Maryland
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s administration, public employee union agree to new contract
Union leaders representing most of Maryland’s public employees have reached an agreement on a new three-year contract with Gov. Wes Moore’s administration, which also announced the hiring of a new top official to lead future bargaining negotiations.
Details of the contract, which must be ratified through a vote of union members, have not been released. The sides said they met a Dec. 31 deadline and described the deal as “tentative” and “preliminary.”
After working on annual employee raises and staffing issues with former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration for eight years, union leader Patrick Moran said “the tone of this year’s negotiations was markedly different,” though he did not explain whether leaders were pleased with the deal.
Moran, Council 3 president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and other union members had often been critical of Hogan, who they said failed to fill necessary vacancies in state government positions and did not provide adequate cost-of-living adjustments for employees during his two terms. After negotiations for the current contract ended a year ago and promised an average wage increase of 2.4%, Moran called the raises “insufficient” and stressed that understaffing remained a critical issue.
Moore, a Democrat, entered office last January with a vow to rebuild the state’s workforce but his administration has fallen short on hiring goals so far.
While the governor previously stated his desire to reduce the number of vacancies by half in his first year, the vacancy rate fell by just 2 percentage points — from 13.1% in January to 11.1% in October — according to a recent report by the legislature’s Spending Affordability Committee. As of October, there were about 1,800 more filled positions than the previous year, with about 5,400 remaining vacancies in the executive branch, not including positions in higher education, the report stated.
The governor, however, has stood by his pledge to support the workforce — adding about $35 million in salary increases while crafting the state budget early last year and standing alongside AFSCME during its nationwide tour in the summer to encourage hiring.
“Rebuilding state government and supporting our state employees is a top priority for the Moore-Miller Administration, and while the final contracts must be ratified by a full member vote by all four unions, these preliminary agreements are another critical step forward in that work,” Moore said in a statement Wednesday.
Moran said in his statement that Moore’s budget secretary, Helene Grady, worked closely with AFSCME “to address a number of key issues affecting our state workforce and state services.”
“We will continue to work with this administration, our elected officials, and our allies to find solutions, including raising additional state revenues, to tackle this staffing crisis and ensure our public services can continue to function,” Moran said.
Moore also said Wednesday he had hired Dyana Forester to represent him in future labor relations activities as a senior director of labor relations.
Forester was most recently president of the Metropolitan Washington Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and has about two decades of experience organizing workers. In her new role, she will direct collective bargaining activities and advise the governor on labor relations issues affecting the state workforce. AFSCME is the largest union, representing about 30,000 public employees — including correctional officers, state hospital workers and higher education workers.
In a letter explaining its priorities for the 90-day session beginning Wednesday, the union said it will be lobbying for new laws to change the bargaining process, including moving the deadline from New Year’s Eve to September 30 and requiring a neutral arbitrator to be agreed to by both parties for the negotiations. Another bill would expand collective bargaining rights to more than 4,000 supervisors who work in the executive branch. The letter also stressed the union’s priority to continue filling vacant positions and raising wages.
“We have a huge hole to fill now, with state employee salaries lagging inflation by 14% in this same time period, and thousands of remaining position shortages and vacancies. Despite renewed recruitment efforts under the Moore Administration, sadly, state agencies are still not on track to hit their vacancy reduction targets this year,” the letter signed by Moran read.
MARYLAND (WBFF) — Art D’Amico remembers when a bushel of crabs cost about $35 in the mid-1970s. Today, the president of the Annapolis Anglers Club pays nearly $400 a bushel — a price he says has climbed by at least $150 in the past five years.
“Everything’s more expensive,” said D’Amico, who has been involved in Chesapeake Bay fishing and crabbing since 1973, adding that he’s never seen crab prices like this before.
The soaring cost reflects more than inflation. Watermen, seafood dealers and economists say higher operating costs, shifting markets and concern about Maryland’s blue crab population are pushing prices higher, making one of the state’s signature summer traditions more expensive. But many Marylanders are still buying crabs, even at record prices.
“It’s definitely not what we’re accustomed to this time of year as far as quantity and price,” said John Ecker, a managing partner of Conrad’s Crabs, which has four locations in Maryland. “I’ve been here for 19 years doing this and, yeah, they’re getting higher.”
Read the full story on The Baltimore Sun.
