At last week’s city council meeting, about 10 West Covina city employees expressed their angst after seeing an item placed on the agenda to protect the jobs and contracts of public safety employees.

Problem is that the item, put on the agenda by Mayor Roger Hernandez, didn’t make any mention of the non-sworn employees — and it is their contracts who are up in June. Public safety employees’ contracts aren’t up until 2010.

Hernandez said that he only put the item on there because “95 percent” of the comments he heard from employees fearing their jobs came from public safety, and he later said that he would have no problem adding non-public safety employees to his resolution.

The whole thing was sparked after City Manager Andrew Pasmant held informal discussions with city employees to discuss ways employes and departments could account for savings as the city expects to face a $9 million deficit. 

In the end, the council voted down Hernandez’s resolution, and also accused him of being devisive and politicizing the issue.