County Executive Steuart Pittman has proposed adding 15 more firefighters, a limited English proficiency consultant and increasing grant money for the Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center, among other increases, to his fiscal year 2020 budget.
The supplemental amendment requests are drawn from the $1.3 million in operating cuts the Anne Arundel County Council made on Monday in decisions that largely left Pittman’s first budget untouched. The council will decide on the supplemental amendments starting at 9 a.m. Friday. This meeting will finalize the fiscal year 2020 budget that will end at about $1.7 billion. Council chairman Andrew Pruski, D-Gambrills, said he expects the council to approve the supplemental requests to the budget. The council can’t add to the budget, but members can ask the county executive to introduce supplemental amendments. The council requested the additional firefighters to fill staffing gaps throughout the county. “Overall public safety is a big one,” Pruski said. “I was almost embarrassed to hear about some fire stations not even being staffed at all.”