(a) The county executive shall provide as a part of the annual recommended operating budget for the county government sufficient funds to implement the cost-of-living adjustment required by this section. The council shall accord one of the highest priorities to the full funding of the cost-of-living adjustment, shall fund fully the seventy-five (75) percent of Consumer Price Index cost-of-living adjustment unless reasons are given for not doing so, and shall make a finding in the budget resolution as to the extent to which full funding is achieved. Unless otherwise provided in the approved budget resolution which includes a finding that implementation of the full amount of the adjustment would necessitate substantial layoffs of personnel or result in other widespread hardship to county government employees, the chief administrative officer shall adjust the uniform salary plan for all classified employees of the county government beginning the first pay period on or after July 1 of each year by an amount not less than seventy-five (75) percent of the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA), as published by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, although pay grades 1 through 4 of the uniform salary plan to which minimum wage and certain seasonal employees are assigned will be adjusted by changes in the minimum wage rates and salary surveys to determine the competitiveness of such salaries. The percentage change shall be based on the latest published index for the calendar year preceding the fiscal year in which the adjustment is to be paid.
The chief administrative officer may adjust the uniform salary plan in excess of the base percentage of seventy-five (75) percent, provided funds are available and approved by the county council for such purpose.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions in (a) above, for fiscal year 1984 only, the following salary controls shall apply:
(1) The chief administrative officer shall adjust the salary maxima in effect as of June 30, 1983 for grades 5 through 37 by the full cost-of-living granted by the county council.
(2) The salary maxima for grades 38, 39 and 40 shall be sixty-eight thousand dollars ($68,000.00), sixty-nine thousand dollars ($69,000.00) and seventy thousand dollars ($70,000.00), respectively.
(3) The salary for all merit employees will be adjusted by the full cost-of-living granted by the county council to the extent that such salary adjustment does not exceed the maximum of the employee’s grade.
(c) The provisions of this section shall not apply to an employee of the police department, as defined in section 33-76 of this chapter, who is represented by a certified employee organization pursuant to the provisions of article V, title "Police Labor Relations," of this chapter.
(d) This section is automatically repealed upon certification that the county merit system employees in the units established under article VII are represented for the purpose of collective bargaining under article VII of this chapter. (1979 L.M.C., ch. 39, § 2; 1981 L.M.C., ch. 45, § 1; 1982 L.M.C., ch. 47, § 1; 1982 L.M.C., ch. 53, § 2; 1983 L.M.C., ch. 40, § 1; 1986 L.M.C., ch. 70, § 2; 2018 L.M.C., ch. 3, §1.)