S. Tahoe council asks for help if workers want to keep jobs
By Kathryn Reed
After nearly three hours, the South Lake Tahoe City Council turned the budget discussion on the nearly 200 people who attended the special meeting Thursday night.
Councilman Bruce Grego led the charge, with his colleagues falling in behind, when he asked where those in attendance have been before last night. Then asking them to suggest solutions for closing the $5.2 million gap. Asking them to do more than say they are good workers or retirees, and that they should keep their jobs, salaries and benefits. The offer was put to the community at-large as well.
The overflow crowd at the Sept. 15 council meeting is directed to the TV in the lobby. Photos/Kathryn Reed
With the 2011-12 budget taking effect Oct. 1, the council unanimously agreed to meet again Sept. 27 at 6pm, with a vote expected that night. Between now and then council members want ideas for how to solve the problem, not reasons why not to do something. However, it would be a serious violation for a represented employee to engage a councilperson in a discussion about salaries, benefits or work conditions.
This extension also allows the city to continue negotiating with its seven bargaining units and come up with solutions that would alter the budget proposal as presented. While the council met in closed session before the budget meeting started at 7:15pm, no reportable action on the labor negotiations was taken.
Revenue discussion
Grego, showing his frustration, said the council put a measure on the ballot two years ago to raise the business license fee, which would have mostly increased the rate on larger businesses, and the town voted it down.
With the hotel occupancy rate at 23 percent, City Manger Tony O’Rourke said now is not the time to raise the transient occupancy tax when rooms already are empty.
One person who spoke to Lake Tahoe News said she tried to offer O’Rourke ideas but was shunned. She’s going to take her thoughts to the council in private.
At the meeting, Robert Stiles with Tahoe Real Estate Services, suggested raising the vacation rental home fee from $144 a year to $250 to raise about $130,000.
Steve Crouch, who represents the General-Public Works association, said lower the reserves to less than 25 percent, don’t spend money on frivolous items like $9,000 to decorate a Christmas tree or $50,000 on GPS tracking devices for snowplow drivers.
Rob Swain, who runs the senior center, said, “There are lots of assets. Things could be explored. We could get creative and have lots better results.”
This longtime employee ran the ice rink before it was turned over to a private operation last month.
He did not present any ideas at the Sept. 15 meeting, but instead spoke in platitudes.
Councilman Tom Davis is most concerned about the projected revenue in the budget. He echoed Stiles’ comment that forecasting an increase in property taxes of about 1.5 percent could backfire. Property taxes are the city’s largest source of income.
What’s on the table
The elimination of 22 jobs is likely if concessions are not made by the employee groups regarding benefits. Who exactly they are is not definitive until either a labor contract is renegotiated or the deadline arrives for the council to pass a budget – which must be balanced per state law. Even then, employee bumping rights make for the fallout to be a bit prolonged.
City Manager Tony O'Rourke outlines the budget.
Cuts are expected in nearly every department. The three division chiefs in the fire department have been given notice. They are at-will employees.
At the meeting Thursday, O’Rourke said the city is “proposing alternative delivery contracts” for the rec center, senior center and pool. He said this would not affect the quality or quantity of services.
Sources have told Lake Tahoe News the rec center is likely to have a greater partnership with the local Boys & Girls Club because it is running similar programs, plus the two buildings are walking distance from each other.
El Dorado County is expected to take over a larger roll in how the senior center is operated. Most counties run these types of programs – not a city.
Changes to the pool are expected, but it will not be operated by a private entity.
O’Rourke admitted the golf course, airport, campground and other city run operations could be turned over to a private operator if the numbers make it more advantageous to do so and the council agrees to it.
Temporary snowplow operators are expected to go from seven to 15. O’Rourke said this will provide for an initial savings of $256,000 a year, with long-term benefits of a half million dollars a year.
Maintenance of roads beyond pothole repair will be contracted out.
Furloughs for just about everyone are going away – which equates to 18,000 hours of additional service.
Lease purchase agreements for police vehicles will become the new norm.
Who’s saying what
Many of the 29 people who spoke, along with a few shouts from the audience (many of whom were watching on the television monitor in the lobby because of space constraints), voiced frustration with what they perceive as cuts only at the bottom.
However, it was in March that three director jobs and the assistant city manager position were eliminated. O’Rourke on Thursday said the consolidation of jobs resulted in 10 percent raises for the finance director, police-fire chief, and community services director because of increased duties.
He failed to mention how the human resources director and public information officer also are making more.
Employees say this is unfair. When they are asked to do more with fewer people they are not given raises. While this is true, they have a contract per their bargaining unit and the upper management positions are at-will and not represented.
But two of their own got 10 percent raises as well — the capital improvement manager and payroll specialist.
Non-exempt types will also be paying their share of PERS, while the only employee group to agree to do so is the fire association.
O’Rourke emphatically stated he had not received a single bonus nor a nickel raise since he has been here. (Although he came on board in August 2010, the council has yet to review him as is normal each year.)
