DEAR EDITOR:
Eighty percent is too much! Eighty percent of the City of
Gilroy’s 2003-2004 general fund budget is projected to be spent on
police and fire services for the city.
DEAR EDITOR:
Eighty percent is too much! Eighty percent of the City of Gilroy’s 2003-2004 general fund budget is projected to be spent on police and fire services for the city. Public safety is the most important city service, but the costs have soared out of control, and as a result, other city services go wanting.
The reasons are three-fold: the unions, binding arbitration and CALPERS. The unions have done an excellent job of protecting their interests and the interests of their members. Firefighter and police benefits are significantly more generous than those received by other public sector employees and exceed anything available in the private sector today.
Public safety is a popular cause, and they have parlayed this with sheer numbers to become a political powerhouse. These unions know what it takes to get somebody elected, and they provide copious amounts of money and campaign workers to aid the candidacies of the people they endorse.
Binding arbitration prevents public safety employees from striking, but has resulted in huge contract awards for the unions. In fact, the city has never won an arbitration hearing with the police or firefighters unions.
Retirement benefits are provided through CALPERS, the California Public Employee Retirement System. The benefits are guaranteed, and the CALPERS board is not accountable to anybody. If my 401(k) goes down in value, as it has over the past few years, I lose. If CALPERS investments go down in value, as they have dramatically over the past few years, the taxpayers lose, because we have to make up the difference.
In 1999, the firefighters wanted to increase staffing from three to four firefighters per fire truck. The City balked; the arbitrator awarded them the increased staffing.The cost is over $750,000 per year, which is more than enough to fully staff the new Sunrise Fire Station. Instead, that station will initially have limited emergency medical response only.
The increase in staffing was primarily based on the standards of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The NFPA standard was increased from three to four, not because of statistical, actuarial, or economic studies, but because over 2,000 union firefighters showed up at an NFPA convention in Anaheim to cast a vote and create the new “standard.”
The last police contract negotiation/arbitration occurred during the boom days of 2000-2001. Key amongst their “wins” was an increase in the guaranteed retirement benefit from 2percent of their last year’s salary per year of service, to 3 percent. Now the firefighters want the same deal.
A Gilroy police officer that starts his or her career with the department at age 24, can retire at the age of 54 and begin immediately collecting 90 percent of their last paycheck. To put the amount in perspective, many retired Gilroy police and fire personnel are collecting $70,000+ per year. They also get annual cost of living increases and pay next to nothing for medical benefits. And they are young enough to join another department or start a new career.
What could we do if less than 80 percent of the budget were going to public safety? How about fix all the sidewalks – this year? Rebuild downtown? Renovate and maintain our existing parks and streets? Expand senior and youth programming? Expand economic development, tourism and other programs that bring jobs, customers and taxes to town?
Public safety is vitally important, but 80 percent of the general fund budget is just too much.
Terry Feinberg, Gilroy, Chamber of Commerce governmental review
Submitted Friday, July 11 to ed****@****ic.com
