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See Who Sought And Who Fought Transparency -- And Left LB Taxpayers The Last To Know How New Police Union Contract Will Affect City Budgets And Services...While Some Nearby Cities Give Their Residents Labor Negotiation Transparency


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(Jan. 3, 2017, 6:30 p.m.) -- Long Beach enters 2017 with news (reported here) that negotiators for LB's police officer union (LBPOA) and City Hall reached agreement on terms for a new contract. However LB taxpayers won't learn how the now-tentative agreement could affect them -- and City budgets that provide services for taxpayers for which LB taxpayers pay City-imposed fees and taxes -- until after the union's members vote to accept or reject the deal. LB Councilmembers presumably know what they authorized the City's negotiator to offer the union. LB taxpayers will be among the last to know what their Councilmembers agreed in closed session to offer the union. That information won't come out until a few days before the Council schedules a public vote to impose the new contract's terms -- including its resulting budget consequences -- on LB taxpayers.

LB's current non-transparent practices aren't required by state or federal law. Residents in a few nearby cities, including Costa Mesa and Beverly Hills, have the right to know what their City Councilmembers offer their city's public employee unions in negotiating new contracts. That's because their City Councilmembers enacted transparency reforms in their city's labor negotiation process (described below.)

Less than three years ago, an effort to bring the Costa Mesa's transparency reforms to LB's negotiating process with city employee unions came within one vote of advancing to serious consideration.

On Feb. 4, 2014, then-Councilmember and Mayoral candidate Gerrie Schipske agendized an item that sought to have the City Attorney's office review the feasibility of adopting an ordinance paralleling the City of Costa Mesa's "Civic Openness in Negotiations" (COIN ordinance.) Costa Mesa's COIN ordinance requires hiring an independent negotiator; performing a fiscal impact analysis on each contract term and making the analysis public; requiring each Councilmember to disclose if he/she had any communications about the negotiations with representatives of the employee association; and reporting publicly after closed sessions any prior offers and counter offers and their fiscal impact to taxpayers. In addition, before the Council can vote on an employee contract, it must discuss it during at least two City Council meetings with the proposal posted on the city’s website at least seven days before the first meeting.

To view details of the COIN process on the City of Costa Mesa's website, click here.

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Councilwoman Schipske's motion to have the City Attorney's office review the feasibility of this was seconded by Councilman DeLong. Councilman O'Donnell (now Assemblyman as of Nov. 2014), seconded by Councilman Austin (both with strong ties to organized labor), responded by making a substitute motion to "receive and file" (take no action and thus kill) Schipske's proposal. Councilman DeLong, seconded by Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal, then made a substitute-substitute motion to approve Schipske's recommendation with a tweak that would have the City Manager provide a Human Resources Dept. report on the pros/cons of the proposal.

The DeLong-Lowenthal substitute-substitute motion narrowly failed on a tie vote -- 4-4 -- with then-Mayoral candidate/now Mayor Robert Garcia among those voting against it. (Yes: DeLong, Schipske, Andrews, Johnson; No: Garcia, Lowenthal, O'Donnell, Austin; Absent: Neal).

That brought forward the O'Donnell/Austin substitute motion to receive and file (kill) the transparency proposal. It carried 5-3 (Yes: Garcia, Lowenthal, O'Donnell, Johnson and Austin; No: DeLong, Schipske, Andrews; Absent: Neal.)

The net effect left LB taxpayers with City Hall's current non-transparent labor negotiation system.

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Regarding the now-pending new LBPOA contract, could the LB City Council simply vote to authorize the public release of its offer to LBPOA's negotiators before LBPOA's membership votes on it? Long Beach City Attorney Charles Parkin tells LBREPORT.com that the answer is "no."

"The City...has a long standing labor practice in dealing with negotiations [and] if the City desired to change its practice, the City would be required to meet with the various labor unions to discuss the impacts of these changes and complete that process before it could implement any changes," said City Attorney Parkin in an quick email reply to our inquiry.

Could the LB City Council enact a COIN style ordinance now? If there were five Council votes to do so (perhaps six votes to override a possible veto by Mayor Garcia), the answer is yes [perhaps with a meet and confer requirement beforehand; we didn't ask the City Att'y this.] However it would impose burdens on City Hall now that weren't present when the proposal narrowly failed in 2014 and might make LB Councilmembers less willing to support it now.

That's because in 2015, Sacramento lawmakers (at the urging of government employee unions) enacted SB 331, a measure authored by state Senator Tony Mendoza, D, Artesia at the urging of public employee unions. The measure requires cities, counties and special districts with COIN style transparency ordinances to apply COIN-style disclosure requirements regarding all kinds of public contracts over $250,000...not just contracts with government employee unions. In other words, whenever a city, county or other government body with a COIN ordinance considers a public contract (for items including accounting, financing, hardware and software maintenance, health care, human resources, human services, information technology, telecommunications, janitorial maintenance, legal services, lobbying, marketing, office equipment maintenance, passenger vehicle maintenance property leasing, public relations, public safety, social services, transportation, or waste removal) it must provide a report listing offers, counter-offers, names of those involved and other negotiation details, filed at least 30 days before each contract is considered and at least 60 days before the agency votes on it and must consider the contract for at least two meetings before voting.)

To make its intent obvious, SB 331 lets government agencies that adopted a COIN transparency ordinance avoid these requirements by suspending, repealing or revoking their COIN ordinance. SB 331 received the voted support of Assemblyman Patrick O'Donnell (D, LB) and state Senator Ricardo Lara (D, LB-Huntington Park.)

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In 2016, LBPOA's PAC was among the largest single contributor to the political committee that ran the campaign for the Measure A sales tax increase sought by Mayor Garcia and all Councilmembers. LBPOA's PAC contributed $200,000 in cash, plus $13,300 in "in-kind" contributions, prior to the election...and gave the committee another $25,000 after the election. The Measure A sales tax increase created a "blank check" revenue stream that Councilmembers can spend for any general fund items they choose...including a new LBPOA contract.

In a Christmas Eve City Hall release, Mayor Garcia said the new LBPOA contract "is fair, values their hard work for the City, and allows us to retain and attract the best recruits to Long Beach."

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