Council to Consider New Contract for Department Heads, Positions on Three Ballot Measures

Amid recent protests regarding city employee salaries and benefits, the City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a contract in which seven department heads, each making more than $140,000  annually, have agreed to the same 3 percent pay cut as other staff is being asked to take.

The contract is one of six action items on the consent calendar of an agenda that includes taking positions on three measures on the Nov. 2 ballot and a staff recommendation to hire a consultant to deal with Arsenal cleanup items.

City Manager Jim Erickson cited "balance" in explaining his recommendation to the council at its Sept. 21 meeting to seek half the city's  $1.2 million deficit from program services and half from employee contract negotiations.

"We took, I guess I'd say, what we'd call a balanced approach," he said. "It seemed a fair and reasonable way to look at this."

Local activist Susan Street, noting that the city's employee-compensation packages are three-fourths of its budget, not half, decried the proposed cuts to social programs in addressing the council that night.

"This seems like an inequity in that one is a form of (compensation) and the other, people go hungry," said Street, suggesting the council consider larger pay cuts instead of cutting program support.

The contract proposal continues a city policy of buying back unused vacation pay from managers and staff, which city Finance, Audit and Budget Committee member Dennis Lowry told the council "costs us double."

Lowry, a veteran personnel executive in private industry, sent the mayor a detailed memo last month arguing in favor of reducing the city's pay scale. One observation he made was that department heads make disproportionately more than their staffs, which he wrote "begs the question of why the City is paying such high wages for a relatively select few."

Similarly, Planning Commissioner Rick Ernst has been organizing a group to support a proposed 2011 ballot initiative rolling back salaries to 2000 levels for 68 city employees making $100,000 or more.

Also on Tuesday's agenda are staff recommendations to support Measure C, a parcel tax to support Benicia Unified School District, and oppose Propositions 19 -- which would legalize and tax marijuana -- and 23, which would suspend implementation of the state's landmark greenhouse-gas law, AB 32.

The council also is scheduled to receive reports about the Industrial Park's need for a fiber optic network and a meeting last Thursday between Arsenal landowners and state and federal officials responding to the city's request for help cleaning toxics in the area.

City Attorney Heather McLaughlin is recommending the city hire a "project facilitator" and specialized contract attorneys to defend its interests in whatever cleanup process ensues.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., assuming a closed session meeting that begins at 5:30 has concluded. That agenda includes consultation on two pieces of city-owned land, one lawsuit and issues related to performance evaluation of the city manager, and the hiring of a replacement upon his impending retirement.