(a) Applicability of County Regulations. Employees of local fire and rescue departments who are paid with tax funds are not County employees. They are members of a separate merit system governed by generally applicable County personnel regulations except as expressly modified by regulations that the County Executive, after receiving Commission approval under Section 21-2(d)(4), adopts under method (2).
(b) Personnel services. The Office of Human Resources must provide the following services to the local fire and rescue departments:
(1) Uniform administration and application of personnel regulations and policies.
(2) Consistent administration and application of a uniform pay plan and benefit program, which must be substantially equivalent to that of the County government.
(3) Disbursement of salaries and wages, including withholding for taxes and fringe benefits through the County's payroll system.
(4) Review for consistency with applicable personnel regulations all personnel transactions involving employees of local fire and rescue departments paid with tax funds.
(5) Use of the Merit System Protection Board.
(c) Limitations. Nothing in this Chapter means that employees of the local fire and rescue departments are County employees, either on a de jure or de facto basis. Nothing in this Chapter abrogates the authority of each local fire and rescue department over such functions as hiring, promotion, discipline, and discharge of employees of that department; the assignment of administrative staff; and day-to-day assignments of volunteer personnel at that department. This Section does not diminish the authority of County government to act under Sections 21-13 and 21-14 or the authority of the Fire Chief to discipline an employee or volunteer of a local fire and rescue department as provided in Section 21-3(g)..
(d) Judicial review. An aggrieved employee of a local fire and rescue department, the Chief Administrative Officer on behalf of the County, or any local fire and rescue department or other person aggrieved by any order or decision of the Merit System Protection Board, may obtain judicial review of the order or decision as described in the Maryland Rules of Procedure that apply to appeals of administrative actions. Any party may appeal a decision of a court under this subsection to the Court of Special Appeals or seek review by the Court of Appeals.
(e) Local department head. For purposes of this Chapter, a local fire and rescue department must designate a person as a department head under the County personnel regulations and must notify the Office of Human Resources of its selection. The designee may take any personnel action on behalf of the local department that a department head may take under the County personnel regulations, to the extent that those regulations apply to the local department. (1980 L.M.C., ch. 64, § 3; 1982 L.M.C., ch. 40, § 3; 1982 L.M.C., ch. 43, § 1; 1984 L.M.C., ch. 29, § 1; 1985 L.M.C., ch. 14, § 1; 1987 L.M.C., ch. 25, § 1; 1987 L.M.C., ch. 38, § 1; 1988 L.M.C., ch. 3; 1988 L.M.C., ch. 14, § 6; 1989 L.M.C., ch. 2, § 1; 1998 L.M.C., ch 4, § 1; 2004 L.M.C., ch. 5, § 1; 2009 L.M.C., ch. 5, § 1.)
Editor’s note-Section 21-16 is cited and quoted, and Section 21-22 is cited in Kensington Volunteer Fire Department v. Montgomery County, 684 F.3d 463 (4th Cir. 2012).
Section 21-16, formerly § 21-4M, was renumbered, amended and retitled pursuant to 1998 L.M.C., ch. 4, § 1.
In Lofland v. Montgomery County, 319 Md. 265, 572 A.2d 163 (1990), the court held that an employee who filed a grievance as provided by personnel regulations adopted pursuant to this section was entitled to an evidentiary hearing before the merit system protection board to address the dispute as to when the time period in which to file the grievance began to run. The above section is cited in Conway v. Takoma Park Volunteer Fire Department, Inc., 666 F.Supp. 786 (D.Md. 1987).