members adopted the evening’s agenda by unanimous consent before starting a line-by-line review.

Councilwoman Jones questioned a proposed increase in administration overtime and higher conference and training allocations, saying she wanted written justification and certificates tied to training. “I want some paperwork to show me what’s what,” she said, requesting documentation of past reimbursements and the objectives of the proposed training spending. Mr. Stewart, the city staff member answering budget questions, said overtime primarily covers non-exempt administrative staff who support events and that he would provide a detailed analysis.

The council also flagged several administration items they asked staff to clarify or adjust, including engineering/professional services tied to an existing contract with CPJ, the allocation of main-printer and office-supplies costs across departments, and the planned HR document-scanning (short-scan) system.

On transit, members debated whether the city’s colabus, which an attendee said currently stops service around 2 p.m., meets community needs. Several council members urged a feasibility study or a citywide survey before committing to expanded hours; others said budgeting now for a possible full‑time driver would allow the city to expand service more quickly if demand is demonstrated.

Finance questions centered on overtime levels and a severance pay line. Councilman McGross asked for clarity on a severance amount listed for FY26 ($56,593); staff said the severance payments had been recorded separately from regular salaries and that more detail would be provided. Council members also pressed for confirmation of exempt/non-exempt classifications for finance positions and asked that temporary-staffing requests be justified.

A prolonged debate concerned which pay scale should govern salaries. Councilman Herring emphasized that the 2023 pay scale, adopted previously by the council, should remain the controlling scale until the council votes to change it, saying, “Everything should be on this salary scale.” Other members and staff described cost‑of‑living adjustments and step movements that factor into mapping current pay to the adopted scale and agreed to analyze salaries to ensure they align with the 2023 scale.

The Police Department review raised questions about conference and training budgets, preventive maintenance costs for vehicles (noting that maintenance spending has exceeded budgeted amounts this year), and new-officer startup and uniform costs. Staff said ammunition purchases were for training and annual qualifications and agreed to provide documentation of ammunition custody and issuance procedures.

Mayor Curtis introduced two resolutions at the start of the meeting — a proposed contract to appoint William F. Gardner as interim city manager and the nomination of Jasmine Smith to the Glenarden Housing Authority Commission — and told council members Ms. Smith’s resume was attached to the meeting email for review. No final votes on those resolutions were recorded in the open session.

Near the end of the meeting, the council moved and voted unanimously to retire into a closed session under Maryland law to discuss a subset of personnel and salary-related matters; roll call recorded affirmative votes and the public meeting was closed at 9:03 p.m. The council said a public report describing the closed-session reasons would be issued at a future meeting.

The council asked staff to circulate contracts, invoices and a detailed breakdown of contested lines (overtime, severance, training, preventive maintenance and pay-scale mappings) to allow members to review proposed changes before final budget adoption.