Huntington Beach Ca Government Employees Wages And Salaries

Now in its 14th month without a contract, the Huntington Beach Firefighters Assn. is turning to residents in hopes of turning up pressure on the city. Union leaders recently pulled out of the ongoing arbitration process, angered that the city has declined to discuss a tentative proposal to eliminate three firefighters and four paramedic vans.

The Huntington Beach City Council approved a three-year labor agreement with the Huntington Beach Marine Safety Officers' Assn. this week. The agreement includes a 10% salary increase retroactive to Sept. 30 and a 3% salary increase beginning Sept. 29. In 2002, the association will receive an additional 2% increase and a fourth increase of 3% in 2003. The total cost of the agreement will be $525,000.

Two arbitration hearings that had been scheduled this week between the city and its firefighters have been postponed at the request of union leaders. Hearings with state arbitrator Louis Zigman had been planned for today and Tuesday but were called off because the union's attorney has a scheduling conflict, said Curt Campbell, president of the Huntington Beach Firefighters Assn. The negotiations have been rescheduled for Sept. 7.

The City Council this week approved hourly wage increases for about 450 part-time employees. The bumps in pay range from 5.5% to 26.5% at an annual cost to the city of $300,000, according to a city memo dated Monday. The employees affected include parking attendants, library interns and police cadets. A cadet that used to make between $6.16 to $7.62 per hour will now make $8.03 to $9.95. The pay for a parking attendant will rise from as much as $8.97 to as much as $11.72.

He was a chubby kid, an Army brat with big glasses. The other kids called Leon McKinney "four eyes" and "butterball." Until one day, in fifth grade, he beat up the playground bully, and no one bothered him again. "I hate it when people try to intimidate me," said McKinney, now a 36-year-old self-employed aerospace consultant and local activist. "It never works. It just makes me mad, and whatever it was you wanted me to stop doing, I'm now going to do it twice."

Of the city's 1,017 employees, 162 had more than $100,000 each in total compensation last year, and the city paid nearly $5 million in overtime costs, a city report released this week showed. City Administrator Michael T.

About half of all city employees will receive a 2% pay raise for each of the next two years under an agreement approved by the City Council. The city will pay the 520 members of the Municipal Employees Assn., including librarians and janitors, a total of $433,000 for the increased salary and benefits, or about an $830 raise per employee annually, starting Dec. 27. Municipal employees had been working without a pay raise since 1994.

The president of the city's firefighters union, which has labored for nearly 20 months without a contract, took a swipe at top city officials this week while unhappy firefighters carried placards at City Hall and other public places. Union President Capt. Curt Campbell claimed that Fire Chief Michael Dolder and City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga are playing "word games" and allegedly plan to make Fire Department cuts while declaring an intent to retain current staffing levels.

City government is giving its employees champagne pay raises on a beer budget, a residents' group has charged. City officials, however, have denied the charge, saying the pay raises are a part of three-year contracts negotiated in 1990, before the onset of the economic recession. Huntington Beach Tomorrow on Monday night chastised the city for giving employees raises totaling 13.5% within the past two years.

After four months of studying the city's budget problems, a citizens' panel told the City Council on Tuesday that unless all city employees forgo a portion of a scheduled pay raise, the city must lay off 19 full-time workers to help offset a $5.6-million spending shortfall. In its primary recommendation to council members, the 11-member Budget Review Task Force proposed that the city save $1.7 million by reducing employees' pay raises this year to 2% from 5%.

About 500 part-time temporary and seasonal municipal employees will receive a 4% raise over the next 10 months, after going without a salary increase since 1991. The City Council this week unanimously approved a two-year contract agreement, which will go into effect Saturday. It will provide a 2% increase; an additional 2% will become effective Dec. 28.

About half of all city employees will receive a 2% pay raise for each of the next two years under an agreement approved by the City Council. The city will pay the 520 members of the Municipal Employees Assn., including librarians and janitors, a total of $433,000 for the increased salary and benefits, or about an $830 raise per employee annually, starting Dec. 27. Municipal employees had been working without a pay raise since 1994.

Of the city's 1,017 employees, 162 had more than $100,000 each in total compensation last year, and the city paid nearly $5 million in overtime costs, a city report released this week showed. City Administrator Michael T.

He was a chubby kid, an Army brat with big glasses. The other kids called Leon McKinney "four eyes" and "butterball." Until one day, in fifth grade, he beat up the playground bully, and no one bothered him again. "I hate it when people try to intimidate me," said McKinney, now a 36-year-old self-employed aerospace consultant and local activist. "It never works. It just makes me mad, and whatever it was you wanted me to stop doing, I'm now going to do it twice."

Saying the public has the right to know how much the city spends on employee salaries, Councilman David Sullivan has won support from his colleagues to force the release of pay figures. A critic of employee salaries, Sullivan asked the City Council this week to agree to release a list of employees receiving more than $75,000. Instead, the council agreed that the compensation packages--salary and benefits--be released for all city employees, but without their names.

A City Council member said Friday he will request salary information on all of the city's 1,102 full-time employees. Councilman Ralph Bauer said he will also ask the City Council at Tuesday's meeting to direct the Finance Board to conduct a review of all salaries and overtime practices.

Councilman David Sullivan said Friday he will propose that city employees take a 5% pay cut when the council meets Monday to consider making about $2 million in budget cuts. Sullivan said taxpayers have shouldered their share of earlier reductions in the $96-million general fund budget, and now it's time for the approximately 1,000 city employees to share the burden. Employees have received pay raises totaling 19% over the last three years at a cost of $14 million, he said.

The flap over city pay practices continued Thursday as critics assailed newly disclosed employee pay figures, a city councilman called for more details and the finance board chief urged a comprehensive study of city salaries. Some questioned why, in such an austere era for local governments, 25 Huntington Beach employees earned more than $126,000 in total compensation last year, with several earning $30,000 or more in overtime alone.

The city paid 25 of its employees more than $126,000 each in salary and benefits last year, with several Huntington Beach fire officials earning more than $30,000 a year in overtime pay alone. The top-paid employee was retiring Police Capt. James Price, whose total compensation topped $174,000, swelled by payouts for unused sick leave and vacation time. City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga came in second with total compensation of slightly more than $167,000.