Budget Salaries and Benefits

Questions and Answers - Budget, Salaries and Benefits

A reader wrote recently that she supports my re-election (yea!) and had some questions that she thought might be asked and answered on the campaign trail and in forums. Most of her concerns are about the budget, employee salaries and benefits.

Since 2008 the City has been engaged in remarkable events: the collapse of the financial industry due to reckless and perhaps corrupt behavior which has caused the greatest decline in home values since the Great Depression, high unemployment and a failure of the federal government to address the mortgage meltdown. These national events drive much of the discussion about events in Benicia and it is understandable that people seek answers and solutions.

Regardless of numerous articles and emails I have sent in the last year, questions and assumptions about the same issues continue to come to me. This is positive because it shows the passion and commitment our residents have about Benicia and that is to be embraced and celebrated. For reference, please see several previous articles I have sent on my email newsletter, as well as posted some of them on this blog and on my website.

Traffic Calming or Dangerous by Design

A great "aha" moment in the late 90s during the General Plan update came when a member of the task force (GPOC) advocated for "traffic calming". This term was being introduced by planners to conjure the image of slower traffic, friendlier streets and ultimately sharing the streets and sidewalks for biking, walking as well as driving. The 1999 General Plan adopted the goal of traffic calming, but not until 2003 did the program begin in earnest. Through a negotiation effort with the last large housing project in Benicia, over a quarter of a million dollars was dedicated to traffic calming (it took 20 minutes of negotiations and the story is pretty amazing). The city staff has worked to implement several projects including safety measures near Robert Semple, West K and East 5th in combination with our Safe Routes to School programs.

Remember the three Es of traffic calming: enforcement, education and engineering. Knowing that our streets are designed to speed cars along, we need to focus on the effective and affordable programs to slow the traffic and make streets safer. This is a collaborative process involving the Police Department, Public Works, the public and neighborhoods and the schools.

Sustainability means smart investment in jobs and economy

Are we in this together?

Last year I called for all to work together as "we are in this boat together" and by working together we can move forward together. Perhaps the specter of an election in November has spooked some people and I see many potential fractures of this idea that we are in this economic challenge together. For instance, recently I got a couple of emails that said, "forget history" we need to watch our pennies and not be "historical perfect", or another set of emails that the Community Sustainability Commission is "out of control and too powerful" and then my favorite is "run government like a business" as if government has a profit center (essential to business). These are confusing statements if, indeed, we are working together.

The following helps sew together the ideas that investment in our historic districts is part of growing jobs and sustainable growth and how we can grow new jobs and keep our existing jobs and finally government (and I am glad to say) is not to be run like a business but is "business plus". We need to be lean, efficient, effective for the good of all. Let me know if you know of a business model that has this as a mission statement. Government is not the panacea but it sure can advance the investment for jobs that the private sector has been shy about for more than two years.

Delta Suisun Marsh Recreation Plan

Growing Benicia's Tourism - Plan Proposes Expanded Recreation in Delta, Bringing Boost to Local Economy

This past Tuesday, May 17, the State Parks, in cooperation with the Water Education Foundation, hosted a day-long tour of sites highlighted in the draft Delta-Suisun Marsh recreation plan, which State Parks is preparing as its bit of the overall Delta planning. I participated in the tour as part of the Parks' key step in State Parks interagency coordination process for the plan.

The plan highlights Benicia as a community with extensive recreation and tourism opportunities that can be a gateway for visitors to Suisun Marsh and the Delta.  I was invited to talk about Benicia's community's visitor attractions for a few minutes as the tour bus traveled between East Bay Regional Park's Big Break shoreline and Suisun Marsh. Dan Ray, Chief of Parks Planning said, "There are so many wonderful things happening in Benicia and other Carquinez Straight communities - they deserve more recognition."

As I described the Carquinez Strait and the natural resources and industry, the tour participants could follow the bike trail from Martinez to Benicia and the Clock Tower and historic Arsenal in the distance. The tour participants included key people from the Coastal Conservancy, Delta Conservancy, Delta Protection Commission, East Bay Regional Parks, Solano Parks, CalTrans, Department of Water Resources, the Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Lands, and others as well as the State Parks. 

Council seeks to avoid layoffs

Tuesday night the Council heard testimony from city employees and citizens about the proposed layoffs and potential service cuts in order to balance the budget for the fiscal year 2011-2012.

The unanimous vote came after compelling testimony about the value of the literacy program which will be severly cut due to the state budget cuts and elimiinated if the city council initiated staff proposed cuts for next fiscal year. Ellen Kolowich eloquently testifid that the literacy program is mostly for people, the majority of whom were born in the US, but did not learn English or how to read in school. She testified how English as a Second Language literacy program opens the doors to life for them by removing the barriers of not speaking English or reading. It was compelling.

Because many of the proposed staff cuts targeted publish safety, there was discussion looking to other deparments for additional layoffs to spare public safety. The city manager pointed out that last year, that is actually what happened - positions have not been filled and layoffs occurred in many of these deparments. There are not too many more places to look for employee salary savings.

Hence, the direction to staff by the unanimous vote by Council is to seek to negotiate with the bargaining units (unions) for salary and benefit savings to avoid the layoffs and service cuts. As a city fire employee stated, "we [the public employee] didn't cause this economic recession" and yet he lamented that the public makes negative statements about them as if they are responsible for the hard times.

Hard Budget Decisions

The City Council makes hard decisions, but laying off employees is the hardest. At its regular meeting Tuesday night, May 3, the Council may decide to reopen city employee contract agreements to avoid potential layoffs as we address the $1.7 million deficit for the 2011-12 budget.

Action is necessary to achieve a budget with balanced expenditures and revenue projections for fiscal year 2011-12. Our employees stepped up in 2010 when agreeing to salary and benefits reductions requested by the Council. Revenues on which the city depends are lower because of depressed property values, lower Benicia Industrial Park sales taxes and lower franchise fees, so we continue to make expenditure adjustments. The choice between layoffs and salary and benefits reductions is not a welcome one, but the situation speaks for itself.

These decisions are grounded in the Council’s policy to maintain a balanced budget, to avoid service cuts and to maintain fair and competitive salaries. To quote our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Our city employees have been inventive, creative and frugal in finding ways to reduce costs and maintain our parks as the jewels of Benicia; our police deparment’s vigilant effectiveness; our fire department’s dependable and responsible emergency response; our water quality for drinking; our wastewater treatment to avoid polluting the Carquinez Strait; and other everyday public safety and administrative needs.

Their efforts are commendable. But it is not enough in the face of such a severe revenue shortfall. That is why we have the decision Tuesday night about further layoffs and potential salary and benefits reductions.

CSC Lecture-Workshop Series

The Community Sustainability Commission has worked hard to make this lecture-workshop series possible and would love to have your full participation in this FREE series.
This is a working collaboration with Solano Community College. Here's the series at one glance.

Stewards of our Children's Future: 2011

for Ecologic and Economic health
+ Community Resilience

Free Public lecture-workshop series