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.
Paul Eakins reports on Long Beach City Hall, and local and regional
politics. A newcomer to the Press-
Kris Hanson reports on the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles,
covering environmental issues, economic triumphs and
pitfalls and trade trends of America’s largest port.
He also writes a weekly column “On The Waterfront”,
appearing Tuesdays, and also produces an occassional video
and column titled “On The Job,” which follows the hard-working
men and women who keep Southern California’s economy humming.
Karen Robes Meeks came to work for the Press-
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