Results tagged “Pat West” from Press Corps

City and union negotiators have reached a tentative contract agreement that presumably would delay contractual pay raises and avoid furloughs for members of Long Beach's largest employee union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

IAM spokeswoman Janet Schabow was tight-lipped in a brief conversation today, only divulging that the agreement had been reached Wednesday. However, she said IAM members still must approve the amended contract, which would then go to the City Council for approval. Schabow said the council will hear the details of the contract in closed session next Tuesday.

Time is running out for a deal to be reached. The IAM has postponed pay raises twice since the new fiscal year began Oct. 1 to give negotiations more time. Without pay concessions by the IAM, City Manager Pat West has said the IAM members will have to take 15 days of furloughs over the next year. The union represents 3,800 city workers.

I'm still digging on this story and I'll hopefully have more about it online by the end of the day and in Friday's Press-Telegram.

City of Long Beach negotiators and representatives of the city's largest employee union didn't reach a contract deal Thursday that is a necessary step to finish eliminating a projected deficit for the fiscal year that already has begun, according to union spokeswoman Christa Indriolo. As an alternative, the City Council is scheduled Tuesday to vote on enacting 15 days of unpaid furloughs over the next year for the 3,800 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

However, Indriolo said today that while no agreement has been reached, the union is willing to postpone raises that were scheduled for Oct. 1 until Nov. 1. No IAM membership vote is needed for this delay, she said, but if negotiations break down, then the pay raise would be enacted retroactively to Oct. 1.

That may not matter if the council approves the furloughs, which would do away with the 4 percent raise that workers are scheduled to get this year. The sticking point also happens to be the union's fear of furloughs -- the IAM wants a guarantee of no furloughs in the 2010 fiscal year in exchange for delaying the promised pay raises.

Indriolo said the two negotiating teams will meet again next week to continue their talks. For now, they have a three-week reprieve to try to hammer out a deal, but time is quickly running out.

It looks like contract negotiations with the city of Long Beach's largest employee union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, aren't going well.

City Manager Pat West is asking the City Council at next Tuesday's meeting to approve 15 days of unpaid furloughs over the next year for the 3,800 workers represented by IAM. The furloughs are necessary to cut $10.1 million from all city budgets, including $3.5 million from the general fund, according to a staff report. What that will mean for residents is unclear, since IAM workers make up the bulk of city employees and handle most of the day-to-day services. For the last five months, City Hall and most city offices were closed one Friday per month as every city employee other than public safety workers was forced to take furloughs.

Negotiations seem to be going better with the other employee associations. The police association has already inked a money-saving deal with the city. Tuesday's meeting agenda includes new memorandums of understanding with unions representing firefighters, prosecutors, attorneys, management, lifeguards and confidential workers that will avoid pay raises in this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, to keep the city's budget in the black.

The only employee association not mentioned in the agenda is the engineers union, with which city officials have said they are continuing to negotiate.

Police Chief Anthony Batts is officially out of Long Beach and on his way to his new gig running the Oakland Police Department. Well, not officially. His last day at work was on Friday, City Manager Pat West told me after Tuesday night's council meeting, but he is on vacation until his official last day on Oct. 19.

"Chief Batts has left the building," West said as he packed up to leave after a long day -- about 7 1/2 hours -- of City Council meetings.

 West said the city's three deputy police chiefs will rotate the chief's duties until Oct. 19, after which the rotation system may continue, or an interim chief may be named. West said he doesn't have a plan yet for beginning the search for Long Beach's next top officer.

In case you missed it, Batts is getting a hefty raise and some nice benefits in Oakland. Read my story about that here.

 

What may have begun as a clever political tactic is likely to be a celebratory event at Fire Station 18 on Sunday.

Last week, Councilman Gerrie Schipske announced the East Long Beach station would have an open house this weekend, right before the council is expected to approve the city budget next Tuesday. Under City Manager Pat West's original budget proposal, the station was to share a fire engine with Station 1 downtown, leaving the Eastside station empty during the day.

The open house may have been a tactic to draw attention to the issue and drum up community support before the council vote, and it is supposed to give the public a chance to sign a petition against the station's partial closure. But this Tuesday the council voted to restore the station's fire crew to full strength, a move that seems likely to get final passage next Tuesday. Sunday's open house should be a joyous event now.

The open house takes place from noon to 2 p.m. at 3361 Palo Verde Ave. Visitors can meet the firefighters and have cookies and lemonade.

They say an animal is most dangerous when cornered, and if that's the case, we better keep a few steps away from Long Beach's employee associations.

