MP taxpayers, done in again by city officials.

This is good news. Workers deserve a bump for all the work they do. There are many who work behind the doors to the city buildings and provide good programs for our kids, provide answers to our questions and work hard to keep Menlo park a nice place to live and work.

What has the rate of inflation been the last three years? There's a reason Social Security won't be giving a COLA increase this year.

Go to the government site on consumer price index:

Web Link

For the last 12 months, it's been zero. But Menlo Voter knew this just from intuition based on no COLA for social security (very rare that no COLA is given).

Just another example of weak elected officials letting government employees ratchet more and more unwarranted concessions.

The city doesn't seem to expect much in terms of employee co-pays for benefits. That is one reason healthcare costs keep increasing. It used to be that public employees got nice benefits because their pay was below the private sector. That is no longer the case. The combination of pay and benefits for public sector is now superior to many in the private sector. The city is negotiating poorly on behalf of us taxpayers.
The city isn't requiring commercial enterprises to pay their fair share.

Is the entire proposed agreement going to be posted for public review?

What exactly is the nature of the required "study"?

Editor's note: Here is a link to the staff report and tentative agreement"
Web Link (It's a PDF document and may load slowly.)

Too bad this doesn't include all the contract workers who were never able to become permanent employees. Many have been there over 10 years as contract only, no raise for 5 years, just so the city doesn't have to offer benefits. Outrageous!

"after the release of a study expected in early 2016."

There is no language in the Staff Report or the Tentative Agreement regarding the terms/scope of the cited study.

Peter-

The Council gave the City Manager authorization to undertake a Compensation and Classification study back in April.

Web Link

Sorry Peter, wrong link.

Web Link

Link is to a March 2015 CC mtg - no mention of "study"

Peter-

As I stated in the 2nd posting that it was the wrong link and I included the correct one.

Thanks.

Here is what the study calls for:
"The classification and compensation study is primarily designed to focus on internal and external equity of both the structure by which employees are compensated as well as the way positions relate and compare to one another across the organization. Internal equity relates to the fairness of an organization’s compensation practices among its current employees. Specifically, by reviewing the skills, capabilities, and duties of each position, it can be determined whether similar positions are being compensated in a similar manner within the organization. The classification component of this study is aimed at resolving any inconsistencies related to job requirements and providing some clarity to the plan in place. External equity deals with the differences between how an organization’s classifications are valued and what compensation is available in the market place for the same skills, capabilities, and duties."

The risk is that the study will ONLY look at other government agencies and not at the local private sector market place.

Due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use, comments from this poster are automatically removed. Why?