Honorable Council Members,
My apologies for not being able to attend the study event related to the City’s pension issues. I had a previously scheduled
event.
I speak as a private citizen, but also want to provide the experience I have gathered as a 9 year member of the West Bay Sanitary
District.
I’d like to offer several recommendations:
·Do what you can regarding CALPERS, no matter how small.
·Limit salary increases, and give improved Non-PERSable benefits
·Restructure your salary scales
The first area of action you can take is to focus on the employees whose benefits are the MAJOR cause of the pension issue. I do
not have the City’s PERS statistics before me, but I am confident that over 70% of the City’s pension problem is attached to
police retirement costs. Go where the money is and start chipping away.
You will remember about a decade ago the citizens of Menlo Park voted by a majority of almost 70% for Measure “L”, which raised
the retirement formula for ALL EMPOYEES EXCEPT SAFETY EMPOYEES. The unions threw their many lawyers at Measure “L”, trying to
remove it from the ballot. THEY FAILED. The courts rebuffed them and the measure passed. In fact, I remember talking to a city
maintenance employee in Fremont Park as I was advocating for Measure “L”. That city employee asked, “why are you going after us?
We’re not the problem. The Police are the biggest part of the pension problem. We all know that.”
The city manager at that time declared the measure would only make minor changes and he did not want the citizens to vote on it.
Here we are a decade later, that manager is gone and the impact of the changes is growing.
It’s now time to apply the same type of change on the police. The Council can draft a measure similar to Measure “L” that will
apply to the police and place it on the 2020 ballot. Do what you can. Chip away.
At West Bay Sanitary District (WBSD) we have acted to protect the citizens / owners of our service by:
·Providing reasonable annual increases,
·Changing the pay scales from having 5% steps to 2.5% steps,
·Generously increasing health care benefits, and
·Instituting a bonus program based on measurable productivity measurements.
The key to each of these changes is that employees are rewarded with NON-PERSABLE income
I would invite members of the Council (not your staff) to visit with the WBSD board members to discuss how the City may be able to
consider these changes.
Edward Moritz
