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Guest Editorial: City salaries are too high
from this week’s paper:
By Ike Saylors
Because of the closed door policies of the past city council and its city manager the city is in serious financial chaos. At the crux of the matter is the extreme high wages being paid to city employees leaving the city with no money for its own needs and the needs of its citizens?
As a private citizen I am very concerned over the financial future of our small city and the burden this is putting on my friends and neighbors who reside here. The purpose of this letter is to make all of you aware of the seriousness of the problem involving the high wages being paid to city employees.
At the July 9, 2007 council meeting, after an executive session, a motion was made and seconded by the city council approving bargaining unit agreements. Six year agreements the City Manager (a former union man) negotiated with extra high wages. The council members, in the short time they were in the executive session, could not have reviewed or read the contract but must have taken the City’s Managers recommendation to agree to it.
The signed bargaining unit agreements are so unreasonable it is hard to believe that any one in city government would have approved them. One example, in addition to above average wages, city employees are entitled to accrue up to 1320 hours, 33weeks, of sick leave. Upon retirement they are entitled to be paid for accrued sick leave at their current pay.
Portions of the July 9, 2007 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES is being presented here as just one example how the then city council/city manager conducted city business and how they maneuvered around important issues so there would be no discussions or questions from concerned citizens.
CALL TO ORDER, Mayor Patrick called Regular Council Meeting to order at 6:00 PM.
Council Present: Mayor Patrick, Council Members, Johnson, Vietz, Creighton and Vela.
Continuing with the last part of the Minutes of July 9, 2007, beginning at 7:13PM.
Mayor Patrick recessed the regular City Council meeting at 7:13 PM to convene into Executive Session to review contract negotiations of public employees. Mayor Patrick announced that executive session would last approximately 15 minutes and there may be council action.
Mayor Patrick called Executive Session to order at 7:14 PM in a meeting room outside
council chamber. Mayor Patrick adjourned the Executive Session Meeting at 7:29PM.
Council Action Taken:
Tape 1#2777 – Councilmember Johnson made the motion to approve the contracts with the city employees as presented by the City Manager. Councilmember Vietz seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
Mayor Patrick adjourned the regular council meeting at 7:30 PM.
Minutes obtained from the Ocean Shores web site, http://www.osgov.com/council.html
IMPORTANT NOTES REGARDING THIS COUNCIL MEETING
Recessed regular council meeting 7:13 PM
Executive Session to Order 7:14 PM
Executive Session Adjourned 7:29 PM
Regular Council Meeting Adjourned 7:30 PM
Time 17 minutes.
It took just 17 minutes for Patrick, Johnson and the other council members to sell our city to the unions on the recommendations of the City Manager, McEachin.
How accurate are these minutes? More to the point how Patrick could adjourn the executive session, move to council chambers, call council meeting to order, make a motion to approve union agreements, seconded and adjourn council meeting within one minute? Also note, there was no discussion or debate regarding the union agreements, just a motion to accept giving no opportunity for public comment.
My copy of the Exempt Salary Employee’s contract, as received from Ocean Shores City Clerk, shows the agreement was signed in September 2007, and because it is not considered a bargaining unit agreement did not have to be approved in an open public meeting. In doing research for this letter no record or comments were found in city records pertaining to any talks or discussions on the exempt employee’s contract prior to the approval of the agreement. It is assumed the City Manager negotiated the agreement as his name is the only city official appearing on the agreement. The salaries, agreed to in the agreement, are outrageous and high above the national
and state averages. (Please see Wage Comparisons Table below.) In addition to accrue sick leave policies, like the union employees have, the exempt employee’s agreement allows them to earn comp time at 1½ hours for everything over 40 hours. So when department heads attend city functions and/or city council meetings they are eligible for overtime.
When reviewing the following tables, please keep in mind that Ocean Shores is a small city of approximately 5,000 people, which makes the above average wages being paid to our employees even more unbelievable.
AVERAGE SALARY FIGURES FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, OCCUPATIONAL EMPLOYEE STATISTICS, OES.
