On
New Years Eve we received another lovely note from the city threatening
to cut city services once again. The card announced an up coming
meeting on January 11 to discuss funding issues like reducing library
hours, eliminating senior services, contracting with the county
sheriff's department for law enforcement and the ever popular solution
of our senior staff... raising taxes.
Missing
from this threat notice of course was the one solution our city staff
will not consider which is cuts to the compensation and wages we pay
them, namely senior staff, department heads, fire and police.
A
very simple solution to our budget issues is a scaled wage reduction
for the 80 plus city employees earning over $100,000 a year. If we
reduce compensation of our senior staff, department heads, fire and
police by a percentage point for every $10,000 earned we will save over
one point five million dollars a year and that doesn't include similar
reductions in benefits which would bring the total savings closer to two
million dollars a year.
City
staff are obviously trying to control the budget issue as evident by
the big yellow threat notice and our elected officials seem powerless or
uninterested in the solution that must take place for our city to
remain solvent.
A
scaled reduction in compensation of 1% for every $10,000 earned shares
the pain of the evenly for all our employees. It must happen, there is
no other way forward that is fair.
Todd McCune Bray
57 comments:
It's hard for me to type with all of the pigs flying around in my den but Todd actually has it right this time. And not by just a little. In fact, he is ABSOLUTELY, 100% correct. But the vast majority of our greedy and selfish civil servants have never shown any interest in the type of shared sacrifice those of us in the private sector have had to make during this down economy. That is, those of us lucky enough to still have jobs.
Prediction: More Washington Monument Syndrome from City officials and staff.
Find myself ducking the occassional airborne squeeler myself. I've come to agree with Todd on what the real problem is but that doesn't mean I think the public employee unions will ever do what's right. They'd rather wait this out while holding on to as much as they can for whoever survives the bloodletting. Seems pretty cynical for a labor union but they know how to focus on the big picture.
Before we pay attention to his advice, could I know when was the last time Todd worked for a living? I mean at a "job" job like the rest of us try to maintain.
My, aren't we picky? Picky and arrogant. Working for a living these days can include all kinds of creative ventures and plain old scrambling. Frankly, legions of the 'suits" and their 9 to 5 ilk haven't done too well for this city or the rest of the country. Let's listen to the common man for a while and maybe learn something about living within one's means. Can't hurt.
Todd,
Who gave these city employees this pay they make? The taxpayers or the city council??
Quit shilling for Vreeland and Dejarnatt and give blame where blame is due!
Why not just contract out the largest drain on the city coffers like HMB, San Carlos, Millbrae, and the rest of the unincorporated county do?
We contracted our fire department out. Anyone notice?
Of course outsourcing the PD will work and it'll probably be an improvement if we're honest about it. They should outsource and consolidate as many city services as possible asap. Instead we have Council and staff pinning their hopes on the UUT to pull us through for a year or two. Since the school tax passed they figure they're on to something. Still refusing to face facts and still reaching into the voter's wallet every time. The January 11 meeting is just another dog and pony show. They're going to the voters.
anon@844 you can put the blame on the voters but meanwhile the problem remains. The voters will get a chance to "solve" the problem next year. It's going to take more cuts and more taxes, not one or the other, because there is no recovery in sight soon enough to save us. There just isn't.
This is a silly, naive, and untenable proposal that distracts from people facing what really needs to occur: slashed services and increased taxes. We can whine about it all we want, but it's a pretty simple math problem.
Well of course it is. This is Pathetica and we have always been our own worst enemy. More cuts and more taxes are the only real solution. Do the math and be realistic about the city's actual assets and prospects for revenue in today's economy and you'll arrive at the same answer. Or live in the past, lick your wounds, and wait for bankruptcy. You're going to pay one way or the other.
"This is a silly, naive, and untenable proposal that distracts from people facing what really needs to occur: slashed services and increased taxes. We can whine about it all we want, but it's a pretty simple math problem."
OR... see opinion piece above.
Are we going to have a door #3?
I'm really uncertain as to what people don't understand about an across-the-board pay cut for city staff.
The present circumstances are new. Property values are declining, Pacifica took a $318,000 hit in reduced assessments last year. It's the deflating of the real estate bubble, the biggest in modern history. I think we'll see an even bigger decline this year.
Cities floated on ever-increasing property values, everyone said values can never go down. We see how wrong that was. Employee contracts were handed out without much thought to their affordability to the taxpayer. You remember the taxpayer? The one that elected officials are supposed to be at the table for in contract negotiations?
