Irwindale police demand raise, council members hold on to health benefits

It looks like Irwindale city employees with be foregoing their 4 percent cost of living increases as part of a proposed 2009-10 budget proposal. Well, not all of the employees – the police officers are still demanding their raise.

In response, the City Council on Wednesday with a 3-2 vote called for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to prepare an estimate of the proposed cost savings if the city of Irwindale got rid of its police department and instead contracted with the sheriff’s department.

Another budget cut that finance administrators recommended were that planning commissioners and city council members ditch their health benefits, which would result in a cost savings of more than $200,000. Council members expressed hesitation on that one, and will decide at a future meeting whether they want to sacrifice their health benefits to save the city money.