Now Publicly Disclosed: Council Offered Largest City Employee Union 6% Raises Over Next Three Years; Gen'l Fund Cost = $3.8 Mil; Deal Comes To Council For Publicly-Voted Approval On Oct. 4

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It's one of several city employee contracts now being negotiated; still to come: police and firefighters

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(Sept. 27, 2016, 4:25 a.m.) -- An item agendized for the Oct. 4 City Council meeting effectively shows that LB Councilmembers knew -- when they voted on Sept. 13 for a FY17 budget that restores only 10 of 200 police officers eliminated since FY10 and leaves three fire stations without previously staffed fire engines -- that they had already offered City Hall's largest public employee union unbudgeted raises over the next three years totaling 6% (2% per year) that will cost LB taxpayers a management-estimated roughly $3.8 million from the City's General Fund when fully implemented by FY19.

The agendized item is for publicly-voted Council approval of its newly-negotiated contract with the Int'l Association of Machinists (which represents roughly 2,700 non-public safety city employees.)

The new MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) also includes a "Me Too" Provision, which provides that if the City gives a wage increase to non-IAM bargaining units (with the exception of LBPOA, LBFFA and LGA [police, fire, lifeguards]), such an increase will be given to IAM bargaining units as well.

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IAM's rank and file members (roughly 2,700 non-public safety employees) have ratified the new contract (Memorandum of Understanding); Councilmembers are now set to cast a public vote on new IAM contract on Oct. 4 that would seal the deal. Still being negotiated: contracts with LB's other city employee unions, including police and firefighters (respectively the two largest single contributors to the $700,000+ political campaign mounted to increase LB's sales tax to 10%, written in a way that lets a Council majority spend the sales tax increase revenue on any General Fund items they wish.)

The annual LB taxpayer cost for the new IAM contract from the General Fund (which pays for police, fire, parks, libraries and other services) amounts to roughly [our calculation] a little over $1.2 million in each year over the next three years. City management's agendizing memo says the new contact won't affect the Council's just-enacted FY17 budget [i.e. the FY17 cost was already built-in] as management plans to spend a reduction it obtained in employee health care costs to cover the FY17 IAM raises.

By way of context, restoring ten LB police officers would cost roughly $1.5 million per year; restoring Fire Engine 17 to LB's Stearns Park Fire Station 17 would cost about $2.2 million per year (both are management-stated sums.)

In September 2015, the City (with Council voted approval) gave IAM a one-time one-year 3% payment (not pensionable, not amending the underlying salary resolution.) IAM is the same union that benefited from the now-notorious management-recommended, Council-approved 2002 "pension spike" that continues to cost LB taxpayers sizable sums annually despite subsequently-enacted pension changes applicable to new employees.

Neither LB Mayor Robert Garcia nor any incumbent Councilmembers have publicly announced any plan(s) to restore roughly 95% of police officers and the fire engines that the City previously provided but no longer provides to its taxpayers. With Mayor/management recommendation, the City Council's FY17 budget allocates the "Measure A" sales tax increase in the coming 12 months mainly for to infrastructure items, including repairs/slurry-covering streets evaluated as most in need.