With furloughs already implemented, pay freezes or more furloughs on the horizon, and now the City Council deciding this week to open up discussions about reforming the costly pensions held by public employees, the unions are being threatened from all sides.

Last night at the 5th District community budget meeting, the Long Beach Firefighters Association bared its teeth as it faced attacks from political gadflies, who are starting to smell blood.

Many of the usual suspects who regularly hammer at the council and city management over workers' pay, pensions and making financially sound decisions in general were at the 5th District meeting in El Dorado Park Community Center. There was Larry Boland, a loud voice for pension reform who has dedicated much of his time to analyzing why Long Beach's pension costs have grown to $80 million citywide. Also among the crowd were the founding members of the Long Beach Taxpayers Association, Tom Stout and Kathy Ryan, and a few other critics.

They all railed against past city councils for approving pay raises and fat pensions for employees, against city management for letting it happen and against the unions for seeking the kinds of benefits that critics say few workers in the private sector enjoy.

Following a presentation by City Manager Pat West and Finance Director Lori Ann Farrell about the budget, Boland was the first to talk, and as he went on and on about pensions, Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske had to ask him to sit down and let others speak.

Then Ryan said that, as Long Beach faces 34 potential police officer layoffs and the partial closure of Fire Station 18 in East Long Beach, "We've priced ourselves out of the public safety market."

Firefighters Association leaders disputed these claims, saying that Long Beach firefighters are below the median pay of comparable California cities and that the Fire Department budget hasn't increased significantly in recent years. Things got tense as Rich Brandt, president of the Firefighters Association, was speaking. He suddenly turned to Stout, who had been grumbling under his breath, got right in his face and asked him if he had something to say. Stout didn't respond.

Ultimately, it took Schipske to calm things down again, and while a few 5th District residents asked questions or made comments, many of them seemed caught in the crossfire between gadflies, unions and city management as the debate escalated. My recommendation: When the growling starts, stay out of the way.

Read more about the Fire Department budget, how the department operates, and what it could be doing differently, better or more cheaply this Sunday at www.presstelegram.com.

 

Yesterday at the city's press conference for the proposed 2010 fiscal year budget, it was revealed that Long Beach Museum of Art officials had sent City Manager Pat West a letter saying that they don't owe the city a $3 million bond payment that must be made by Sept. 1.

In response, Mayor Bob Foster said the city can't afford to pay the $569,000 that it was expected to for the museum's operating expenses. The museum may get a cool breeze from its beachfront location, but things are definitely heating up. Click the link below to read the full text of the museum letter.

LBMA letter.pdf

Check out www.presstelegram.com later today for more in-depth coverage of the issue.

The city of Long Beach's long-awaited, much-dreaded and likely to be much controversial proposed budget for the 2010 fiscal year will be unveiled Thursday during a press conference at City Hall.

City Manager Pat West and Mayor Bob Foster will present the budget to members of the media. What is known is that the budget includes $20.3 million in cuts averaging 6 percent per department to help eliminate a $43.3 million general fund deficit. The remaining $23 million will be cut either through employee unions agreeing to forgo pay raises, or 26 days of furloughs or more possible layoffs, West has said.

That doesn't even count the additional millions of dollars that are expected to be lost from state take-aways. How that will be accounted for also remains to be seen.

The press conference will take place at 2 p.m. Thursday, so watch www.presstelegram.com for all of the budget news as soon as the conference is over.

Tonight the Long Beach City Council will consider declaring a fiscal emergency, which sounds important, but really means little, City Attorney Bob Shannon told me today.

"The simple purpose of it is to call attention to the fact that we are in dire straits here," Shannon said.

While Los Angeles has declared a fiscal emergency to allow it to enact furloughs and layoffs without working with employee unions, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has used fiscal emergencies to force the legislature to take action, Long Beach's resolution doesn't have the same effects, Shannon said.

The city enacted furloughs earlier this year, but did so after meeting and conferring with employee unions, Shannon said.

However, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents 3,800 nonmanagement and non-public safety city workers, filed a complaint in May with the state's Public Employment Relations Board protesting the furloughs.

Christa Indriolo, spokeswoman with the IAM, said she is concerned city officials will feel they have free rein because of the fiscal emergency declaration.

"We're fearful it will be used in a negative manner to furlough without negotiating," Indriolo said. "They imposed (furloughs) before, so why would we believe that they're not going to use this as a mechanism to impose concessions on our members?"

Shannon conceded that declaring a fiscal emergency could "strengthen our position" in handling appeals of furloughs, but said that wasn't the reason for the resolution.

