Councilman Suggests Ways to Reduce City Employees' Compensation

City Council members discussed ways to achieve a more sustainable budget Tuesday as staffers informed the panel about how the city negotiates salary contracts with public employee unions.

Councilman John Mirisch asked to have the issue placed on the study session agenda after in the Beverly Hills Courier spotlighted what the paper characterized as inordinately high , benefits and other financial perks garnered by city workers. The Courier also reported that the city has one public employee for every 34 residents, which it said is more staff members than any other city in Southern California.

"In many instances ... we've reached a level where salaries are out of whack with where they should be—and excessive," Mirisch said. The councilman was quick to clarify that "this is not the fault of the employees." 

"Ultimately the buck stops at the council level," he said. "The council needs to take full responsibility and needs to take action to correct it."

Mirisch referenced a slide in Chief Financial Officer Scott Miller's presentation that showed taxpayer-funded salaries tripling in the next 40 years. He also suggested ways to trim employee costs, which constitute the largest expense in the city's budget. The councilman proposed:

• Eliminating car allowances
• Limiting the number of vacation days an employee can accrue and banning the "cash-out of unused vacation days"
• Requiring sick days be used only in the event of illness and not as additional vacation time off
• Eliminating overtime or reducing it significantly
• Ending the city's complete financing of employee pensions and requiring workers to pay a contribution to their retirement funds
• Ending the city's total financing of workers' post-employment health care
• Postponing salary increases for employees who earn compensation that a market survey shows to be double what workers in comparable cities receive
• Instituting a general hiring freeze

Miller's presentation explained the "elements of total compensation" that put Beverly Hills city salaries beyond market rates:

• Monthly base salary
• Retirement benefits
• Medical, dental and vision benefits
• Long-term disability and life insurance
• The monetary value of vacation and holiday pay, as well as administrative leave and other perks such as car allowances
• Deferred compensation benefits

Vice Mayor William Brien agreed with Mirisch that employees should not be blamed for compensation contracts achieved through collective bargaining. But he did challenge the notion that Beverly Hills is excessively overstaffed.

"Are we out of alignment with other cities?" Brien asked. "Not based purely on the residential population, but based on the total population of people that come and work and shop and tour in this city compared with other cities."

Brien and Mayor Barry Brucker said that although Beverly Hills residents number about 33,000, the population swells to at times more than 250,000 during business hours on weekdays, requiring a larger staff of employees to provide adequate service.

In response to a question from Brien, Miller reported that the city has cut 101 jobs in the last three and a half years.

Brucker took issue with the Courier's report that stated most Beverly Hills employees get as many as 13 weeks paid vacation each year. The paper arrived at the 13-week number by applying to the total the one day off per week employees who work four 10-hour days get, or the one day off every two weeks taken by employees working eight nine-hour days plus one eight-hour shift to equal 80 hours during a two-week pay cycle.

"Anyone saying that the city is giving you a freebie or a vacation day simply is not being responsible," Brucker said.

All council members agreed the city needs a fresh, ongoing assessment of its approach to employee compensation and contract negotiations.  

Be sure to follow Beverly Hills Patch on Twitter and "Like" us on Facebook.