I know I’m not a “Human Resources” expert, but I think city employees are overpaid. When you’re paying a guy $80,000 a year to collect change from parking meters, you have to ask yourself, “am I getting a good deal?”
The management employees’ contract proposals have been made available here:
http://chico-ca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=92&meta_id=42619
Read it yourself. Yes, it’s true that management employee have taken pay cuts over the last few years – I’d call them “adjustments.” They are still making almost twice the median income, and probably at least twice what they would be making in the private sector, if they could find jobs in the private sector.
They want a step raise system by which their salaries are automatically raised by 2.5 percent a year. Who gets that? Only public employees would have the gall.
And sure, they’re giving up their workman’s comp payments – because we will still pay over 90 percent of their pensions and benefits.
This is not as bad as the cop contracts that ask for 5 percent raises, but this kind of “Me Me Me” is going to sink our ship. According to John Chiang’s new charts, here:
https://bythenumbers.sco.ca.gov/finance-explorer/view-by-city
Chico has over $70 million in “liabilities”. Brian Nakamura said our pension liability was over $60 million – I think he said exactly $68 million. When I looked at the chart, it looked like the figure was going down for a couple of years after 2010, but now it’s headed right up again, going from $75 million in 2012 to $75.8 in 2013.
Meanwhile, Mark Sorensen plays his fiddle over our burning ship. I like to make salads with my metaphors, it’s so hard to choose one when they all fit our perfectly disastrous scenario.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
And management is overworked, they tell me. I believe it, actually. But the solution is taking a cut in pay to hire more clerical staff to take some of the load off. A rule of thumb is if you make over $100,000 in total compensation (wages & benefits), no complaining allowed. If not, would you like to hear about how sometimes people don’t appreciate it when you do surgery to save their own teeth for them, people show up late, Gov Brown cut (that’s a real cut, not a cut of an expected pay increase) last year our payments per procedure 10%, over the past 10 years our fee schedule has been REDUCED about 18%, add inflation adjustment that is approaching 50% cut, and now my city is on life support because public employees think it is normal to make twice what public service dental surgeons make……….I didn’t think you wanted to hear about complaining by people (like myself) who make over $100,000.. And why do I work 260 days a year, and fire works 150?……. And whats a holiday? I only get Christmas, Christmas Eve, 4th of July, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving.
Thanks Michael, good point well made.
I love my dentist and his staff, even when the bills are big – he’s so apologetic. These guys are just shameless.
Every time these people get raises doesn’t that increase the cost of their pensions since their pensions are based on their salaries?
The pensions are already unsustainable and they are making them even more so.
I don’t see people in the private sector getting these kinds of raises or any raises at all but I’m reading more and more stories about gummit employees getting raises.
Thanks for chiming in Bob – I am so disgusted right now, I can’t really offer anything intelligent. When, in good faith, I’ve asked them, “if you could take those kind of raises in ‘good times,’ why didn’t you save your money so you could cut in bad times?” I realize, they want to steal, they don’t care about us, trying to rationalize with these people is like trying to tell Templeton, “that egg is rotten you idiot!”