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One of Montgomery County's most powerful union leaders blasted the City of Gaithersburg following revelations that a public works supervisor is living in a city-owned rental property and paying at least $1,200 less per month than market rates.

"At the end of the day, my assessment is pretty simple. It appears that there are double standards. There certainly seems to be a double standard as far as practice," said Gino Renne, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1994/Montgomery County Government Employees Union. "It begs the question: If there's a double standard there, what other double standards are there in the city?"

Public works employee Robert E. Johnson has lived at 300 Dogwood Drive in Deer Park for nearly 30 years, according to city records. He has paid $350 per month rent since at least 1999, only $50 more than when he moved there in 1981. The home is a 1,700-square-foot bungalow built in 1953 on a quarter acre lot, according to state tax records. Similar homes in the neighborhood rent for $1,500 to $1,700 per month, according to rental comparisons. Johnson's reduced rent is tied to job duties.

Officials "just didn't think about" raising Johnson's rent, said Fred Felton, an assistant city manager, who handled Johnson's lease and the leases for two other city employees who rent city property. The city's finance director has said he forgot to document the benefit on tax forms, while the human resources director has said it is not handled by HR.

"I have no problem defending the decision to keep Bobby in this house under any circumstances," wrote Johnson's supervisor Wally DeBord, public works operations manager, in an e-mail to Human Resources Director Margaret Daily on Aug. 6.

Johnson "stands out" among 84 fulltime and 15 seasonal public works staff as "the most knowledgeable person in the maintenance arm of the PW department," DeBord wrote. A 35-year employee, Johnson was the city's highest overtime earner in 2008, earning more than $120,000 in salary and overtime.

If the city asked Johnson to vacate, he would probably move to Frederick, DeBord wrote.

"…We would lose a tremendous asset that, in a lot of ways, separates our response to emergency situations heads above that of any other local jurisdiction," his e-mail reads.

Original arrangements for Johnson's lower rent included about 15 responsibilities that were documented in written terms of employment sometime circa 1968, when the city bought the property with plans of expanding City Hall, said former City Manager Sanford Daily, who retired from Gaithersburg in 1994 and is Kensington's town manager.

Related responsibilities changed over the years, according to a 1999 memorandum from Public Works Director James Arnoult to Finance Director Harold Belton. The memo states that Johnson's rent is a trade-off for monitoring street lights and locking and unlocking bathrooms near Johnson's house.

Three city officials are looking into the situation and reporting back to the mayor and council on rental arrangements for four city-owned properties.

Felton, who signed leases on other properties as recently as 2005, Belton and Margaret Daily, who is Sanford Daily's wife, will work with City Attorney Lynn Board. City Manager Angel Jones provided a history and background of the rental properties to the mayor and council Friday. Board will provide city leaders a confidential briefing on legal issues, including tax implications and potential liabilities.

Jones promised city leaders discussion on how to handle the city-owned housing Sept. 8.

Jones said that she hoped to work with city leaders to ensure a transparent system.

"First of all, do we continue to keep the program?" she said Aug. 3. "Does it meet our current values that we currently have?"

If the city chooses to stay in the property rental business, a formal policy is needed, Jones said, raising concerns that included setting appropriate rental rates in balance with compensation and other benefits.

Jones called the housing issue "one of many that we're trying to work our way through as we continue to move the organization forward."

Union representatives are exploring organizing possibilities with city employees, said Renne, who said that Montgomery County has a fair and equitable system for placing staff in county-owned housing — and that employees pay competitive rates. UFCW Local 1994/MCGEO attempted several years ago to organize workers at City Hall and was shooed from the premises, Renne said. Organizers have noted renewed interest.

"The sense that we're getting is that the discontent with the city is growing," said Renne. "But these sweetheart deals that are a product of a longstanding and systemic of the good-old boy system — which is quite frankly how the City of Gaithersburg is run, from the mayor on down — is unjustifiable."

Mayor Sidney A. Katz had not heard last week about the union outreach. He and the council have asked Jones to report back on the housing situation and plan to take next steps within 30 days, he said.

"It's the employees' decision [to unionize] and I think over the years the city has tried their very best to give appropriate raises and benefits to their employees," Katz said. "And it would be up to the employees whether or not they would want to have any other type of representation."

Jones said Friday that she was "not surprised" that unions have upped their outreach.

"I've had to make some tough choices in this environment and they're taking advantage of that," she said. "I've come from a union environment so if there's something that this community wants to do then that's something we'll address."