The piper has to be paid, and changes have to be made.
No one wants to deal with it. Just like council we don't want to face the facts of just how bad things are and how much the world has changed. I guess that's just human nature but we're just about out of time. I think it's pay now or pay later but we're definitely going to pay.
Besides the fact that it is completely unrealistic, a first-year economics student can tell you that Todd's plan is ridiculous and will lead to Pacifica left with the worst employees in the region. A better plan is to get rid of the worst people and pay the best performers market salaries. Todd's solution won't work any better in Pacifica than it did in Soviet Russia.
Wow, I'm glad these folks have union contracts protecting them from a public that wants to slice and dice. What's happening with those contracts? Must be some huge give backs and freezes to make up the 3.5 million dollars the city claims to have cut from payroll. Where's the detail on that? And what else is in the agreement? I'm inclined to question that figure til the city gives the details.
Can you imagine what the unions would demand in future concessions from the city before they'd call for an across the board wage cut? Public Employee Unions never leave the table empty handed and they know that while city negotiators retire out the unions have longevity on their side.
Todd for finance director
sinai for mayor
kathy meeh as city manager
tod s. special deputy
Butler entertainment director
what a wonderful city we will have
We have the 2009 compensation sheet for all city employees full time and part time. Lets see the 2010/11 compensation sheet to see what sort of differences there are. The 3.5 million dollar figure is hardly real. Lets compare the compensation from 2009 against the most recent fiscal year, 2010/11.
Why don't we stop tap dancing all over the place. Contract with the Sheriffs Dept. Five year contract. The police that wanted to were hired by the Sheriff in Millbrae and San Carlos. Same could hold true in Pacifica. Instead of negatively impacting our city services and a large number of people, make a contractual change, save the city $1,500,000 or more a year, start to build reserves, and 99.5% of the people in this town won't know the difference.
Curtain number 3 just showed up. Thanks McDogge.
Curtain number 1 scaled compensation reductions.
Curtain number 2, eat staff shit.
Curtain number 3 out source police and fire.
Curtain number one offers no layoffs, no reduction is services, no taxes. Curtain number 2 offers less services plus more taxes leaving compensation for those senior staff, department heads, fire and police still remaining unchanged while the employees who do real work, namely Public Works, underfunded. Curtain number 3 offers fragmenting local control of our services to others.
I'm still going with curtain number 1.
Todd is my kind of guy.
Curtain number one ensures that the city's best employees go to work elsewhere and get paid what they deserve. Curtain number one leaves Pacifica spending its limited tax dollars to be served by a bunch of loser employees that are unable to command market salaries. Curtain number one would only be proposed by someone who has no clue how the job market works in the real world.
Last fiscal year 74 employees earned over $100,000 for the year. 16 of them earned over $150,000. 3 of those made more than $200,000 for the year.
6 less employees earned over $100,000 than in 2009 but 3 more employees earned over $150,000 than the year before.
.
Has anyone noticed, our fire departmant has already been outsourced to Daly City. The fancy term is Fire Authority. This proves my point that no one will notice a contract with the sheriff to save $1,500,000. We control the terms of the contract.
@Todd - any idea what the total compensation might be for the lucky members of the Pacifica six figure club? I'm looking at salary + avg. OT + healthcare (for life?) + pension (90% plus of highest salary + OT) + other (e.g., auto). Lots of intangibles too (e.g., job security/tenure, relatively young retirement age and ability to come back as a high paid consultant while drawing pension). I'm not sure everyone is getting the magnitude of these numbers. They should. They're paying for them.
Anonymous 11:38 A.M.
I have yet to meet a loser among our city employees. Everyone I have come into contact with is hard working and loyal an does not deserve the lack of respect your comment shows.
McDogge 1:50
When the D.C. fire-chief tells our five council members in an full hearing that he will not consider letting a captain stand in for a vacationing battalion Chief so as not to pay overtime to another battalion Chief you begin to understand that Pacifica is a very junior partner in the Fire Authority. We have little impute and no control, our only job as far as the Chief is concerned is to write the check. The same lose of control will happen if we outsource our police dept. It is not something we should do lightly.
Do you realy think outsourcing to the Sheriff's Office is going to save you money??? How??? Sheriff Deputies have a contract that guarantees them to be paid the highest out of the nine bay area counties by a minimum of 1%. Pacifica Police Officers are the least paid in the County, even below East Palo Alto. Who do you think is going to pay the deputies salaries that are assigned to Pacifica...the County...quit fooling yourself. Those costs will be passed on to Pacifica. The Sheriff may be able to do it cheaper the first year by playing a shell game, but watch out for the subsequent years...the costs will be passed on to Pacifica.
