All seven city employee unions tentatively agreed to wage concessions, enabling the City Council to adopt a balanced budget at a specially called meeting Thursday night. Some of the unions have agreed to make six percent wage cuts permanent and accept a new, two-tiered retirement system that will reduce benefits for new employees.
Negotiations went until hours before the meeting, as the city and its Teamsters union struggled to reach a tentative agreement. Thursday midnight was the legal deadline for adopting the budget.
City Manager Bill Workman said that the city and its employees had reached “a mutually beneficial agreement” that would save the city $2.8 million. The budget, subsequently adopted by a unanimous vote of the City Council, also included the transfer of $1 million from a “set-aside” fund established previously by the council to meet the city’s increasing future contributions to the California Public Employee Retirement System (CALPers).
The heart of the budget deal, however, was the employee wage rollbacks. City employees have for the last two year accepted temporary, 6 percent cuts and have foregone a scheduled 4 percent salary increase. But Workman argued that an ongoing bleak financial outlook made permanent restructuring necessary.
“We have come to tentative agreements with our employee associations that are consistent with the financial priorities that have been tantamount in balancing this budget,” Workman said.
Some of the agreements appear more tentative than others.
The Redondo Beach Police Officers Association extended its agreement from last year – which included a temporary six percent cut – into July. But RBPD Sgt. Dave Taneman, president of the POA, said membership is far from agreeing to permanent wage concessions.
“The POA has always tried its best to work with the city to help with costs,” Taneman said. “But we have not reached an agreement yet.”
Taneman said the permanent six percent cut would impact retirement benefits so much that, if agreed upon, a half dozen officers would likely retire immediately. He suggested that the city consider postponing some of the $26.7 million in Capital Improvement Projects scheduled as part of its $99 million budget, which includes $6.1 million in projects slated for the coming year, as well as subsidies for events such as the annual fireworks show.
“We are willing to do our part but we think there are fairer ways to balance this budget,” Taneman said. “You have management that wants to do it one way – their way. Employees have given huge sacrifices to help the city along, and for the city to continue to try and make these cuts – these people have families. At what point to you say, ‘No. Enough is enough.’ I think we’ve reached that point.”
Ed Radonsky, president of the city’s Professional and Supervisory Association, said that his membership had reluctantly agreed to accept permanent wage concessions and a two-tier retirement system. He said they felt they had little choice, given the city’s economic straits and the fact that a worse deal could have been imposed upon them after their contract expired June 30.
“It’s not a good deal, but I did believe it was the least offensive deal I could bring to them,” Radonsky said. “I was surprised nobody threw rocks and bottles at me. I thought that was going to happen.”
Radonsky said the two-tier system — which has been adopted in many other cities and has been backed by the California League of Cities – appeared to be a non-negotiable bargaining point for the City Council. He said that the association’s one year deal took the six percent in wage cuts in the form of unpaid holidays and work furloughs with the idea that those would be easier to restore when the city’s economic situation improves.
“We know that the city believes they are facing three real tough years,” he said. “We don’t disbelieve them. We are just a little more hopeful than they are… It’s a hard pill to swallow but we are just hopeful things do get better faster than the city thinks, and then we will be getting some things back.”
Councilman Pat Aust, a former city employee, said that the cuts are only permanent insofar as they are embedded in the contracts and not in side-letters as in previous years. He said city was just trying to be transparent rather than calling the concessions temporary yet again. But he vowed that when the economy bounced back, so would employees’ salaries.
“We’ve seen these cycles come and go before,” Aust said. “The term permanent is only a term. When the economy comes back, my first consideration will be, ‘Okay, you helped us when we needed you. We will make you whole again.” ER
