HomeMy WebLinkAboutSupplemental Questions from Robert Goldberg1
Gloria Harper
From:Robert Goldberg <rgoldberg@live.com>
Sent:Sunday, March 08, 2020 8:19 PM
To:Thomas Moore; Schelly Sustarsic; Mike Varipapa; Sandra Massa-Lavitt; Joe Kalmick
Cc:Jill Ingram; Gloria Harper; Phil Gonshak; Charles M. Kelly; Jeannette Andruss
Subject:External Email : Questions for Monday Night's Meeting
Attachments:3.09.20 Questions & Comments.docx
Dear Council and Staff,
Please see the attached comments and questions for Monday's open session.
Thank you for your consideration and service,
Robert Goldberg
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1
Questions & Comments for 3/09/20 from Robert Goldberg
Item B: Demand on Treasury (Warrants)
Page 12, check 14625 to Richards, Watson, & Gershon for $3589 for non-retainer services in
December 2019. This includes a line item of $2252 for “Adv Bay City Part.” This line item has
been previously identified as being related to
lease negotiations on the 1st Street restaurant. With this payment, our total legal costs on this
matter for calendar 2019 total over $20,000.
Council may recall that the first amendment to the lease was approved on the 1/27/20 agenda.
Therefore, there may be additional legal fees in January.
Have any of these legal fees been reimbursed to the City by the tenant group (Beach
House at the River, LLC)?
Item D: Employment Contract for Director of Finance
In reviewing the contract, I had the following comments and questions:
Section 1. Term (page 2): The contract states that the “effective date of this Agreement is
March 2, 2020.”
Isn’t the correct date March 9th?
Section 5.E. Sick Leave (page 5): There is no statement here regarding accrual of sick leave. The
other Management Executive contracts explicitly state an accrual rate of 8 hours per month
with a maximum allowable accumulation of 520 hours.
Was the accrual rate and maximum accumulation omitted by error?
Month Amount Warrant #
April $3,834 11616
May $4,071 11616
June $0 PRA 20-24
July $316 12734
August $4,360 13034
September $0 13467
October $5,184 13734
November $79 14251
December $2,253 14625
Total:$20,097
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Section 5.I. Retirement System (page 8): The staff report states that Ms. Telford will be in a
PEPRA retirement plan. However, the verbiage in this contract section is copied from a
Management Executive contract for a “classic” CalPERS employee. This oversight may result in a
legal commitment for the City to provide benefit enhancements that more generous than what
are provided to the City’s other PEPRA employees.
Subsection 1 states that our PERS plan includes “Section 20042- One Year Final Compensation.”
However, in our existing PEPRA plans, final compensation is the PEPRA standard-- average
annual pensionable compensation for a 36-consecutive-month period of employment.
Recommendation: Remove reference to “Section 20042- One Year Final Compensation.”
Subsection 2 states that Ms. Telford’s employee pension contribution will be 7% of her
compensation. However, other PEPRA employees are currently paying 7.25%, a rate
determined by CalPERS and subject to being increased to as high as 8% if need be.
Subsection 3 states that Ms. Telford will be eligible for “2% @ 55” retirement formula (i.e.,
retirement at age 55 with a pension that equals 2% X years of service X salary). However, the
standard PEPRA retirement formula for a non-safety employee is “2% @ 62.”
Recommendation: Remove Sub-sections 2 and 3 in their entirety. Replace with the
following PEPRA language found in our contracts with bargaining units that include
PEPRA employees-- “Employee shall be eligible for the 2.0% @ 62 retirement formula in
accordance with PEPRA and other legislation. Employee’s contribution shall be one half
the normal cost as determined by CalPERS.”
Item E: Employment Contract for Chief of Police
In comparing the proposed contract to Chief Gonshak’s prior compensation as Commander, the
staff report states
“Chief Gonshak’s monthly salary will be $18,418.76 per month pursuant to the City’s salary
schedule. This total salary reflects an increase of approximately 10% over Chief Gonshak’s prior
total compensation, which was comprised of base pay and the special compensation amounts
Chief Gonshak earned as a peace officer including, without limitation, POST pay, sworn peace
officer pay, and uniform allowance pay. As Chief, he will not be eligible for those special
compensation payments.”
This analysis does not factor in several monetary benefits that the proposed contract provides
to the Chief in addition to the base salary of $18,418.75 per month. These include an annual
$850 Wellness reimbursement and deferred compensation equal to 3.5% of base salary
($7736/ year). When those are considered, an “apples-to-apples” comparison (see below)
appears to show that Chief Gonshak’s proposed contract will provide total compensation that is
15% higher than what he received as Commander. Additionally, if one considers that his
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CalPERS contribution rate will drop from 12% to 9%, his “Net Pay’ after this deduction will be
18% higher than what he received as Commander.
Is the analysis below missing or misrepresenting any Commander pay category?
Proposed Contract Sections:Chief Contract
4.A Base Salary (Step5 )$221,025
4.C Experience Pay 10%@20yr; 15%@25 yr
$0
5.A.11 Wellness Program $850
9% of Base Salary
-$19,892
3.5% Salary
$7,736
PMA Contract Provisions
13.1 Annual Uniform Allowance None
13.3 Special Assignment Pay -
5% of Base Salary None
19.3 Education Incentive Pay None
35. Overtime None- "Exempt" employee
% Increase
Base Pay, Other Pay, Uniform
Allowance, and Deferred Comp
("Total Compensation")
$229,611 $198,906 15%
Total Compensation minus
Employee's CalPERS Contribution $209,719 $177,971 18%
5.I. Retirement System --
Contribution by Employee
5.K Deferred Compensation
Time and a half. In calendar 2018,
Commander Gonshak earned $7 in
OT pay per Transparent California
website.
$6,000
$8,723
$1,000
12% of Base Salary
-$20,935
None
$174,460
As Commander (PMA Contract)
5%@10 yr; 10%@20yr; 15%@25
$8,723
Up to 40 hr vacation per year for
participation in physical fitness
program