Curtain Number 3 is the only real choice. The SMC Sheriffs Department will likely offer employment to local PD officers and definitely offers better training and promotional opportunities. Why wasn't this done 2 or 3 years ago? Now, in the middle of this unfolding disaster, there is no choice. Curtains 1 and 2 are ridiculous and about even in naivete. Most of us appreciate the people who actually do the physical labor for those well-paid $150K "suits" but you can't let that appreciation become a bias that hampers your problem-solving.
Todd, I think your numbers are correct but for me the real question is did we pay more or less in total payroll? That's really all that matters at this point. Is the city cutting these costs (in whatever legal method they choose), as they claim? That claim will be center stage in the campaign for the UUT, parcel tax, sales tax, or whatever. If it goes on a June 2012 ballot we should be able to compare 2009, 2010, 2011 total salaries. In dollars not heads.
No one expects the Sheriff's Department to be a freebie but it represents a needed savings in the first 2 or 3 years. It's all about contract negotiation and Pacifica will need to meet that challenge better than it has with other labor contracts over the years. It has to happen, either now or 2 or 3 years further into this mess after we tear apart the core of this city.
anon 506 I think this could be a real upgrade for us to go from the lowest paid PD in the county to the highest. Usually means higher standards and , yes, I expect to see our local officers hired. Bring it on!
Sheriff McDogge speaks the truth!
"I have yet to meet a loser among our city employees."
Mr. Clifford, please climb down off your high horse, read a beginner's economics text, digest its contents, and then explain it to Todd.
I don't know whether all city employees are superstars, but a) I doubt it and b) it doesn't matter. If they are, under Todd's plan they'll all leave for some place where they can get paid what they deserve, and we'll just have to spend more money to recruit and train losers who are willing to work below market rates.
It's simple supply and demand, and these employees aren't volunteers, people.
Anon 645pm You're living in the past. Today, no one is giving up a public sector job with all the goodies that go with because of a desperate city's pay cut of 10%. If they must, they will, but most will not because they know they have a good thing here. BTW, top employers have known for years that top employees are not motivated solely by money.
It really is simple supply and demand but it's the jobs that are in demand today not the applicants.
"We control the terms of the contract."
Uhhh, in case you hadn't noticed, Pacifica doesn't do too well when it comes to negotiating contracts.
Hey, Clifford, who negotiated the Joint Power Authority with Daly City? Tanner? I rest my case.
All the other discussions dance around the solution. 10% pay cuts! Why? Cut senior services! Why? Cut library hours! Redundancy makes me ask, why? One well written contract can end the death by a thousand cuts.
It's not so easy and most cities are smart enough to retain a top attorney to handle it. The other party is certainly represented. Senior city staff like City Mngr and, in particular, Finance and HR usually choose the attorney. That may be the problem here. If you look back at critical events in this mess, the "loss" of the previous finance director was really a big nail in Pacifica's coffin. The architects of her departure are still with us.
One well written contract with the Sheriff's Dept is just part of the solution. It'll take outsourcing the PD and paying more taxes to keep Pacifica afloat for the next 5 years. After that the CA economy, especially the housing market, may have improved enough to ease the pressure on the state and cities. Can't expect much better than that. Hope we're open to whatever scraps of development come are way. Small stuff but it all adds up.
The state comptrollers office has the 2010 compensation figures for Pacifica. Each line item (wage) has several entries: annual minimums and maximums and then what the Box 5 W2 total was which is for the most part higher than the listed maximum. The document does not have a total for all 340 plus entries. But again the biggest expenses are for senior staff, department heads, fire and police. A handful of Public Works employees earn over $100,000 a year but they actually do work, real work.
Todd, I'm sure it's easier to comprehend when you toss around arbitrary salaries like they mean something, but the only thing that matters is relevance to the labor market.
It's also extremely difficult to take you as the arbiter of "real work".
Todd, Whether city workers are underpaid, overpaid, real or fluff just doesn't matter anymore. There can be no sacred cows and everything is negotiable. You probably know Box 5 includes OT if appropriate to the job and cafeteria cash which can be big bucks. The finance task force must have total payroll numbers, if you can accept all the errors on everything they get. Otherwise sounds like a project. But wouldn't it be interesting to know if the total payroll dollars are increasing or decreasing? Not the shape-shifting, time-traveling mumbo jumbo the city hands out about all the cuts they've made but just a simple yes or no and the numbers to back it up. It's a dream I think.
