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A Montgomery County Council session Tuesday night revealed unvaccinated front-facing employees in the county, such as police officers and firefighters, aren鈥檛 being regularly tested for COVID-19 despite agreements to do so made in August.聽

It was also revealed that County Executive Marc Elrich (D) failed to submit a plan for such COVID-19 testing procedures after being ordered to do so over two months prior.

During a on state police reform legislation, Montgomery County Council President Tom Hucker, D-District 5, asked whether the county was testing unvaccinated employees for COVID-19.

鈥淲e鈥檙e working with and , with the unions finalizing those protocols. That鈥檚 just a process we鈥檙e having to go through,鈥� said Darren Francke of Montgomery County Police Department.

鈥淲ow,鈥� Hucker said. 鈥淲hy does it take so long?鈥�

The council had a memorandum of agreement in early August to work with unions to regularly test unvaccinated front-facing county employees. The deadline for the County Executive to submit a plan to carry out that testing was Aug. 20.

鈥淚 mean, we passed this. The public believes it is happening,鈥� Hucker said. 鈥淚 was very surprised to hear it鈥檚 not happening.鈥�

According to the memorandum, union leadership was required to submit proof of members鈥� vaccinations to the county by Sept. 18.

Yet Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Dr. Earl Stoddard, who was speaking at the meeting on Elrich鈥檚 behalf, explained the unions are not the obstacle for implementing these procedures. Stoddard said the workers who initially ran the tests last year are back in their usual roles now that libraries, schools and recreation centers have reopened, leaving no personnel available to run the tests.

鈥淲e鈥檙e having to retrain and redevelop a process for getting those test kits out,鈥� Stoddard said. 鈥淲e hoped to have rapid tests in place, so that obviously we wouldn鈥檛 have the logistics burden of getting PCR tests collected, run to the lab, and results reported back that way.鈥�

Stoddard reported that COVID-19 rapid tests were unavailable to the county for in-house testing.

鈥淲e鈥檙e making tests available to the public, as is CVS and Giant, and any other individual retailer is, for free,鈥� Hucker said. 鈥淲hy not put all our firefighters and police officers in a fire truck and run them over to Dennis Avenue Health Center?鈥�

鈥淵ou certainly could do that,鈥� Stoddard said, 鈥淏ut obviously that would be a significant time reduction out of their service.鈥�

Elrich, who was not present at the meeting, is concerned about severe understaffing that may result in a reduction of services if first responders take time out of their shifts to get tested regularly, according to Stoddard.

Stoddard said the county already faced issues with overtime payment for testing on the clock, and resistance to getting employees to test on their own time.

Hucker said he thought the 鈥渞isk of having unvaccinated employees out there dealing with the public far offsets鈥� those issues.

Stoddard could not provide a specific explanation as to why no action was taken in the two and a half months since the council鈥檚 memorandum was issued, saying he too was 鈥渇rustrated.鈥�

Elrich also posed concern for a significant loss of first responders if the county were to pass legislation currently being considered to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations, according to Stoddard. The legislation would terminate county employees who do not comply with the mandate.

With , the percentage affected by a vaccination mandate would be small.

At-large Councilman Hans Riemer (Democrat), said healthcare workers in hospitals already proved labor shortage fears due to vaccine mandates were unwarranted, .

Councilman Craig Rice, D-District 2, pressed the issue. 鈥淲hat I would say to the County Executive and Lodge 35, help us to avoid having to bring the heavy hammer down by saying 鈥榤andatory vaccinations,鈥� and work with us in terms of a solution that makes sense,鈥� Rice said.

Stoddard said he would commit to the council to approve a plan for testing unvaccinated county employees by the end of this week.

鈥淚 agree that we need to have done a better job,鈥� Stoddard said.