"That is not the purpose here," Shannon said. "We tend to keep the employee organizations, no matter what happens, fully aware of what we tend to do and to talk to them and to tell them what we intend."

More furloughs are quite possibly on the way. City Manager Pat West is trying to get Long Beach's unions to forgo contractual pay raises. If a deal can't be reached, West has said all city employees, including police and firefighters, will have to take 26 days of unpaid furloughs.

The council meets tonight at 5 p.m. Watch it live at www.longbeach.gov.

The Long Beach City Council has been in its closed session since 4 p.m. this afternoon to talk about the city's negotiations to get pay raise concessions from the Police Officers Association and other employee unions. The city needs employees to forgo scheduled pay raises to cut $23 million from a $43.3 million budget deficit.

That's not unusual. The council's been having these closed sessions regularly for months. What is unusual is that everyone from City Manager Pat West to finance director Lori Ann Farrell to Mayor Bob Foster's chief of staff Becki Ames is sitting outside of the council lounge in the regular council chambers with all of us plebes.

West and Ames confirmed that only Foster, City Attorney Robert Shannon and the nine council members -- perhaps minus Patrick O'Donnell, who was absent at the budget meeting earlier -- are in that closed session meeting. West said this is unusual, noting that he is usually in on every closed session.

So what's being said in there? Is the city going to reach a deal with its unions? Can the council come to agreement? Or will negotiations break down?

Oh, to be a fly on that wall.

In a city that prides itself for its "green" efforts, it's no surprise that a proposal by council members Robert Garcia and Patrick O'Donnell to have City Manager Pat West examine how Long Beach can reduce its permitting fees for residential solar panels was met with enthusiastic support.

The council on Tuesday night unanimously approved the recommendation, which stemmed from a Sierra Club study of how much California cities charge for solar panel permits. Long Beach charges $599, which is far below the $750 amount that the Sierra Club said was an exhorbitant charge and that some cities even exceed. Still, it wasn't at the $324 level that the Sierra Club says is all it should cost for cities to recover their expenses.

Read an article about that Sierra Club study here.

No reportable action (read: no vote) was taken during the Long Beach City Council's closed session today (Tuesday, July 7), City Attorney Bob Shannon reported. That session was for the council to discuss contract negotiations with the city's nine employee unions, five of which have scheduled pay raises that city management wants workers to forgo. This is a key piece of City Manager Pat West's plan to eliminate a $43.3 million general fund budget deficit in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. West has said that to eliminate $20.3 $23 million of the deficit, all five unions must forgo their scheduled pay raises. The other $23 $20.3 million is being eliminated through 6 percent cuts across all departments.

But whether employee unions are willing to back off contractual raises remains to be seen. Already, there will be layoffs, officials say, and if the raises are given, even more layoffs could be expected. Once the council gives approval to an agreement, likely with some form of concessions, the agreement must be approved by the unions and then by the council in open session.

Chief among the pay increases that are on the table is one for the Police Officers Association. Under a four-year contract approved in 2005, police officers are scheduled to receive a raise Sept. 30 to put them at the median pay level of California's 10 largest cities. To reach the median pay level, Long Beach officials have estimated that a salary boost ranging from 5 percent to 14 percent at a cost of $5 million to $15 million would be required.

The current police contract that ends Sept. 30 gave officers a 19 percent raise over four years, along with a guaranteed 2 percent raise or the median pay level raise, whichever was greater. The Police Department makes up 48 percent of the current general fund, and the Fire Department budget is 18 percent of the general fund. Across all general fund departments, personnel costs total 84 percent of the budget.

For those of you who have been following Long Beach's ongoing budget drama and the newly announced $43.3 million shortfall that is expected in the 2010 fiscal year, here's all of the latest info in one spot.

• City Manager Pat West's PowerPoint presentation to the City Council explaining the budget deficit and how he's going to deal with it.
• My story about West's proposals and a video of the press conference he held Tuesday.
• Council members weigh in on the budget issues, along with a nice graphic that shows exactly what West's budget options entail.

I'll be following this budget fiasco closely, so keep an eye on the Press-Telegram.

 

 

Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske has called for a closed City Council session to discuss the land swap that is intended to preserve at least part of Los Cerritos Wetlands initially after learning about "outrageous" documents that reveal e-mail conversations between city officials and Tom Dean, who owns the wetlands.