I haven't done the review on if the contracting of the fire department has improved or declined in service or is a non-issue. I do know that the Pacifica police department officers are the best and most professional people I have dealt with throughout San Mateo County. Whether they stay as the Pacifica Dept or contracted to the Sheriff, I will stand by them to help them as they have helped our community.
They should do fine with the Sheriff's dept and it seems like they kept the locals on board in other cities that outsourced. Small town autonomous PD's are becoming scarce.
With any luck this links directly to the city's compensation records for 2010
http://lgcr.sco.ca.gov/CompensationDetail.aspx?entity=City&id=11984161400&year=2010&GetCsu=False
I don't really like to comment with so many Anonymous posters. Lack of identity dilutes credibility in my opinion. However, for the sake of argument, consider that even if most of the comments made are accurate, that does not alter the fact that the City is in this position for a number of reasons, with the national economy only a small role in the beginning of the demise. For ten years one could see the gradual decline of vitality and commitment to maintaining even the relatively peaceful and content community that it was once.
Go ahead and throw employees on the fire, but understand, that even though and if unions bear some blame, the City Council bears the greatest responsibility here.
Though it is true I have been retired for 5+ years after a 26-year stint as a 'public employee', let me be the first to admit that not all employees are stellar employees, not all union contracts have just held the line and not all cuts have made any difference at all except to the employees who have lost jobs. I would nevertheless argue that MOST employees who have stayed through the tempest of the last ten years are there for more reasons than pay.
My City Clerk position was always paid nearly the lowest in the county, I don't have lifetime paid medical benefits (believe me) and I have a very small social security entitlement after my Medicare premium is deducted. Since pensions are calculated from salary earned, I can tell you that my PERS retirement benefit is far from astronomical because though my salary was fair, it wasn't outrageously high. I sometimes wore a suit, but I never worked just a 40-hour week. Most managers don't get to do the 9-5 routine; I certainly didn't. Just harken back to the days when Council meetings ran until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning.
So my point, though long in coming, is that the City will need to do most of the things mentioned above -- there is no single answer -- and I would be willing to conjecture there will be no taxes approved by the voters in Pacifica. No utility tax, no sales tax, no tax of any kind. We have never experienced the pain of cuts because even with slashed personnel rosters, remaining employees have risen to the job required and continued to provide a seamless conversion to working with fewer and for less.
I am disturbed the the City Council is using the City Financing Task Force (or whatever its real title) to carry the weight of coming up with ideas and then Council will bow to the wishes of the Committee to come up with solutions. Too bad the committee isn't an elected body that represents the voters. Too bad the committee has no real accountability. Too bad, so sad. I am frustrated at the lack of decision-making from on high and the refusal of the Council to listen to the people who elected them.
I will not be able to attend the meeting next week, but I will complete the 24 page survey. It will probably bear no weight, just as my letters about the increases in sewer rates and the increases in garbage rates had no impact. Too many of us just sit quietly by and let our City happen. And it isn't happening well these days.
Just some random thoughts on a Tuesday morning.
hahahahaha Bray is amusing. The people he has supported on council have repeatedly been endorsed by the labor unions and county democrats. and the sierra club. sierra club always brags how their candidates win in pacifica. start asking those clowns what they are getting out of it. open space turned over to the GGNRA and fat labor contracts. and what do the homeowners get? higher fees, higher taxes, less service. you've been hoodwinked, pacifica.
That task force is just window dressing. Are you going to make some unpopular decisions?? Or, more correctly, have you already made some unpopular decisions?? Well then send out your civilians to take the heat. Classic.
Flo, I'm not trying to throw employees under, on or over anything. My belief is that a scaled reduction will save everyones job. That is my motivation, only.
How, why or who doesn't matter. We have a revenue issue, which is basically a compensation issue. Senior staff and council seem to think the solution is to merely raise some sort of tax. I think the solution starts with adjusting compensation back to levels before the revenue bubble during the housing boom.
That this solution is being largely ignored because of contracts, unions or whatever is nonsense. It's selfish, short sighted and very damaging to the city employees and residents, as a whole.
If an employee who made $150,000 last year makes only $135,000 this year I don't see the harm. If however senior staff, department heads, fire and police want to continue on this delusional payroll joyride they will bankrupt themselves and us residents sooner rather than later.
