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Janney: I lied to deputies about binding arbitration
Posted: Sunday, March 14, 2010 11:11 pm
By Jacob Owens
jowens@cecilwhig.com
Click here for audio of Janney's Confession.
Sheriff Barry Janney told state lawmakers last week that he lied when he told deputies in 2006 and 2007 that he supported their push for collective bargaining rights with binding arbitration.
His comments came during a state Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday in which he testified against a bill that would place a referendum on the November ballot granting deputies collective bargaining rights while asking voters to decide whether an arbitrator should be allowed to resolve labor disputes between them and the county. Despite having publicly supported binding arbitration as late as 2007, Janney has become an outspoken opponent of the proposed measure, saying he was uninformed about the issue when he professed his support to members of the Cecil County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 2.
Janney on Thursday told committee members that it has been difficult for him to choose what he believes is right for county residents over what deputies believe they deserve. "As sheriff, I heard my president of the FOP say 'The sheriff lied, the sheriff lied.' Well, you know what? I did lie," Janney said in reference to FOP President Adam Streight's testimony earlier Thursday. "However, I had very little knowledge of what binding arbitration was when I gave them my support." Janney then made an analogy between his reversal and difficult parenting decisions, a comparison he has offered several times in recent weeks.
"I try to explain it like my daughter coming to me and says she wants to do a sleepover. I have no trouble with that," he told the committee. "She doesn't tell me that it's going to be unsupervised. She doesn't tell me that there's going to be alcohol. She doesn't tell me the little things that I need to know to say 'No, now you're not going.' "'Dad, you lied to me.' "'Yes, I did, but when you get older, and you have children, you'll find yourself in the very same situation.'"
When asked about his testimony, Janney on Friday said his statement about having lied was a reference to Streight's accusation, and was not meant to be a reflection of how he actually feels. "I made a mistake, but I corrected it quickly and haven't deviated from it since," Janney said of his initial support of collective bargaining. "I think it is better to retract a mistake later than to go all the way down that road."
Streight pointed to two instances in which Janney promised to support binding arbitration. "In a videotaped second term endorsement request, Janney stated, 'As your sheriff, you have my word, my full support, in working with the legislators and making collective bargaining with binding arbitration a reality,'" Streight said. He went on to say that in December 2007, Janney addressed the deputies at their monthly lodge meeting and "stated that it was imperative that sheriff's deputies obtain collective bargaining and cautioned us to accept nothing less than binding arbitration, otherwise, in his words, it would be 'collective begging.'" Streight on Friday denied ever calling Janney a liar. "(The FOP) feels that he has broken some promises, but we have far too much respect for our sheriff to ever call him a liar," he said. "That term is too disrespectful for someone like our sheriff."
But, Streight said, the sheriff's analogy does lead him to question why Janney did not learn about the issue until his second term in office. "Would it really take the father six years to figure out what was going on at that sleepover?" he asked. "I'm a father, too, and I don't let my children go to a sleepover unless I know what will be going on there. I ask the right questions before making a judgment."
Janney previously has said he changed his mind about binding arbitration after discussing the issue with his colleagues and other sheriffs from throughout Maryland. On Friday, he said he also supports the county commissioners in their opposition to the proposed referendum question because they have supported the sheriff's office during his tenure. "Our office has received a 30-percent pay raise over the past seven years and we have seen an increase in our patrol forces from about 60 deputies to 83 deputies," he said. "In the past seven years, the commissioners have given us more than any other board of commissioners in history."
Posted: May 16, 2010
Each May during National Police Week the nation pauses to recognize the service and sacrifice of U.S. law enforcement. Established in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy and a joint resolution of Congress, National Police Week pays special tribute to those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others.
The law enforcement community has suffered terrible losses this past year. Self-described militants have attempted assassinations of whole police departments in California and Michigan. An entire squad of officers was fatally ambushed while preparing for duty at a Lakewood, WA coffee shop – shot for no other reason than because they were cops. In Pennsylvania, officers were killed by a waiting gunman who had just assaulted his mother. Our own community is not immune from this
violence, as in the past 18 months a deputy was shot in Conowingo and several more shot at during a “drive-by” near Elkton.
The Cecil County Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 2 would like to honor these fallen heroes with a renewed commitment to our fellow citizens, in whose name they lived and died. It is our pledge to you that we will continue to provide the highest level of law enforcement services with fairness to all and favoritism toward none. We vow to continue to work with members of our community to form that “thin blue line”, standing between your family and the criminal element. We reaffirm our obligation to performing our duties with integrity, loyalty, and compassion, correcting our mistakes and striving for perfection. The memory of our slain comrades - and the trust placed in us by you – demands it.
Adam M. Streight, President
Cecil County Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 2