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Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) will grant county government employees additional paid vacation time next year — despite consensus among most council members that the benefit is too expensive.

Leggett is operating under an opinion issued Friday by Acting County Attorney Marc Hansen that states the executive can proceed without the approval of the council.

The council disagrees, saying it has the final fiscal authority. The council still intends to discuss the paid leave and some other contract changes, and possibly take a vote, although it is unclear whether the vote will be moot.

At issue is whether the provision has a cost. Leggett and his aides say it does not, while the county's Office of Legislative Oversight found that granting between two and three additional days of paid leave for employees will cost the county $7 million.

Employees would be able to use the vacation days beginning in January.

In a memo Friday to council President Nancy M. Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park, Leggett cites Hansen's opinion and says employees deserve the additional paid leave because they have taken pay freezes and furloughs in the coming year.

The council voted unanimously not to approve any new spending on employee raises or benefits in fiscal 2011. Leggett returned to the bargaining table with the unions after the council rejected several contract provisions in its budget decisions.

In addition to paid leave, the contracts Leggett renegotiated with the three employee unions include $135,000 in tuition assistance for county police and perks, such as free admission to public pools and gyms for the county's volunteer firefighters, which Leggett's office said would not have a cost.

Councilman George L. Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park said Tuesday that he disagreed with that assessment. He said there would be a loss of revenue to the county.

The council voted 6-2 Tuesday to approve the agreement with the county's volunteer firefighters. Council Vice President Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring and Councilman Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown voted against it. Leventhal abstained. The remaining contracts were deferred Tuesday and will be taken up by a council committee when the governing body returns from its recess mid-September.

After the council's discussion of the contracts Tuesday, John Sparks, president of the Montgomery County Career Fire Fighters Association, IAFF, Local 1664, said morale among the county's firefighters — and perhaps among employees countywide — is at an all-time low.

The council was "rubbing our face in the dirt" by not approving the paid leave after firefighters have gone without pay raises for two years and made other concessions, he said.

"Enough is enough," Sparks said.

The firefighters' contract Leggett approved includes special pay levels for fire and rescue employees with advanced certifications.

The agreement proposes funding the pay differential by eliminating random drug testing from the firefighters' contracts. The cost of the random drug testing is $34,000.

"For $34,000 I would not turn that down," said Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Potomac, saying he favored random testing of public safety employees.

The renegotiated contracts are for members of the IAFF; Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 35; and The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1994/Municipal and County Government Employees Organization.

Under the contracts, about 8,184 employees will share 236,632 hours of paid leave, with firefighters receiving 48 hours and other employees getting 26 hours.

The county's Office of Legislative Oversight found that the time away from work associated with the paid leave would equal about 117 work years, meaning the amount of work 117 full-time employees complete in one year.

Council attorneys say the council must vote on any contract provision that could have a cost in the current year — or in the future. Hansen is basing his opinion on language in the police collective bargaining law that states the council only should vote on a provision that has an appropriation.

The paid leave has no budget appropriation, according to a fiscal note provided by Leggett's office.

"On such arguments court cases are made," Hansen said.

"Why did they send it over in the first place?" asked Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At large) of North Bethesda, who chairs the council's fiscal committee. "It really didn't make any sense."