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Fog/Mist Long Beach City Council takes a pay cut
Exempt employees, council members to pay into their health care plans
The Long Beach City Council approved two resolutions at Tuesday’s meeting, one requiring exempt employees to pay a portion of their health care premiums, the other to cut council members’ salaries by 10 percent.
With the cash-strapped city in a “fiscal crisis,” and as city officials work with the unions to reach a number of concessions, members of the City Council voted unanimously to reduce their compensation by 10 percent, effective immediately, through the end of fiscal 2012-13. Council members earn just below $20,000 per year.
City Council Vice President Len Torres and Councilman John McLaughlin told the Herald last week that they were both backing the effort, at a time when the city is considering layoffs and asking union members to pay a portion of their health insurance premiums.
“Before we can ask anyone for anything we have to do the same thing,” McLaughlin said.
Additionally, City Manager Jack Schnirman held a meeting last week with all exempt management employees, where he announced that exempt employees would begin paying 10 percent of their health care costs starting in fiscal 2012-13. That measure passed by a 3-1 vote, with Councilman John McLaughlin casting the opposing vote and Councilman Mike Fagen abstaining.
According to the resolution, exempt employees “shall be entitled to the same maternity leave, hospitalization, major medical and prescription, dental and optical plans, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment and disability insurance available to civil service employees pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement then in effect. Exempt employees shall be responsible for 10 percent of their annual health care premium, to be paid with pre-tax dollars, to be deducted from their bi-weekly paycheck.”
“We wouldn’t ask the unions to do anything we wouldn’t do ourselves,” Schnirman said. “We feel that the right thing to do is show some leadership before we ask for contributions from our labor partners that we’d be willing to do so ourselves.”
