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Politics & Government

Benicia Residents Sound Off About Employee Compensation

City manager did not get to finish budget presentation at first in series of public workshops.

Benicia officials were unable to complete a planned presentation at Tuesday night’s public workshop about the city’s budget deficit after many of the nearly 50 residents who attended complained about public-employee salaries and benefits for most of the two-hour session.

City Manager Brad Kilger opened the workshop by presenting a review of the deficit, now $1.2 million after several quarters of lower-than-expected sales and property tax revenue – even after a round of budget cuts that closed a smaller deficit last fall.

“While we are still refining the numbers, we saw some meaningful drops in our sales tax (revenue),” Kilger said.

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Officials had a strategy to eliminate the deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30, according to Kilger, adding that making city finances “sustainable” in the 2011-2012 fiscal year beginning July 1 and the year after that would take a lot more work.

He said officials were committed to covering the deficit without cutting city services.

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But still-falling property values in Solano County and the slow-to-recover retail economy in Benicia and statewide could present additional challenges in March and June, when tax receipts for the third and fourth quarters of the fiscal year become clearer.

The meeting had been billed as an informational session while public input would be sought at other sessions in March, April and May, but Kilger was only a few minutes into his presentation when Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, stressing the gathering’s informal nature, asked for questions and comments from residents who filled the meeting room at the Benicia Public Library.

The library is at 150 East L St.

“The council very much wants to hear from you on your ideas,” she said.

All five of the city's council members were in attendance, as were many top officials.

West Side resident Andy Siri asked why Benicia’s firefighters were being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime.

 “Benefits at this point are getting to be unrealistic,” he said. “I do not blame the firemen, I blame the union – they want too much.”

Councilman Tom Campbell said the city paid $900,000 in overtime to firefighters and police combined.

“Some of the overtime is reimbursable,” replied Jed Matcham, a Benicia firefighter for the past eight years.

“We are working on that,” Patterson said.

Other people complained that many businesses in Benicia were operating without business licenses because of lax enforcement of the city’s license requirements, and Matcham said Benicia charged unrealistically low fire-code permit fees.

Longtime resident Larry Fullington said he was “appalled” to hear that business license requirements were being ignored.

“The business license thing is a big source that we could do something about now,” he said.

Councilmember Alan Schwartzman said the city should concentrate on attracting new businesses, and Councilman Mark Hughes said the city was making it too difficult for businesses to relocate and stay in Benicia.

“If we make the process so difficult, then the word gets out and not only are new businesses not gravitating toward Benicia, established businesses are leaving,” Hughes said.

Councilmember Mark Ioakimedes, who, along with Schwartzman and Campbell, operates businesses in Benicia, said they were not coming to the city because it was perceived as having an unfriendly business climate.

“I don’t believe we’re a business-friendly city,” Ioakimedes said. “That is how it is in Benicia.”

After the meeting, Kilger said officials were pleased with the quality of feedback they had received, even though the session did not go as planned.

“That was really what was most important – to get some feedback,” he said. “People have very serious concerns regarding public compensation, yet it is only one of many issues we need to look at in terms of maintaining a sustainable budget.”

After resident Susan Street complained that residents did not have enough information about the budget issues or employee-compensation packages, Patterson said more information would be made available on the city's web site, ci.benicia.ca.us.

The next budget workshop is scheduled for March 22.

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