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March 31, 2008
Unsustainable Practices
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| Image: Chicoan's beware, the Galaxie rides again.
Late last week I received in the car parts I'd ordered. I've probably got another few summer weekends of work before my old car is back in solid shape. But the parts are installed and the car is back together now. It feels good to be less sustainable than I was over the last couple of weeks. For some reason the mailboxes in my neighborhood are not on individual homes. All of my neighbors have to walk to a central location to drop off letters. It's very new urban. Now that my car is fixed I can drive there. This way neighbors avoid me and I can get the mail in just my underwear and a shirt. Driving around in my underwear makes me happy, and knowing my car costs less than a downtown art bench makes me very un-smug. It's nice to be back. |
| More Unsustainable Practices: Speaking of unsustainable... Councilor Larry Wahl has requested that City union negotiations be made public (see E-R Jenn Klein article here). I half suspect his request will be ignored by some of the other councilors. From the article... In his proposal, both the city and its bargaining units would publicly disclose any proposed changes and increases at the beginning of the process during a public hearing where members of the public could ask questions and make statements. Then once negotiations were finished, a completed contract would be presented during another public hearing. " It's an effort to create some transparency so the residents and the taxpayers of Chico know what both sides have made available in the bargaining process. Hence they would have some feel how much people are being paid and what incentives are being made," Wahl said. Wahl is correct in suggesting that this change in procedure occur. There are no legal, or good, reasons to keep all of the negotiations secret. If the city was not in a budget crisis I think you could argue "what's the point". But after the firefighters secured a 25% raise over 6 years with negotiations ending during a budget crisis I think the public should be skeptical of the process. The Management Group gets a 2-5% raise (average is around 4%) every year from their Merit Pay system. This means that traditionally the people that negotiate with the unions (on the public's behalf) are doing so with an ongoing 24% increase in pay every 6 years. One could argue that the other unions (Police, Fire, Service) are just trying to keep up with management. And then there would be a natural desire for management pay to stay above other city jobs. This creates a natural upward spiral in pay. It would seem that a check or balance is missing from the process, and public scrutiny might be helpful. City Staff claim that the recent union negotiations were a give-and-take process where the city received concessions of monetary value in return for pay raises. That is probably true, but it is so convoluted that only people in the Finance Department can fully understand the implications. The public should have the opportunity to weigh in during these union negotiations. There should at least be an opportunity to question the logic behind the agreements before they become contracts. Larry Wahl again deserves credit for looking out for the taxpayer's dollar. I hope the rest of the council can see the value in making these procedures open to the public. If they don't I'll be left wondering what there is to hide. |
 CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Sean "S" Baber, who Granted us his knowledge today. See comments below for the answer. |
Posted by Lon at March 31, 2008 07:16 AM
Comments
CIC - Looks like Lee & Grant at Appomattox.
Posted by: Sean at March 31, 2008 07:22 AM
Reminds me of the old bumper sticker...
"If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalks."
Larry is on to something here.
When I was on the Art Commission, I found that most of the problems with our public art program would be solved with better transparency with the process. At least it would be easier to see where the problems really are, if they even exist. This works out better for everyone. It builds trust with the citizens that participate and gives positive attention to the things that obviously work well. At the same time it would expose the things that don't.
It's too bad the City's Art Program isn't setting the progressive, inclusive, up with the times example and leading the way with this. First we just have to figure out what the "process" is.
It's easy and inexpensive to display everything on line these days. I think the people that do a great job would welcome this.
Posted by: Gregg Payne at March 31, 2008 08:50 AM
"Wahl is correct in suggesting that this change in procedure occur. There are no legal, or good, reasons to keep all of the negotiations secret."
Yes but if we do that, we can't keep the council on 2 year "double secret probation".
Posted by: Anthony at March 31, 2008 10:05 AM
Anthony,
Good point. I've heard that Dean Wormer has ordered Omega president Gregg Marmalard and cohort Doug Neidermeyer to find a way to get rid of the Council once and for all.
We'll see if it works out.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at March 31, 2008 10:16 AM
Gregg,
Now you know what happened to my shocks.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at March 31, 2008 10:17 AM
Lon,
Now that my car is fixed I can drive there. This way neighbors avoid me and I can get the mail in just my underwear and a shirt.
Don't let the lack of an operational Galaxie stop you from running errands in just a shirt an underwear. Summer is almost here. Pants are so 2007.
Posted by: Brian Ray at March 31, 2008 10:46 AM
Brian,
I couldn't agree more. No pants is just another aspect of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle for me. Less fabric on me means more denim for future generations. I'm all about the Peak Denim Movement.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at March 31, 2008 12:51 PM
Sean,
The CIC is one of the most significant Union negotiations in American history. The Confederacy surrendering.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at March 31, 2008 01:00 PM
Lon,
Those pesky unions have been kicking tail for a long time now. Good thing you're tight with CPD, that license plate on the Galaxie doesn't look legal.
Posted by: Sean at March 31, 2008 02:19 PM
Sean,
Tight with the PD just means they know where to find me when something goes wrong.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at March 31, 2008 02:25 PM
Lon,
Long time reader, first time writer. You need to re-examine the management group merit pay system. First, union members are guaranteed their raise each year, managers are not. Second, the management group is just trying to stay above what the unions are guaranteed in negotiations.
If your goal is to retain competent managers that are willing to work long non-compensated hours in addition to have all of the responsibility, they need to make more than the personnel they supervise.
Competitive salaries are also the means to attract (union members) qualified management staff for recruitment when management retires.
Posted by: Adam at April 1, 2008 06:49 AM
Hey Adam,
Thanks for posting. I have taken a pretty good look at the Merit Pay system. One thing I didn't mention is that the management group voluntarily gave up some of their merit pay this year to help with the budget.
I understand both the value and desire to have merit pay. But virtually everyone that qualifies for merit pay does receive some. The amount can be no more than 5% of their pay, but that increase is used as the base pay for the next year. I seem to recall the average award as something like 4%.
One employee gave me their list of "merit" projects. Some of those projects seemed like they would be part of that employees job and not an extra merit project.
I don't disagree with your last sentence, but I would add the words "when affordable" to it. That describes our specific problem in my mind.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at April 1, 2008 07:47 AM
Adam,
Here's a post I did on Merit Pay some time ago. I think in this post I tried to just give details and in the post after it I gave my opinion on merit pay.
http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2007/11/merit_play.html
Lon
Posted by: Lon at April 1, 2008 10:34 AM