Schipske and many community members previously had raised concerns about the deal, for which the City Council gave City Manager Pat West authority to finalize in February, and were skeptical about whether the city was getting a good trade. In the deal, the city is swapping its 12.1-acre public service yard by the Los Angeles River for 33.77 acres of the wetlands on the Eastside south of 2nd Street next to Studebaker Road. The city hopes to eventually acquire the entire 175-acre Bixby Ranch portion of the wetlands. The council voted 6-2, with Schipske and Councilwoman Rae Gabelich dissenting.

A published report in The District Weekly the last week about e-mail documents obtained by a concerned citizen reveal some potentially troubling conversations between Dean and Director of Public Works Mike Conway, who is leading the city's negotiations. Among other things, Conway gave Dean his personal e-mail for unknown reasons and seems to be bending over backwards to help Dean in the deal, noting in e-mails that the deal will be "excellent" for Dean and "defensible (barely)" for the city.

"I am also concerned to read in the documents the costs to remediate the contamination of the City Public Service Yard. This cost was not disclosed during Council discussions of this transaction," Schipske said in a statement.

Schipske said she is calling for a closed session because City Attorney Robert Shannon has said that is how real estate transactions should be handled. In the meantime, Schipske wants City Manager Pat West to hold off on finalizing the deal.

Sitting through often lengthy Long Beach City Council meetings most Tuesday nights, I've come to notice certain trends. Combine that with occasional moments of boredom
-- and some long stretches of boredom -- as I await the next big item to be debated, and here's what we get: The Long Beach City Council Drinking Game.

Though I wouldn't recommend playing the game at the council meetings (unless you want to find yourself playing a different kind of game, one you probably won't win, with the police officers on duty there) this could be a fun way to pass the time at home while waiting for your council item to come up for discussion.

Disclaimer: This game shouldn't be played by anyone under age 21, nor should you drink yourself to the point of any health risk. If you find yourself rolling on the floor laughing at all of the council members' jokes, or you decide that this is the greatest reality TV show you've ever seen, you should probably stop drinking. And I would recommend this game be played with beer, not shots of hard liquor. Remember, council meetings have been known to go until midnight.

Following are the drinking rules. Please add your own drinking rule ideas in the comments section. And if you try the game, I'd love to hear how it goes.

Take a drink when:

• The pet being put up for adoption is a dog. If it's a cat, give away the drink to your friend.
• Gadfly Harvey Cochran speaks to the council.
• Cochran says "ring around the rosey" or a similar phrase.
• Mayor Bob Foster has to cut Cochran off, ask him to summarize or gets visibly annoyed with the loquacious gadfly.
• Councilwomen Gerrie Schipske, Tonia Reyes Uranga or Rae Gabelich cast a dissenting vote (one drink for each vote).
• City Attorney Robert Shannon gets upset with council members for not asking for or heeding his legal advice.
• Councilman Patrick O'Donnell says "a tired kid is a good kid."
• The phrase "Mayor and members of the City Council," or some variation, is uttered.
• Gadfly Larry Goodhue mentions the fence at Marine Stadium, government corruption, the Alamitos Bay farmers market or calls for City Manager Pat West to be fired.
• The council votes unanimously.
• The phrase "core services" is mentioned during budget discussions.
• A council member actually appears to be listening during public comment (one drink for each council member who is listening).

Down your entire glass when:

• The council doesn't have a quorum and council members have to be called back to their seats.
• Cochran doesn't speak during an entire meeting (it actually happened last week, the first time in two years).
• Councilman Dee Andrews speaks (other than during comunity announcements at the end of the meeting).
• Foster and Schipske spontaneously give each other a great, big, loving bear hug.

Down the whole damn six pack when:

• The mayor announces he is resigning from office to pursue his acting career. Look out Hollywood!

Deputy Director at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport Mario Rodriguez has been named director of the Long Beach Airport, the city announced this morning.

Rodriguez, who will start on Feb. 23, will be in charge of a 125-person staff and a $28 million budget and report to City Manager Pat West on matters that include airport operations, finances and leases, the Airport Noise Ordinance, community outreach and environmental matters.

"Mr. Rodriguez's exemplary background in the private and public sector provides him with a unique understanding of the industry, which will be an asset to the Long Beach community as he faces many significant challenges in his new role," West said in a statement. "We conducted a rigorous national recruitment and Mario stood out with the interview panel, which included several community members. Simply put, we are very excited to have Mario join our team."
 
  As Deputy Director at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, Rodriguez managed a 186-person-staff and a $25 million annual operating budget. He also oversaw the Airport's Sound Insulation, Land Acquisition Programs and all aircraft noise monitoring activity, according to the release.

Read more about it in Wednesday's Press-Telegram.

City Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske announced over the weekend that the Long Beach Towne Center may soon be home to an IMAX theater.

