Politics & Government

City Pay Disparity Unjust, Union Tells Council

The El Cerrito City Council meeting took a dramatic turn this week when about 20 city employees in union t-shirts showed up to complain that they were not receiving their fair share of what the city spends on compensation.

A contingent of rank-and-file city employees in El Cerrito came to the City Council meeting this week to complain that management pay is excessive in light their own compensation, which they said has been frozen too long and is no longer enough to live on.

The employees – members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents 115 city workers – said during the public comments session that proposed city take-aways in their current contract negotiations are unjust and cruel. About 20 attended the meeting in purple-blue union t-shirts.

"To consciously reduce us – your front-line staff – into the working poor so that you have more is inhumane," said employee Laurentine Brazil, a management assistant in the public works department. "It's downright evil. No one who works in a management or supervisory role is any better than anyone else that works here."

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The council meeting Tuesday night was devoted chiefly to reviewing the city's $46.2 million proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year beginning July 1.

SEIU Local 1021 is in negotiations with the city over a new contract. The previous contract, for five years, ended June 30, 2010 and was extended two years to June 30 this year, about three weeks from now. The union represents 115 employees, or 46 percent of the current 250-person payroll, with 42 of the SEIU members employed full-time, according to City Manager Scott Hanin.

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The union's acting president, Shielaugh Bigelow Divelbiss, said union members haven't received a cost-of-living increase in three years.

"Management has received their raises of between 5 to 10 percent for the past four years no matter what, while my members have received nothing," she said. "The city wants us to give by paying more into our PERS (Public Employees' Retirement System) and our medical. How can we when the cost of living keeps going up?"

"The city manager and 21 other managers receive car allowances that come to a total of $79,440," she said. "...Why should we have to pay when management receives that kind of benefits?"

"I implore you, please, do not balance the budget on our backs," she said.

Gordon Stevenson, the city's acting building official, said there's "disparity between the salaries of our working unit and the other unions and employees."

"There's been no cost-of-living increases for us for virtually four years," he said. "We have made concessions in the past to balance the budgets, and many of us are performing out of our classifications. We haven't claimed overtime. We have made sacrifices and there doesn't seem to be commensurate sacrifices across the board."

Brazil questioned "contract agreements from other bargaining units that have locked up the budget for, what, five or 10 years?" She also asked how city employees, without a raise, could afford to pay more than one percent of their salaries to the pension fund.

One of the budget options presented by the city manager's department would reduce city expenses by $84,000 in the next year by having SEIU pay an additional three percent into the pension fund (PERS).

Hanin's prepared budget presentation touched on several of the issues raised by the SEIU members, including concessions by other city employees.

"A majority of employees have already agreed to contribute their own resources to keep everything we're doing whole," he said.

Hanin told the council that management staff outside police and fire would be adding an extra three percent to their current one-percent PERS contributions. These extra contributions, from 22 management employees, will save the city $64,140 in the General Fund, or $93,440 city-wide, according to City Treasurer Mary Dodge.

Hanin also announced that the police and fire unions have agreed to give up the 2.1 percent cost-of-living increases due to them under their contracts, saving the city an estimated $252,000 in the coming year. 

Hanin also addressed the car-allowance issue in response to the union comments. He said the cost of car allowances are deducted from managers' salaries when the council sets the salaries, and that the total compensation package – including the car allowance and other forms of compensation – is designed to be in the median for comparable cities, in line with historic council policy. 

He also said the city pays all of the health insurance costs for employees and their families through Kaiser. 

At the same time, he said, the cost of employee pensions and healthcare "has grown significantly." In the year 2000, the city's pension contribution was zero, he said. By 2014, it's projected to be $6 million, or close to 20 percent of the general fund, he said. Healthcare costs for the city have been increasing about 10 percent a year, Hanin said.

The council is due to take up the budget again, with possible approval, at its next meeting on Monday, June 11, at 7 p.m.


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