This post is dedicated to citizen Todd Bray
San Jose probably got ahead of itself and is over-extended as are many cities in California.
The
San Jose Mercury News reports that the union representing the city's
officers on Friday offered to accept a 10 percent pay cut that the city
wants from all of the unions representing city workers.
With
San Jose facing a $115 million deficit in the coming budget year, the
salary cuts for all city workers would reduce the deficit by about $38
million.
The Mercury News reports that even with the salary cuts, about 600 city jobs would still have to be eliminated, including 106 officers' jobs."
Posted by Kathy Meeh
The Mercury News reports that even with the salary cuts, about 600 city jobs would still have to be eliminated, including 106 officers' jobs."
Posted by Kathy Meeh
24 comments:
Good for the residents of San Jose, but even if all of Pacifica's employee unions came forward willing to cut a real 10% from wages today, it wouldn't be enough to get us through the next few years without cutting jobs. We have more to worry about than just this year. And unlike San Jose our economy is not going to bounce back and help finances because we have no economy to speak of. No revenue other than taxes, fines and fees and the occassional windfall. Meanwhile we're still futzing around with "giving up" raises and other shell games that don't cut a nickel from the actual payroll bankrupting this city today. Declare a fiscal emergency and go back to the negotiating table? Apparently too embarassing for our city leaders to even consider. Isn't job loss and insolvency embarassing? You'd think so. Apparently San Jose thought so.
We need to ask Sue Digre. Each time she says our environment is our economy and last time I heard her saying our " History is our economy".
Well where in the world is the economy($$$$$$$$)in Pacifica . When they council is not even helping with the little brown church to open the little museum to start charging and get some revenue from it.
Sue Digre doesn't know what she is really saying it. pacifica doesn't generate no money . Absolutely NADA ( nothing).
10% would be 1.5 to 1.7 million a year. I'd say that's a 100% better than any ideas so far. We don't need some radical economic development boom there is plenty of revenue. Senior staff, department heads, fire and police need to be realistic about this issue, that is all.
Nada. The LBC as a revenue source? You're channeling Digre now and it's scary. Seriously might bring in a couple bucks and no more. Limited appeal. And it's years if ever before the doors get open.
Todd, "we don't need some radical economic development boom", really? Gosh what would that look like in Pacifica where we can't even put a hot dog cart at the beach? How about a boomlet? Actually we are in no danger of any kind of development. That train has left the station for the foreseeable and rather grim future. So relax and wait for the public employee unions to save us. Not happening, not even in San Jose where they really know how to generate revenue.
Nada, please don't ask Sue Digre where Pacifica's economy is. Please.
That's what the public sector do Anon, save us. The wage cuts that are needed are to save them.
Todd, where you ever a Union Rep or work for a Union?
Here is some simple math,
if you use the scaled cutbacks starting as 5% for a city employee earning fifty thousand dollars a year and increase the cutback one percentage point for every ten thousand dollars earned the city would save approx. one point four million dollars a year. And that is a conservative estimate as I rounded off the numbers low.
We would save approx. $961,000 a year on the folks we pay over $100,000 (I DID NOT include the half a million dollars earned by two firefighters when I calculated this number). And for the remaining 90 full time employees earning under one hundred thousand a year I averaged their cuts at only 5% which equaled $450,000, so the combined savings of $1,400,000 is very conservative and could easily be higher.
The so called structural deficit is really only staff/employee salaries that need a cost of recession adjustment.
Can you answer a simple question, for once??
So Todd - when all of our public employees take salary cuts to your satisfaction,and Pacific's downtown still looks like a dump, what will be the next page from from your playbook to derai economic development in our town?
Sharon
What downtown?? Palmetto??
Alright let's suspend reality and have the employees heroically band together to save the city and protect the jobs of union brothers and sisters, all hail the unions. Then what?
The real question is where's the revenue? This one-sided kind of plan is useless unless the other side of the equation is developed. We do need to cut expenditures but you must increase revenue to survive. Otherwise all you have is an absolutely temporary and unsustainable non-solution that is probably fueled more by anger at the salaries and benefits than any real plan for Pacifica. Where's the revenue going to come from?
What's the matter with you dummies? Haven't you heard the LBC is going to save us. Just kill me now.
Don't worry, be happy. Bray says the public sector is going to save us. Bail out for PTown,
outstanding!
I am not saying that the LBC is going to save us.
If you think hard enough. It is a start for this part of town to get tourist and start getting busy. The Palmetto stores are in need.
Also the LBC volunteers have doing a lot more than they are suppose to do have the renovation going. The council never does anything to help them out. So please nothing is going to save us if we start somewhere. Hope you understand me better.
nada do you mean? nothing is going to save us if we [DON'T] start somewhere.
