HomeMy WebLinkAboutSupplemental Questions from Robert Goldberg BH - Item K1
Gloria Harper
From:Robert Goldberg <rgoldberg@live.com>
Sent:Sunday, June 21, 2020 2:01 PM
To:Thomas Moore; Schelly Sustarsic; Mike Varipapa; Sandra Massa-Lavitt; Joe Kalmick
Cc:Jill Ingram; Gloria Harper; Kelly Telford; Charles M. Kelly; Jeannette Andruss
Subject:Comments for Monday's Budget Public Hearing
Attachments:Budget Comment for PH.doc
Dear Council and Staff,
Please see the attached comments for Monday's public hearing on the budget (Item K)
Thank you for your consideration and service,
Robert Goldberg
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Dear City Council Members,
I would like to thank you for taking the time to review and consider the sixteen pages of
questions that I submitted for the two budget workshops. Most of these were answered
through your follow-up questions to staff.
Ironically however, the very first question that I posed on May 28th was not completely
answered until the final budget was issued last week:
Was a July pay raise of 2% for Police and Executive Management employees
included in the budget?
I had asked this because the Police contracts expire on 6/30/20, and the Council had
not yet made any public commitment to grant optional/discretionary cost-of-living pay
raises to the Executive Management employees.
Staff stated at the workshops that pay raises for Police were not included in the budget.
However, nothing was said regarding raises for Executive Management employees.
The City’s Manager’s Message, which was not included in earlier drafts, now makes
clear that the budget does include 2% raises for Executive Management employees.
Furthermore, Section 5 of the budget resolution authorizes the City Manager to
implement these raises on July 1st.
I have two concerns regarding this authorization.
The first is that 2% exceeds the cost-of-living raise provision in the Executive
Management contracts. Each contract has an identical provision that provides for July
increases, at the Council’s discretion, ranging from 0-3% based on the change in the
local inflation index during the preceding April-April period.
This year, the preceding April-April rise in the local CPI index was only 0.70%.
CPI-All Urban Consumers
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
Year Apr Apr-Apr
2019 273.945
2020 275.853 0.70%
Therefore, the maximum inflation raise consistent with these contracts would be 0.7%.
A raise of 2% is almost three times this amount.
My second concern is that the deliberative process for granting discretionary raises to
Executive Management employees should involve more than simply adding three words
to a staff report (“and Executive Management” to bullet #6 on page 5), or five words to a
budget resolution (“and for Executive Management employees” to Section 5). In my
following of City budgets since 2004, I cannot recall any budget resolution that similarly
authorized Executive Management pay raises.
The previous cost-of-living increase effective July 2019 was approved by Council in an
open session on 12/9/19 after review of a staff report specific to Executive Management
employees (Agenda Item H). This decision was preceded by five closed sessions
beginning in May 2019 with agendized discussions of “Conference with Labor
Negotiator” regarding a list of employee organizations that included “Executive
Management.” This was a full deliberative process that allowed numerous o pportunities
for the public to be involved and the Council to be fully informed.
In contrast, the current decision is being made without a dedicated staff report, and
subsequently, no public disclosure of the cost-of-living provisions in the Executive
Management contracts, no disclosure of the change in the inflation index, nor the cost of
the proposed raises.
To address these two concerns, I would strongly urge the Council to amend Section 5 of
budget resolution to strike the reference to Executive Management employees, and
direct staff to return to Council with a full staff report analyzing and supporting their
recommendation for a 2% raise.
“SECTION 5. The City Council hereby authorizes the City Manager to issue salary
adjustments of 2% as provided in applicable Memoranda of Understanding,
effective on July 1, 2020, for those employees in the following employee groups:
Mid-Management and Confidential; Seal Beach Supervisors and Professionals
Association; Orange County Employees Association; and Seal Beach Marine
Safety Management Association; and for Executive Management employees.
An alternative to at least address a lack of consistency with the existing contract
language would be to insert a 0.7% limit to the Executive Management raises.
“SECTION 5. The City Council hereby authorizes the City Manager to issue salary
adjustments of 2% as provided in applicable Memoranda of Understanding,
effective on July 1, 2020, for those employees in the following employee groups:
Mid-Management and Confidential; Seal Beach Supervisors and Professionals
Association; Orange County Employees Association; and Seal Beach Marine
Safety Management Association; and 0.7% for Executive Management employees.
I thank you for your consideration and service,
Robert Goldberg