8:45am Wednesday | The Long Beach City Council took steps to curtail spending issues during last night’s meetings, some with very real and immediate changes while others were simply declarations of support or opposition to higher government bodies.
Furloughs Instituted
First, the issue that received the least public discussion. In a closed session, the City Council voted 5-3 to institute seven furlough days this year to more than 3,800 city employees belonging to the International Association of Machinists, the city’s largest union. Police and Fire are not affected by the furloughs, but the city has still not been able to reach agreements with those departments to reform pensions or freeze raises. Those voting in favor of the furloughs were Robert Garcia, Suja Lowenthal, Gary Delong, Dee Andrews and James Johnson. In opposition were Patrick O’Donnell, Gerrie Schipske and Rae Gabelich. Steven Neal was absent.
Pension Spiking
The Council spent much more public time debating an issue that, in reality, will have little effect. They approved a motion 7-1 to officially support the statewide movement to limit pension spiking. The term refers to the practice of negotiating contracts that increase benefits and pensions received for time that has already been served. The issue is currently in a state appellate court and is expected to be appealed to the California Supreme Court in the future.
“We sent a strong message to Sacramento that no longer should increases in pension benefits be given for work performed 10, 20, or 30 years prior,” said a press release from Councilmember Johnson, following the meeting. “Public safety, libraries, parks and other services are vital to our city — that is exactly why we need pension reform. Without it, both the taxpayers and employees alike will suffer as services are cut year after year to support unsustainable benefits. Tonight, we took a step towards structural reform that can deliver what Long Beach needs for the long term – safe streets, clean neighborhoods, and a responsibly balanced budget.”
But Councilmember Schipske, the lone dissenting vote on a 7-1 count, wrote on her blog that she opposed the measure because it is simply a statement of opposition and does not make any immediate change. Meanwhile, she said, the Long Beach City Council has willingly self-imposed pension spikes for years without seeing the longterm consequences.
“No one in the state held a gun to the past City Council’s heads to make them retroactively increase city employee pensions,” she wrote. “Oh, no. The prior mayor and city council (not the state legislature) agreed to apply a pension increase retroactively to city employees because it allowed the city council to forgo increasing salaries in bad budget times by giving employees better retirement benefits in the future.”
Proposition 8 Opposition
Nearly two years after if publicly voiced opposition to Proposition 8 and its ban on same-sex marriage, the City Council reaffirmed their position in a similar measure that announces the Council’s support of the movement to overturn the same-sex ban as it moves through the litigation process. A Superior Court judge ruled in August that the measure is unconsititutional, a ruling which was immediately appealed and will be heard by a three-judge panel this December.
Schipske said that she initially did not sign on to endorse the item because the Council had approved similar declarations against Proposition 8 before and she believed their position had been made clear. She changed her mind, however, over the last few weeks as stories of teen bullying across the country led o the suicides of several young, homosexual teenagers. The Council watched a short clip from the Ellen Degeneres Show about the issue of gay teens being bullied to the point of suicide, and then approved the measure by a unanimous 7-0 vote.
Other
The Council voted to support the federal DREAM Act, which permits conditional legal residency to high school graduates that immigrated to the United States before the age of 16. They also unanimously approved the 2011 Budget for the Downtown Long Beach Associates (DLBA).
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4:30pm Tuesday | The fun just doesn’t stop at Long Beach City Council, where a closed session today led by City Manager Pat West will provide councilmembers with updates on employee labor negotiations. The city is still working to find ways to either freeze or reduce the pay of many employee unions in order to cut costs and balance an $18.5 million budget that was approved and finalized in September.
The closed session, which began at 3:30pm today, will also provide councilmembers with an update on six current medical marijuana collective litigation cases against the City of Long Beach.
The regular City Council meeting begins at 5:00pm and is jam-packed, as well.
First, the Council will consider official support of the Federal DREAM Act, which permits conditional legal residency to high school graduates that immigrated to the United States before the age of 16.
The Council was also consider an item proposed by four councilmembers to officially support the overturning of Proposition 8, which was passed in November 2008 and is the center of a statewide battle to prevent same-sex couples from marrying. Councilmembers Robert Garcia, Patrick O’Donnell, James Johnson and Steve Neal proposed the item. Neal encountered controversy in February when he made comments to the Long Beach Business Journal that several local Democratic organizations deemed “anti-LGBT” after Neal said that he believes marriage is instituted by God and that man does not have “the ability or right to change that.” A judge in August ruled Proposition 8 unconstitutional but his decision was appealed and will be heard by a three-judge panel this December.
Councilmembers James Johnson and Gary DeLong have made an important recommendation of their own, relating to employee pensions. The councilmembers are suggesting that the City Council adopt a resolution stating opposition to retroactive pension benefits, that will then be communicated to statewide representatives in Sacramento. Currently, their item states, employees can retroactively increase the pension benefits they earn for time already served. “Retroactive changes in compensation or benefits should generally be prohibited,” the item reads. The issue known as “pension spiking” is currently being heard in a state appellate court but Johnson and DeLong propose official opposition as a statement to California legislators.
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