A scaled compensation reduction must happen for these folks to regain any sense of community trust, with me anyway.
In the end my motivation is for everyone to keep their jobs and stay within the revenues we have which would still afford them a great standard of living.
I don't see this idea as throwing anyone under, on or over anything.
I understand what you're saying Todd, and I don't disagree. I know that salaries have risen considerably since I retired; in fact, the very next year I could have been making much much more that I did at retirement. However, there are choices we make that are best for us personally, and it was time for me to go. City Clerks sign an Oath of Ethics and things were happening that didn't sit well with me.
I agree that "salaried senior staff" being paid over $150K in Pacifica is making more than the City can bear to pay -- obviously. To me it is immoral to spend what isn't there. Citizens' refusal to approve taxes tells me that, as well as the fact that people just are strung out to the wire in this recession. Nobody is expected to work for nothing, but there is also a limit to what is reasonable for a City to spend. You and I are interested in the survival of our City, as are most posters here. I would be interested in figures about how much of the employees making in excess of $150-K do it because of overtime, like Police and Fire. That all relates to staffing level cuts, as I'm sure everyone knows.
Question to all: If you were an employee of the City, and the City offered you more than you thought you were worth, my guess is -- you would take it.
In this economy, too, hardly anyone wants to say "Let's share the pain." There is more personal concern about paying a mortgage, a college tuition, a car payment, or even simpler at the lower levels of compensation, paying for dinner. I don't say that is wrong.
Its a really challenging situation and I don't see an answer in sight. Even if the City does everything on the yellow card, it won't be enough. So I personally support leaving most of the programs in tact, with reduced hours of services and more marketing of City space, increasing use fees, etc. Contracting with the County for Law Enforcement is inevitable. Might as well do it now. Additional tax measures? I don't think they will fly.
This is a great forum for discussion. We are all working toward the same goal, I think.
Libraries are an anachronism. There are lots of opportunities to cut hours there, and if we have to make cuts, we should cut it down to one library.
Most posters seem genuinely concerned but there are some who actually hope for a bankrupt city because they think that would clean the slate and clean out city hall since the voters haven't. It wouldn't do either but that's how angry some are. Hope anyone who cares about this community is filling out that survey like Flo Derby.
"Libraries are an anachronism." Really? Apparently lots of regular patrons of all ages don't know that. A strong case can be made in this crisis for maintaining just one in a city this size-- if we ignore the geography. And we'll probably have to do that. It is a shame.
Thank you for being here Flo.
There are council members on the Financing City Services Task Force so it is not "put the citizens out front." But neither of those Council people doing the lion's share of the work, caused the problem they are trying desperately to solve. It is interesting that some keep getting re-elected, don't do the work, AND don't even have to show up at meetings. If I were Len or Maryann, I wouldn't run again cause nobody gives them any help. Not their fellow council that's for sure and all we as a City seem to be able to do is complain! Are we hoodwinking ourselves? Stop blaming everyone else and get involved! Do some of the work! Give them some help. It is easy to just complain - how about some real answers Mr. Bray? Yours is just the easy way out. Make some real choices.
If "just the easy way out" doesn't work for you Anon @ 6:50AM I can't help you.
Todd, all you ever seem to talk about is the employee salaries. Let's look at the facts, which can be confirmed at www.mercurynews.com/salaries/bay-area/2010. A San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff base salary with benefits is $241,164. This does not include overtime. This particular deputy made $72,904 in overtime/other salary for a total of $314,068. A San Mateo County Sergeant base salary and benefits was $258,409. Add in overtime/other salary and it totaled $294,978.
When compared to a Pacifica Police Officer whose
salary and benefits were $155,414 and a Pacifica Police Sergeant whose salary and benefits were
$200,844.
Now those are facts, which can be corroborated. Now move forward to 2011 salaries and you will see the same Pacifica Police Sergeant is making $176,005, a 15.5% CUT and the Pacifica Police Officer is making $139,113,an 11.7% CUT.
These are facts, nothing but the facts. During the last year employee contracts, all city employees suffered CUTS and are paying more for their benefits, which will continue into this coming year.
You can continue to bash the salaries of the employees, but that is not the answer. If you want unqualified, uneducated and marginal employees, that is what you will get when you are not competitive in the market. The liability for the City will rise accordingly.
The fact is most City employees are compensated near, or at the bottom, when compared to other employees in like positions in other cities in the county.
Post a Comment