The Concord City Council took small steps this week to save money by cutting their own salaries, and those of top city managers.
By a 5-0 vote, council members voted to slash their own pay by 10 percent, from $1,352 per month to $1,216.80. The council also voted to cut by 5 percent the salaries of top city executives, including City Manager Valerie Barone, City Attorney Susanne Brown and police Chief Mark Bustillos, as well as other executive management employees, non-sworn managers and confidential employees.
The salary cuts, combined with scheduled furloughs and 401(k) contribution cuts together, would amount to an approximate 9 percent cut in overall compensation through June 2021, a city report says.
With the council members’ reductions, the city will save approximately $12,770 through fiscal year 2020-21. The executive/managerial/confidential employee cuts total $1.575 million through June 2021.
“We were already facing substantial financial challenges before this (coronavirus) event,” Concord finance director Karan Reid said Tuesday. “And now the situation will likely get worse.”
The overall estimated reductions to Concord’s general fund revenues are estimated to be between 7.3 and 12.8 percent for fiscal year 2019-20 and between 13.1 and 20.8 percent for fiscal year 2020-21. Reid said city sales tax revenue is expected to drop up to 22 percent by June, and by 32 percent by June 2021.
The city is aiming for a 20 percent reserve by June 2021, which will require between $11 million and $24 million in either cuts or in new revenue sources.
Some cuts have already been made; city departments have already come up with $2.56 million in savings. But Barone told the council Tuesday that without significant outside help – perhaps some direct payments from a second massive federal aid package, which are far from certain – the city may well have to make unpopular service cuts before the end of June.
On the other hand, Reid said the projected budget numbers could change significantly, based largely on how soon the shelter-in-place order is lifted and how incrementally various sectors of the area economy rebound.
Lars???
Are you happy now Lars?
Turn n Burn: Why should Lars be happy? Not to be ungrateful, but the token amount is but a drop in the bucket.
Why? Because the Unions are a HUGE problem. The Unions are operating as a corporation. As money churning as any factory or monopoly.
I brought this to Lar’s attention on the Local site, but heard nothing back from him which is no surprise.
Just a reminder that Concord’s police department spending per capita is astronomically high compared to other California cities of similar population, and in fact most cities in the entire U.S.
I hope you realize the City of Concord is the largest city in the county, so that might account for their experiences.
Cutting 5% from the City Manager and City Attorney’s $300,000 salary is a token cut. If the City really wants to get to a 20% reserve by June of next year (I believe 17% is the mandate) then major service cuts and layoffs are on their way.
There is generally fun banter on Claycord, it’s great. I’m glad Claycord is addressing the seriousness of lost sales taxes and revenue that is going to be clobbering Contra Costa county and it’s cities in the months to come and likely the next few years. I feel this is a very serious topic as many of our lives could be damaged significantly. $1.5 million is a drop in the bucket. It’ll get worse.
As revenue (taxes) for cities and counties begins to shrink how will it affect governing agencies?
Businesses are closing (loss of sales tax revenue). Businesses and home owners who were barely making ends meet will have to close (loss of revenue). Jobs lost and unemployment claims on the rise means more and more people receiving benefits while the money to replenish those funds decreases. As people leave expensive California property taxes won’t be paid (loss of revenue). Could the cushy housing market fall ill for a few years?
Here is how a journalist describes it: https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/far-worse-come-covid-19-collapse-state-local-governments.
Per transparentcalifornia.com (regarding salaries)
Concord: https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2018/concord/
Pleasant Hill: https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2018/pleasant-hill/
Walnut Creek: https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2018/walnut-creek/
Contra Costa County: https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2018/contra-costa-county/
Pensions will be on the chopping block.
It’s sad that some of the unrepresented staff has to be cut while the greedy unions refuse to make any concessions. They need to do some in house cleaning with the police management staff who are overpaid and incompetent. Everyone should share in the salary cuts, including police.
There are 200 city employees making over $150,000+.not counting cops. Does Concord really need that fat a layer of bureaucracy. What do these people do that can’t be done for 30% less? What do they have to show for such a fortune? City Planning is a cush Ponzi scheme. But they always threaten to take services away from the citizenry first.
Exactly…not counting cops. When you visit the http://www.transparentcalifornia.com website for Concord you’ll see the VAST VAST majority of top earners, over $200,000+/year are police. Also, remember, police get 3% of their highest income year for every year worked, meaning if they work 33 years they get 99% of their highest year. So an officer making $250,000/year gets that amount for as long as they live. So you join the force at 25, work 33 years, retire at 58 and get one-quarter million per year as long as you live. It’s like winning the lottery for $250,000 every year. Anyone want to discuss the two or three officers who have already retired that we’re paying currently for their pensions as well? We taxpayers are paying about $500,000 to $750,000 a year for each position on the force. Look at the link almost all highest paid government officials are police. In Monterey County, it’s almost all medical staff. Why the difference???
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Your calculations are incorrect. There are several public employee retirement systems. The majority go off of base salary and possibly incentive pay if its built into the labor contract. The most common retirement percentages are 3%@50, 3%@55, and 2.7%@57. Overtime earnings do not apply to the retirement earnings. Another point is that it is generally cheaper to pay an employee overtime than hire additional employees. A significant cost for the city could be in the retiree benefits that may be offered such as health care. I am not familiar with Concord’s labor contracts, but I do know the retiree salaries you report are not what the city is paying. The cap is 90% with 30 years of service under the 3%@50 and that is the best of the above mentioned retirement packages (again, overtime is not eligible for this). All of this is public record and is readily available along with more information to answer any questions you may have regarding what the city is paying for a retiree.
Your comment about highest paid are police does not reflect the low staffing in Law Enforcement or the hundreds of additional hours they work 24/7/365, rain or shine (or COVID). Additionally there could be grant funded overtime/positions that is tax payer money, but not from the city’s general fund.
@PERS,
Thank you for interjecting some facts into the BS-fest here.
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We were already facing substantial financial challenges before this (coronavirus) event,” Concord finance director Karan Reid said Tuesday. “And now the situation will likely get worse.”
Wonder if they would’ve so graciously (haha) cut their wages if the pandemic didn’t hit. I think not.
WHY were salaries so big for city officials to begin with, . . .
a case of good-ole-boys ? ? ?
After all it’s not like city council members, are spending their own money . . . .
OG – I retired from the City around 2002, I can’t answer your question but I can offer some background.
In the early 1990’s the feminist movement was in full swing and the public elected an all female City Council. The Council fired the City Manager and replaced him with Rita Harden. The new C.M. was then directed to replace all existing department heads with women. This was accomplished with the exception of the Finance Director who was retained. The C.M. then hired a consultant to do a “Comparative Worth” study meant to equalize skills vs. wages independent of gender. I don’t remember seeing the report (I was just an hourly worker) but the result was pay cuts for some and increases for others. One example was that an administrative secretary was considered equivalent to an automotive mechanic. You can see where this went. As a side note there was a lot of strange politics going on in Concord, making news every day. Concord was the laughing stock of the Bay area and Channel 7 kept a full time news bureau in town.
A start but cut more.Its about time the public stops paying for public workers retirement and benefits.Let them pay for there own like most of us.
I am sorry to see anyone’s pay cut if s/he is till working. I am on the BOD of a non-profit. We have only one paid position. That person is facing new challenges every day during this shut-down of many services. I voted to keep his salary as is.