A tale of two letters: Glendora City Manager Chris Jeffers vs. employee association’s Wendell Phillips

In tomorrow’s paper there will be a story on the failed negotiations between Glendora city staff and the general municipal employees association and how it will now be incumbent upon the council to make a decision Tuesday night.

The two groups have been going at it for months now, and it doesn’t appear that the attorney for the employees association Wendell Phillips and Glendora City Manager Chris Jeffers get along very well.

While the pair have traded subtle barbs at each other in articles in the newspaper and with the way negotiations turned out, those don’t seem to have been tea and crumpets type meetings either.

Now we have two letters, both sent to Glendora employees, one from Jeffers, one from Phillips, at the apex of this battle.

Take a look and tell me what you think. Phillips’ letter is decidedly more aggressive and is a rebuttal to Jeffers. It goes as far as to call Jeffers petulant.

Jeffers letter has a political tone. It paints a picture of today’s environment for public employees, is trying to sway opinion in favor of the city’s efforts, and makes a case that the employees association’s negotiators are being unreasonable.

Both seem to use taxpayer angry against public officials/employees to their advantage.

What do you think? Who makes the better argument?

FYI: Both letters were obtained anonymously, but were both confirmed to exist by Jeffers and Phillips.

Glendora Chris Jeffers letter.doc
Glendora employees association attorney letter.doc

Email: daniel.tedford@sgvn.com | Twitter: @dgtedford @sgvtribune | Facebook: SGVTribune

Paul Krugman says a lot of the fuss over state, local employee pay is much ado about nothing

Ran into this blog post by Paul Krugman, Op-Ed Columnist for the New York Times, regarding public employee pay.

Krugman clearly isn’t talking about the scandalous issues going on in Bell, but the general rage against state and local employees and what they make.

We at the Tribune have been covering the issue of pay for local leaders and employees over recent weeks and Krugman’s article addresses specifically how some people react when they hear a city manager is making $200,000 a year and what affect that salary really has.

What are your thoughts on Krugman’s opinion?

(PS – the blog post by Krugman is short, so it won’t eat away your day to read it)

Email: daniel.tedford@sgvn.com | Twitter: @dgtedford @sgvtribune | Facebook: SGVTribune

(Announcer voice) And now… Weekend Roundup (dun dun)

After a survey of city manager salaries across the San Gabriel Valley, Pasadena and Whittier areas (coverage area for our three newspapers) none are making Bell type salaries, but no one is going hungry (or without a six figure salary) either.

Baldwin Park City Council members said Friday they want to hear from citizens before drafting a vehicle impound policy for the Police Department. Baldwin Park police Chief Lili Hadsell is scheduled to brief the council Wednesday on her department’s vehicle impound policies, according to city documents.

And yet another story that shows what goes around, probably came around because of Bell.

Amid revelations that Bell city officials skirted state salary limits by becoming a charter city, Covina council members are shying away from the idea, which was up for their consideration.

UPDATED: Local FYI: Azusa has gone dark, that is to say, they canceled their council meetings in August. La Verne canceled tonight’s council meeting, but will be meeting again on Aug. 16.

Email: daniel.tedford@sgvn.com | Twitter: @dgtedford @sgvtribune | Facebook: SGVTribune