OCEAN SHORES CITY EMPLOYEES WAGE COMPARISON TABLES
TITLE PRESENT NATIONAL STATE
WAGE AVG AVG
POLICE CHIEF:
OES – 33-1012 $114,144 $73,620 $79,590
DET/SGTS:
OES – 33- 3021 $65,370 $62,500 $71,510
POLICE OFFICERS:
OES – 33- 3051 $60,705 $50,650 $60,560
FIRECHIEF:
OES – 33-1021 $93,948 $67,370 $77,460
FIREFIGHTER:
OES – 33- 2011 $52,985 $44,130 $55,020
PARAMEDICS:
OES – 29-2041 $66,865 $30,870 $38,790
LIBRARIAN:
OES – 25-4021 $77,484 $52,850 $59,280
LIBRARY TECHS/WORKERS:
OES – 25-4031 $45,360/$43,176 $29,040 $35,210
PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR:
See note #1 below $93,948 $70,545 $78,525
FINANCE DIRECTOR:
OES – 11-3031 $86,916 $106,200 $106,320
CITY CLERK:
OES 43-1011-note #2 $75,504 $47,650 $51,170
MUNICIPAL CLERK:
OES -43-4031 $47,544 $34,190 $37,890
ADMINISTRATION ASSTS.:
OES – 43-6011 $47,544 $40,700 $44,880
Note #1. There is no OES designation number for this classification. With help from a representative from the Labor Dept. came up with these figures.
Note #2. The OES number was suggested by a representative of the Labor Department.
Verification, www.bls.gov/oes
Due to bad decisions of the past city council The City of Ocean Shores is held hostage by extremely high labor costs with nothing left over for the real needs of the people. For the survival of our little city, labor costs must be reduced and brought into line as other cities of our size and it must be done soon.
Ike Saylors has been an Ocean Shores Resident since 1990. His email address is ikeandbobbie@localnet.com.
Editor’s Note: In Ocean Shores, eight Firefighters are also Paramedics; four Firefighters are also EMT-IV Techs.
I’m a little put off by Ms. Espinoza’s response. It was disrespectful, rude, and immature. First of all it, his name is Sgt. PAUL Luck. Secondly, last time I checked, police officers have days off too, and Sgt. Luck was NOT on City time when he commented. Perhaps you have personal reasons for wishing to disrespect members of the police department?
If Mr. Saylors information is outdated and incorrect then those with an opinion should do their own research before posting said opinion. I did not do the research so I cannot comment on the accurateness of the information, but here is what I can comment on:
Police officers are highly trained professionals with extensive skills. As are firefighters, EMT’s and paramedics. Training these individuals costs a lot of money, several hundred thousand dollars during the life of his or her career. Finding QUALITY Police/Fire/EMT professionals who are willing and able to move to Ocean Shores can be a difficult task. Look at the already high turn over rates for these professions (anywhere) and then look at what it costs to train them and keep them trained. If you offer too low of wages, you run the risk of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars training them so they can be recruited to another Department that pays more, or your applicants are those that no one else will hire but you HAVE to because they are the only ones applying. So the people responding to your most serious emergencies will be inexperienced, not invested in the community, or the bottom of the professional barrel. Look at the bigger picture here before spouting off.
You get what you pay for and should I need one of these professionals, I personally don’t want my life and safety in the hands of the lowest bidder.
If Sergeant Jack Luck has the available time to read the paper and reaearch and write a response to an article, maybe he doesn’t have enough to keep him busy. Maybe there should be one more layoff in the Police department.
I think that it’s great that an Ocean Shores police officer was nice enough to identify the possible mistakes in the letter. Please see the attached reference to this officer in the following newspaper article.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/archives/1998/9805060096.asp
It might behoove Mr Saylors to have someone proofread his work. It seems he has managed to compare apples to oranges. In checking his research, I found he has compared 2009 wages of Ocean Shores workers to State and National Wage averages from May 2007. A closer look shows he compared the Police Chief to Police Sergeants, Police Sergeants to Detectives, Firefighter Paramedics to Private ambulance Service, etc. I hope other readers aren’t influenced by his gross inaccuracies.