Proposal to Limit Management Salary Increases to CPI — Dies in Committee
New to Long Beach City government is the recent practice of agenda items popping up in Council Committees sans the Council referring the matter to the Committe for discussion.
Consider my recent proposal to limit management salary increases to no more than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — cost of living. I brought it to the Council — which appears not to be in the mood for any cost cutting proposals or seeking tradtionally untouchable sources of revenue — and so it was moved to receive and file the proposal because I was told “behind rail” — “Gerrie we are already discussing this in the Budget Committee.”
How it ever got to the Budget Committee — I don’t know. But it did and was promptly voted down on the basis that it isn’t feasible to tie salary increases to cost of living…excuse me? Public employee salary increases are often tied to cost of living rates.
With the city in the financial situation it is — there is no excuse not to put a brake on salary increases for the highest salaries. Especially when we still haven’t concluded salary negotiations for Fire and the non-public safety employees who make up the majority of city workers.
The residents of the 5th Council District pay a tremendous amount of property taxes — and they deserve to have those property taxes spent in a responsible manner.