MARYLAND (WBFF) — A Maryland woman was sentenced to two years in prison for her involvement in a multi-million-dollar money laundering scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Maryland announced on Friday.
Fatoumata Boiro, 32, of Largo, will serve two years in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, and has also been ordered to pay $6,838,558.31 in restitution.
Boiro was found guilty of conspiring to engage in a large, multi-member money-laundering operation. She pled guilty to being involved in the conspiracy and acknowledged that at least $3 million was laundered through her direct participation.
From 2021 through February 2024, she and several other individuals laundered proceeds from a significant wire fraud scheme, according to court documents.
Court documents revealed that the conspirators engaged in various financial transactions to conceal the source, ownership, and control of the wire fraud proceeds, as well as their location.
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The victims of this scheme included government agencies, organizations, and companies, such as an environmental trust, an urban redevelopment program, a medical center, a transportation company, a logistics company, a school district, a college, and a county government, officials reported.
Boiro and her co-conspirators created limited liability companies to act as shell entities, opened bank accounts in the names of these entities, and received and laundered funds from fraudulent activities.
Fourteen defendants have been charged in connection with the money-laundering conspiracy, with 13 already pleading guilty.
Officials reported that Faizou Gnora, 28, formerly of Alexandria, Virginia, remains at large.
The following includes the individuals previously sentenced:
- Yahya Sowe, 42, of College Park, to 114 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, restitution of $13,050,827.03, and forfeiture of $1 million
- Bright Boateng, 45, of Bladensburg, Maryland, to 108 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, restitution of $1,247,950, and a forfeiture of $431,750
- Victor Killen, 33, of Hyattsville, Maryland, to 63 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, restitution of $7,070,656.46, and a $3-million forfeiture order
- Gedeon Agbeyome, 31, of Montgomery County, Maryland, to 72 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, along with restitution of $2,938,424.65, and a $2.8 million preliminary order of forfeiture
- Lawrence Ogunsanwo, 33, to 40 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and restitution of $5,648,816.23
- Lakeisha Parker, 33, of Baltimore, to 36 months in federal prison, followed by three years supervised release, and restitution of $8,306,930.95
- Martin Ogisi, 37, of Severn, Maryland, to 33 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, restitution of $11,077,044.17; and a $500,000 forfeiture order
- Kevin Colon, 34, of Curtis Bay, Maryland, to 27 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, restitution of $2,515,159.63, and a $214,518.42 forfeiture order
- Areal Harris, 27, of Hanover, Maryland, to 24 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and restitution of $3,159,482.83
- Emily Gil Arias, 29, of Silver Spring, Maryland to 24 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and restitution of 2,102,919.27
- Lorena Perez Herrera, 29, of Washington, DC, to 24 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and restitution of $1,473,125.58
- Blondel Ndjouandjouaka, 31, of Silver Spring, Maryland, to 24 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, restitution of $733,941.48, and a $757,562.63 forfeiture order.
Now, Boiro will spend the next two years in prison.
(Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice is suing Maryland and State Attorney General Anthony Brown, alleging the state’s “sanctuary” policies hinder the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The lawsuit claims that Maryland’s sanctuary policies are illegal under federal law and that the state’s “refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities” has had negative consequences for immigration law enforcement officials.
What we know:
According to the lawsuit, the state’s refusal to cooperate has led to facilities refusing to help transfer immigrants to federal custody.
Under the direction of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the DOJ’s Civil Division will identify state and local laws, policies and practices that violate federal laws or impede federal operations.
“When sanctuary jurisdictions enact laws to shield [undocumented immigrants] from federal law enforcement, it is not merely federal law that is violated, but the voices of everyday American voters silenced,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward.
The lawsuit cites Maryland’s Community Trust Act, a law that went into effect in May, which prevents local law enforcement from holding an individual without a warrant on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). There is an exception for those who commit felonies or sex offenses.
What they’re saying:
The Community Trust Act law sparked pushback from local law enforcement leaders across the state, with 17 of Maryland’s 24 sheriffs suing, and saying the law “undermines public safety and restricts cooperation” between local and federal officials.
“Such blatant disregard for federal laws that have been on the books for decades is not merely a political disagreement or passive abstention; it is deliberate, disruptive action that jeopardizes the public safety for all Americans,” the DOJ lawsuit reads. “The Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution prohibits a state from obstructing Congress and the Executive in this manner.”
The Source: This information is from a Department of Justice lawsuit.
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