Mayor Johnson urges pension talks to save Sacramento police jobs
Published: Wednesday, Jun. 29, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
One by one, Sacramento police officers handed in their badges this week, victims of another wretched budget at City Hall.
And for their union, Mayor Kevin Johnson had a message.
In his strongest words to date on the subject, Johnson said Tuesday that city cops must discuss contributing to their pensions in order to save 42 police officers from being laid off.
Dozens more crime scene investigators, community service officers and administrative staff members in the Police Department are also losing their jobs.
With just two days left in the fiscal year, there is little chance that an agreement on salary concessions could be reached before the police layoffs go into effect.
But the mayor said that he and other members of the City Council are "desperately reaching out" to the police union, and he is hopeful the effort will continue into summer.
Johnson said it is "unrealistic to think there won't be real discussions about pension reform."
"We do not want the public to be caught up in a stalemate," the mayor said.
The layoffs create a difficult situation for Johnson. He has been strongly supported by the public safety unions and has said he wants the city to have two police officers per 1,000 residents.
After this round of cuts, the city would need to add roughly 275 cops to get to that ratio.
So far, the police union has not agreed to open its contract, which runs until 2013.
Police officers and firefighters do not pay into their CalPERS retirement funds. It's a contract arrangement that the City Council has agreed to in the past but is now seeking to undo as a cost-saving measure.
Six council members – Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Jay Schenirer, Kevin McCarty, Bonnie Pannell and Darrell Fong – voted for a budget package that included the police cuts.
The mayor and council members Angelique Ashby and Steve Cohn voted against the plan.
In voting for the budget, the six council members made it clear they wanted long-term budget solutions – including changes in pension contributions – and not one-year salary concessions.
According to city budget officials, if police officers and firefighters contributed 4 percent of their salaries into their CalPERS accounts – the same amount that most other city workers pay – it would save the city more than $4 million a year.
Top city management officials also do not contribute to their pensions.
Brent Meyer, the head of the police union, said that even if police officers paid 9 percent of their salaries into their pensions, it would save the city just $5.2 million – less than half the amount being cut from the police budget.
Those savings might spare the 42 police officers being laid off, but community service officers and other employees would still lose their jobs, he said.
"We're interested in meaningful discussions, but we want to save everybody," Meyer said.
Meyer said the union was open to discussing pension changes when it last agreed to salary concessions in 2009, but that city management shied away from the issue.
He said the union is "not ignorant to the fact that the world is changing and we have to change with it."
If the police union agreed to pay into their retirement plans, Johnson said he was hopeful the City Council would agree to match that concession with one-time funding.
Several council members, however, have said they are reluctant to touch the city's economic reserve fund.
And for their union, Mayor Kevin Johnson had a message.
In his strongest words to date on the subject, Johnson said Tuesday that city cops must discuss contributing to their pensions in order to save 42 police officers from being laid off.
Dozens more crime scene investigators, community service officers and administrative staff members in the Police Department are also losing their jobs.
With just two days left in the fiscal year, there is little chance that an agreement on salary concessions could be reached before the police layoffs go into effect.
But the mayor said that he and other members of the City Council are "desperately reaching out" to the police union, and he is hopeful the effort will continue into summer.
Johnson said it is "unrealistic to think there won't be real discussions about pension reform."
"We do not want the public to be caught up in a stalemate," the mayor said.
The layoffs create a difficult situation for Johnson. He has been strongly supported by the public safety unions and has said he wants the city to have two police officers per 1,000 residents.
After this round of cuts, the city would need to add roughly 275 cops to get to that ratio.
So far, the police union has not agreed to open its contract, which runs until 2013.
Police officers and firefighters do not pay into their CalPERS retirement funds. It's a contract arrangement that the City Council has agreed to in the past but is now seeking to undo as a cost-saving measure.
Six council members – Sandy Sheedy, Rob Fong, Jay Schenirer, Kevin McCarty, Bonnie Pannell and Darrell Fong – voted for a budget package that included the police cuts.
The mayor and council members Angelique Ashby and Steve Cohn voted against the plan.
In voting for the budget, the six council members made it clear they wanted long-term budget solutions – including changes in pension contributions – and not one-year salary concessions.
According to city budget officials, if police officers and firefighters contributed 4 percent of their salaries into their CalPERS accounts – the same amount that most other city workers pay – it would save the city more than $4 million a year.
Top city management officials also do not contribute to their pensions.
Brent Meyer, the head of the police union, said that even if police officers paid 9 percent of their salaries into their pensions, it would save the city just $5.2 million – less than half the amount being cut from the police budget.
Those savings might spare the 42 police officers being laid off, but community service officers and other employees would still lose their jobs, he said.
"We're interested in meaningful discussions, but we want to save everybody," Meyer said.
Meyer said the union was open to discussing pension changes when it last agreed to salary concessions in 2009, but that city management shied away from the issue.
He said the union is "not ignorant to the fact that the world is changing and we have to change with it."
If the police union agreed to pay into their retirement plans, Johnson said he was hopeful the City Council would agree to match that concession with one-time funding.
Several council members, however, have said they are reluctant to touch the city's economic reserve fund.
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