The last regular meeting of the Greenbelt City Council on Monday, June 22, did not get off to a good start. Approximately the first 45 minutes of the meeting were devoted to council’s debating what should or should not be on the agenda. The first motion to add an item went smoothly enough, as Councilmember Rodney Roberts requested that a letter to Greenbelt’s Congressional delegation be added to seek their assistance in the city’s quest to acquire the Armory property on Greenbelt Road.
Then Mayor Colin Byrd made two motions that came rather out of the blue, with apparently no forewarning to any of his colleagues. One was to postpone and remove from the agenda an item for council to review and approve the proposed draft Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). Byrd’s second motion was to have “immediate public release” of the document so that it could be reviewed by members of the public.
Everyone was a bit confused for a while because other members of council had requested that the item not be placed on the agenda of this meeting at all and were happy to postpone it – but not for the same reason Byrd proposed. Councilmembers Emmett Jordan, Judith Davis and Edward Putens said the document was incomplete, with some parts of it having been received just before the meeting. For the reason that it was not yet ready for discussion, Jordan seconded Byrd’s motion to remove the CBA from the agenda, and the rest of council supported the motion.
Davis then said that at this point there was no agreement, and there would not be until the CBA was accepted by both parties. Without citing a source, Byrd replied that his information was that there was currently a draft CBA that had been ratified by the FOP. It was that draft he wanted to be made public to have adequate time for review before council acted on it. Davis reiterated that it would be inappropriate to release anything before there is an agreement and that public comment would be solicited then.
Byrd said he believed council should not vote on the document without more extensive time allowed for public review. He added the negotiations had been “secret” in the past but he did not agree with that approach and would move that in the future they would be open to public comment prior to a vote. He described the existing CBA process as “anti-democratic” and suggested that the entire process might be made public.
Davis said this matter could not be handled by changing rules mid-stream in a bargaining process that was accepted by both parties. She made a motion to call the question, which was seconded by Councilmember Leta Mach. The motion to call the question, which meant the discussion was closed for this meeting, carried five to two, with Byrd and Roberts voting against. Byrd’s original motion to release the draft to the public failed, with only Byrd and Roberts voting in favor.
In the city ad in the July 2 issue of this paper, City Manager Nicole Ard provides background information on this year’s collective bargaining process.