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.

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.

Steady Helm in a Storm

(This post also appeared in the Benicia Herald Opinion column, 1/4/2011)
 
“The city sure has been taking a beating,” a merchant told me last week in front of his shop. I couldn’t agree more. His comment was referring to the letters, columns and blogs with constructive — and some not so constructive — opinions about how to run the city.

This column is about where we — the city of Benicia, its staff, commissioners and Council members — have been and where we are going. Readers are welcome to respond on my blog (www.elizabethpatterson.blogspot.com), in the Benicia Herald, or during my open office hours.

They may also attend the workshops, study sessions and Council meetings we will conduct in 2011. Last year we held more than 30, posted surveys, and ran community open houses. This coming year I invite those who write letters, columns and blogs, as well as residents who read them or not, to participate in the extensive city outreach effort to: a) access and vet information; b) explore volunteer opportunities; and c) consider more new and untried budget solutions. Your participation is vital for the important decisions that will be made for our city in 2011.

Earlier this year, I affirmed at Council meetings that “we are all in this boat together” as we enter the third year of the Great Recession. The country’s financial meltdown is the result of many factors, but especially the reckless risk-taking by financial institutions, the ripple effect of which affected our neighborhoods, jobs, available funds for small businesses — and public anger.