Nada, you're right about the LBC. They can't do it alone. My comment the result of hearing one too many times the empty slogan "our history/environment is our economy'. Empty as in nada.
nada, is it just me or do you have multiple personalities...one of which needs ESL classes and the other not so much? hard keeping those voices quiet?
Don't mess with nada. He has a lot on his minds.
Thinking hard or hardly thinking?
Mr. Bray can continue to demonize Pacifica’s public employees all he wants, but the simple fact is that your public employees did not create this mess, and drastic cuts to our compensation will not fix it. Our officers have never asked the city to make them rich – they’ve simply asked for a fair wage that provides for a decent, middle-class life in the Bay Area. Our compensation is usually below average for San Mateo County and the SF Bay Area as a whole. A few facts to consider:
FACT: As of the most recent available San Jose PD contract, a top step San Jose officer made $99,686/year NOT including their myriad incentive pays, overtime contract work, and other financial incentives. Those incentives can make up a significant part of their pay, even if they accept a cut to base pay.
FACT: Pacifica officers do not have a step system. We use a merit system in which each officer EARNS his or her annual increase until they are at the top of their range. Once at the top, poor performance can lead to an officer having their pay reduced.
FACT: Since Pacifica PD has a very difficult time retaining officers past the 5-8 year mark, most of our officers are being paid toward the bottom of their respective pay scale. Our turnover problem = your savings. Unfortunately, it also leads to more inexperienced officers on the street dealing with your emergencies.
FACT: As part of our most recent contract negotiation, Pacifica officers agreed to give up around $3,300 per officer, per year.
FACT: Also as part of our most recent contract negotiation, the Pacifica POA agreed to reduce and flat rate several of our incentive pays, reducing OUR top step officer base pay to $93,708/year. A new officer, after completion of initial training, is paid $74,268/year. Do you want to deal with a drunken domestic violence suspect wielding a bottle or a knife at 2 AM for that paycheck? If so, consider a job in law enforcement! You'll never get rich, but you just might get hit, spit on, stabbed, or otherwise injured on a "routine" call.
FACT: Within the last 5 years, despite the economic recession, we have lost 4 officers to San Francisco, 2 to Fremont, 2 to Oakland, 1 to Daly City, 1 to Richmond. That's 10 officers. In less than five years. In a city that uses 16-20 officers to patrol 24/7, that's a pretty high percentage of officers who lateral out. What do you think the message is behind those numbers? It certainly isn't that NO ONE is hiring lateral cops...
Even if the POA recommended our officers take a drastic pay cut, it would be far below market rate for what their skills are worth at another agency. The low pay, amongst a number of other factors, would lead to an eventual exodus of our most qualified officers, leaving you with whoever is left to patrol your streets. You might preserve jobs and save in the short term, but you'll lose in the long run. We might choose to take a cut to save our colleagues jobs, but many of your best officers will be updating their resumes.
And whom do you think we'd hire? Definitely not the cream of the crop. Do you really want the people working for rock bottom wages carrying a gun around your neighborhood and making decisions that have lasting effects on people’s lives?
Mr. Bray's plan will eventually get you lowest-bidder, commuter cops with no real attachment to their job, no attachment to the community, who are just looking at Pacifica as a temporary stop. Pacifica needs to commit to it's core infrastructure - public works and public safety - to hold the line on basic city services while we figure out a way out of this financial mess.
Your police officers have taken a financial hit in their last contract. We are willing to discuss other cuts in the next contract negotiation, but this problem is NOT going to be solved purely on the backs of public employees. It must be a joint venture by the employees, the community, and the city leadership.
Cordially,
Josh McFall
Vice President, Pacifica Police Officers' Association
Mr. Mcfall,
to the contrary far from demonizing you folks I've been suggesting ways to save all your jobs. In your zeal you have not only misrepresented my intent but made the mistake that somehow I've proposed a plan. I've merely suggested scaled pay cuts to save your job and that of all of Pacifica's public employee's. I doubt you are capable of an apology as the accusatory note of you commentary has leveled at me suggests ignorance of me, my intent and involvement in your employee contracts.
Please be advised that I do not want any of you to lose your jobs. However it seems inevitable that that will happen if all of our public employee's do not act collectively. Those job loses will be on your heads, Josh, not mine.
Fire and Police pay needs to be cut. If you think your job sucks leave it and get a job in the private sector, then you'll see what all your training is worth, basically, nothing in the real world. People who don't get the advantage of Prop 13 are the ones who pay for these salaries not those who bought properties a long time ago and leave their properties in trust to their relatives who continue to benefit under prop 13 including businesses. Fire and Police are completely over paid for the job they do, especially the educational level most of them are at. You want to be paid as someone with a Master’s get one and try to get a job in the private sector.
So that MBA didn't make you a master of the universe and you're no longer in Dad's will. Try the fire or police academy. Go ahead and try.
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