Labor Cost Reductions to be Prime Topic at June 21 City Commission Meeting
City Commission to Review Manager's Goals & Objectives in June 14 Meeting
May 30, 2010
By: Dave Rogers
Commissioners are asked to submit cost-saving goals and objectives to the manager's office by June 9 so a master list can be prepared.
The city manager's contention that city employees are overpaid has resulted in a rare journalistic initiative -- publishing the salaries of all city employees.
The Bay City Times has obtained the salaries of all city employees and posted them online at mlive.com/bay-city.
Readers are asked to "judge for yourself" whether salaries are too high. The Times also has posted its calculation of what city employees' salaries would be with a 5 percent cut, as suggested by Mr. Belleman.
In the case of the manager, his salary with a voluntary 5 percent cut would go from $94,744 to $90,006 per year.
The last time public officials' salaries were published as a group was in the 1980s when Times Editor Thomas E. Fallon obtained the salaries of city, county, schools, colleges and other public bodies. The several page listing of names, job titles and pay raised a storm of controversy, mainly involving employees comparing their pay with that of colleagues.
The manager is going head-to-head with all employee groups and individuals by calling for a 10.8 percent decrease in labor costs in an attempt to meet a $1.66 million general fund deficit.
The City Commission will present their proposed goals and objectives for the city manager and review the proposals at the June 14 finance and policy committee meeting.
"Since we were unable to cover the City Manager goal topic at the May 26, 2010 Finance/Policy - Budget Work Session, Commission President (Chris) Shannon and I discussed scheduling this topic as the sole topic for the June 14 Finance/Policy Committee Meeting," the manager wrote in his bi-weekly memo.
"In preparation for this meeting, I would ask that you would forward to my office your individual list of goals/objectives that you would like to have the entire commission consider in formulating the City Manager Goals and Objectives for FY 2010/2011 to my office.
"I will ask my staff to compile a master list of every suggested goal/objective on a single document for us to use in determining which goals and objectives will be formally adopted by the City Commission."
Commissioners are asked to submit goals and objectives to the manager's office by June 9 so a master list can be prepared.
"The Commission action item would involve modifications to the Non-Union Schedule of Benefits," said the manager. "The FY 2011 budget will reflect and incorporate these changes and related savings.
"In essence, the Non-Union proposal included acceptance of the high deductible health care plan, increased contributions to their retirement program resulting in less employer contributions, elimination of vacation payout, elimination of fitness membership reimbursement, up to 80 hours of furlough time, and an increased premium contribution towards health care."
Additionally, the Schedule of Non-Union Benefits would include modifications to severance pay from the current 4 months to 10 months with the understanding that all salaried non-union employees will be classified as "at-will" and modification to bereavement leave by adding certain extended family members which brings them in line with all other city employees.
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