Schipske, whose 5th District encompasses the center, said she received word from City Manager Pat West, who apparently emailed the councilwoman about Vestar's plans for the site. (Vestar manages the property):

 

About the makeover from Schipske's e-mail:
 

"Though the project has been very successful over the past 10 years, we want to make sure that we continue to provide the shopping and entertainment experience that the people of Long Beach and the surrounding communities want and deserve.  As such, we have undertaken a major $1.8 million re-model of the plaza area of the center (now named the Promenade @ Long Beach Towne Center).  These improvements include the addition of an outdoor entertainment stage, a giant video wall, an outdoor fireplace, two new fountains and a play area for kids.  As part of this upgrade, we will also be repainting the project this year and doing other courtyard improvements including landscape upgrades, new furniture and signage.  All of these things are designed to enhance the experience at the center and allow the project to continue its role as the gathering place for Long Beach.  In addition to our improvements, we have been informed that the Edward's theater will be adding an I-Max theater.  As we understand it, that upgrade should be done in time for the summer movie season.  This will just add one more reason to visit the center. "

 

Read more about it in Tuesday's Press-Telegram.

The city of Long Beach's expected $15.7 million budget deficit certainly isn't good, but apparently it could be worse.

The Wall Street Journal's Bobby White reported earlier this month that two more California towns may join Vallejo in declaring bankruptcy as the economy worsens. From the article:

RIO VISTA, Calif. -- California may soon have more bankrupt towns on its hands.

The city of Vallejo, Calif., gained national attention earlier this year by filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. Now, two neighbors are fighting to avoid the same fate, as the state's economic crisis spreads.

Isleton and Rio Vista, small towns roughly 50 miles northeast of San Francisco, say they have begun consulting with bankruptcy lawyers as they draw up plans to deal with their mounting budget crises. The towns' leaders say they hope to avoid bankruptcy, but concede the move may eventually be their only option.

"We're strapped for cash and by the end of March or early April we may not have enough money to pay for payroll," says Hector De La Rosa, Rio Vista's city manager.

Read the full article here.

When Long Beach City Manager Pat West announced the city's new budget deficit, which was largely the result of oil revenue declines, about two weeks ago, I asked him whether bankruptcy could be in Long Beach's future. He assured me that the city is far from going bankrupt as Vallejo has done and those two other Northern California towns possibly will do. Let's hope he's right.

We know the holiday sales at big-name retailers in Lakewood, Signal Hill and Cerritos can be tempting, especially in an economy when folks are tightening their proverbial belts to the last notch.
But Long Beach city and business folks are hoping for the granting of this holiday wish - that residents buy their gifts at Long Beach businesses, particularly small businesses.

The city and its four retail Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) today announced the kick-off of "Shop Local, Shop Long Beach," a campaign encouraging residents to shop at Long Beach retailers for the holidays.

Those included in the campaign are BIDs representing 4th Street, Belmont Shore, Bixby Knolls and Downtown Long Beach.

"The "Shop Local, Shop Long Beach" campaign reminds Long Beach residents that supporting our retailers is very, very critical," City Manager Pat West said in a statement. "We know the national economy may make it a slow holiday shopping period, and we'd like everyone in Long Beach to 'Shop Local, Shop Long Beach' to make sure our retail dollars are spent in the City. Retail sales create jobs, and retail sales tax dollars provide a major source of City funding."

Read more about the campaign in Wednesday's Press-Telegram.

In this corner, Councilwoman Gerrie "the tax-blocker" Schipske of the 5th District, and in the other corner, Mayor Bob "the infrastructure-izer" Foster.

Political sparring fans will enjoy not one, but two opportunities next week to watch these opposing city leaders square off.

First, Schipske will have a community meeting Monday to discuss the mayor's proposed infrastructure parcel tax and the city budget. Foster and City Manager Pat West have been invited to discuss their proposal, according to Schipske.

Schipske has been a critic of Foster's plan, and her reluctance to declare a fiscal emergency to get a necessary unanimous council vote prompted the mayor to change his initial proposal. The plan requires a parcel tax to finance $571 million in infrastructure bonds.

Check out that story here.

The community meeting will take place at 6 p.m. Monday at the El Dorado Senior Center, 2800 Studebaker Road.

Then, on Tuesday at 5 p.m. in City Hall, the council will vote on Foster's proposal, which requires approval by two-thirds of the members to put it on the November ballot, and then two-thirds voter approval to put it into effect.

Both events should yield some new information, interesting exchanges between our elected leaders, and possibly a political throw-down.