Baltimore County’s top administrator is getting a nearly $48,000 raise, pushing her annual salary to $310,721 and making her the second-highest-paid county administrator in Maryland. The Baltimore County Council approved the increase in a 6-1 vote on Monday, with the lone dissent coming from a councilman who called the jump a “very high number of an increase.”
The raise brings D’Andrea Walker’s salary up from $263,000, where it has sat since she took the administrative officer post in March 2024, according to Capital Gazette. The new figure won’t kick in until June 2027. As administrative officer, Walker is appointed by the county executive and oversees daily operations across every county government department and agency, per the same outlet.
Nino Mangione, a Sparks Republican, cast the only vote against the change. He told Capital Gazette he found the raise to be a very high number of an increase, a rare note of dissent in a vote that otherwise sailed through the council.
Why the Timing Barely Dents This Year's Budget
Because the new salary doesn’t take effect until June 2027, the county’s fiscal analysis found the increase will add only about $4,000 to salary costs in the current fiscal year, as The Baltimore Sun reported ahead of the vote. The newspaper describes the overall bump as an 18% raise once it fully phases in.
The retirement system will feel the change sooner than taxpayers’ annual salary line. Several county compensation changes, including this one, are projected to increase the county’s annual employer retirement-system costs by $133,259 starting in fiscal 2029, according to WMAR-2 News, which reported that $90,375 of that total is tied to council compensation changes specifically.
A Broader Round of Raises Across County Government
The administrative officer’s raise arrives alongside other compensation increases taking effect with the new term in December. The county executive’s salary will rise from $192,000 to $240,000, and council members’ pay will climb from $69,000 to $119,750, the same reporting from Capital Gazette shows. None of those officials, including the administrative officer, are eligible for cost-of-living adjustments.
That ineligibility became a point of principle for Izzy Patoka, a Pikesville Democrat, who urged future legislators to allow every county employee to receive cost-of-living adjustments. Patoka said county employees should not take de facto pay cuts simply because they are ineligible for COLA increases, framing the salary debate as part of a larger fairness question for the county workforce.
How Walker's New Pay Stacks Up Statewide
Mike Ertel, a Towson Democrat, defended the increase as a competitive necessity, saying it will help Baltimore County compete for future hires who might otherwise be paid more elsewhere. Economists and public policy professors told The Baltimore Sun the pay increase is in line with comparable counties in Maryland and across the country.
Before the raise, a fiscal 2026 Maryland Association of Counties survey ranked Walker’s salary sixth among county administrators and managers statewide; the Association’s own report lists Baltimore County’s administrative officer salary at $263,000 for that fiscal year. The same survey, cited by Capital Gazette, put chief administrative officer salaries at $322,000 in Montgomery County, $294,959 in Howard County and $275,000 in Prince George’s County. Once Walker’s new salary takes effect in 2027, it would make her Maryland’s second-highest-paid county administrator, trailing only Montgomery County.
