Health & Fitness
Patch Blog: Public Employee Salaries
A sound business attitude and background must be brought into our labor negotiations. The City should start from the basis of what we can afford—not what the unions will accept.
It seems that much of the discussion related to the Measure UT and funding the city is caught up in public employee compensation. The discussion of how we fund our city (Measure UT) and how the city spends our tax dallars are two separate, but related discussions.
Public sector employees have become accustomed to and expect regular pay raises and fully funded pension and health benefits. That is why it is difficult for one public employee to negogiate a contract with a public employee union. They think the same way.
I come from the private sector. As Chief Financial Officer for a firm, I had to close an entire department and lay people off in order to save the company. South Pasadena cannot continue to spend over 70% of its revenue on employee salaries and benefits. It is unsutainable. Our salaries cannot be set by what other cities pay. If they over pay, it is not incumpent upon South Pasadena to follow. We start from what we can afford.
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The City of South Pasadena has to expect and plan for turnover. Our employees will move to other departments in larger cities to advance their careers. We should not be worried or concerned about natural turnover. Our city is not large enough to provide for a great deal of advancement. We only have a problem if we cannot recurit new employees. In the current employment environment, I do not see that as a problem.
The income of many South Pasadena residents have not increased over the past five years. Many self-employeed residents have had to take pay cuts to keep the doors open. The private sector has moved away from fully-funded retirement plans but instead provides matching funds to employee contributions. The private sector moved away from defined benefits because it is unsustainable. The public sector also has to change. Our public employee unions will have to understand that the current system cannot sustain itself.
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Finally, collective bargining means the representatives of labor is on one side of the table, and the representatives of the owners (tax payers) is on the other side of the table. If the labor unions elect the representatives on both sides of the table, that does not result in collective bargining. It results in no representation for the tax payer, and the system we have.
Let me know your thoughts.