Crouch, the union rep, said it’s frustrating to negotiate with the numbers continually changing. City staff said property taxes and state take-aways legitimately altered the figures.
Judy Crawford, former parks and rec employee, lamented how sad it is there are more places to buy pot in town than there are places to buy shoes.
Thirteen-year-old Garrett Harley spoke of the great job the rec staff does.
Vivian Gonterman, who has lived in town since Pioneer Trail was a dirt road, equated the city contracting out services to how well the United States has prospered by having other countries make everything. Her husband is a retired city employee.
Joe McKenna, retired fire captain, said, “We’ve always dealt with financial crisis. I was on the bargaining team. We gave up a lot for our health care.” (Retirees get the same health care benefits employees get.)
Jerry Copeland, representing the Admin-Confidential employee group, said no one told him there would be a reward to come to the table first. (The fire association is getting a 2 percent raise because they made concessions.) He also said the perception is the employees are the ones who caused the financial problems.
A recurring sentiment expressed confidentially to Lake Tahoe News is that management, and therefore the council, don’t really care and are trying to balance the budget on the back of employees who did not create the fiscal mess. In addition, the dictatorial nature of how things are run is often echoed.
Lindsey Henry, 27, a third generation South Lake Tahoe resident, said of the employees, “You need to consider the big picture of what they are doing for this community.” Her dad used to work for the city.
Many people voiced concern for how well the streets would be plowed with temps and the potential liability it could create for the city.
“Temporary workers won’t save our city,” Vernon Lee told the council.
While the city struggles to live within its means, many who spoke said it’s also critical to not lose the sense of community that still lingers.
South Lake Tahoe is underwater by about $200 million in unfunded liabilities, yet the city council wants to argue over insignificant cuts in city employees and punishing businesses with new sign ordinances, taxes and restrictions. With leadership like this, South Lake Tahoe will soon be the envy of every centrally planned economy from North Korea to Iran.
South Lake Tahoe is not like other cities. This is a community that prides itself on its locals. If the city manager would pull his head out of his a** he would know that. STOP trying to turn OUR city into YOUR city!
We have a budget to meet, and SLT, like any other community, has to make tough decisions in order to make the budget. Of course its a tough ride and I feel very badly for those that lose their jobs and benefits. I’ve been there -I had a local job for decades that I lost. Its no fun..think of the 1000s of people within 100 miles of Lake Tahoe that have lost their jobs and livelihood.
O’Rourke and the Council have tough decisions to make and they will do the best they can. They can only look at the numbers and need to rely on negotiators and department heads to work with them to make the numbers work.
O’Rourke is pretty quick to cut other people’s earnings but what about his own? He doesn’t serve this community but appears to be trying to destroy it to open it up to be owned by Vail. Tahoe will soon be owned by the corporation from Colorado and no one but the super wealthy will be able to live here, like in Aspen and other Colorado ski areas.
The council punts this back to the community? Once again, they kick the can. We’re doomed.
Let me begin by answering Mr. Greco who asked, “where those in attendance have been before last night”. Well Mr.Greco, we have been trying to speak to you and the rest of the Council for the last 4 months, but none of you would answer any of the hundreds of emails and phone calls that have been made to you and the Council.
The question that I have is Why is there no where in the Budget Proposal That speaks of the Councils Expenditures or The City Mgr’s Credit Card expenditure, this is Public Information and should be reported to the tax payers. I’m sure that Kay Reed will look into this and report it to us.
Also I would like to mention that when this budget is passed, Your City Mgr, and City Attny. along with everyone else EXCEPT Admin./Confidential, and General Employees will be receiving a nice big fat Raise of 9.6%. This means that the City Mgr. will be getting a $1,500 dollar a month raise, City Attny. $1,300 a month raise and if you look at the salary rangers that were published yesterday, you will see that this is going to amount to a very large chunk of money.
I would like to say that the Lake Tahoe News has done a pretty good job of reporting on these issues but has favored the City Mgr. in her reporting.I would like to see all of the facts brought out and not just the ones that favor Nancy Kerry and the City Mgr’s opinion’s.
Check out the City Mgr.’s Credit Card expenditure’s And the City Council’s Expenditures, I think that you will be shocked. This is Public Information, Call the City Clerk for Information.
I will admit that the City Mgr. has done a real good job in getting rid of a lot of dead weight in the City by getting rid a lot of upper management but to lay off the lower paid employees and then GET A 9.6% RAISE should be looked at by all of the Tax Payers and they should voice there opinion’s.
Mr. Greco should not be surprised by the turn out at last nights meeting, If the Council would hold there meetings in the evenings then there would be more input from the Public, All meetings used to be held in the evening so that we did have input.
It appears that a huge part of the budget woes facing this City, counties, states, the Feds and all other businesses is related to the high costs of benefits, especially regarding heathcare. I can’t help wonder why when everyone talks about these out of control costs no one at any governmental level ever talks about addressing these costs with the insurers/insurance companies that continue to rack up huge profits for their investors. Healthcare insurance just continues to rise uncontrollably with no attention being paid to that issue, and the method that jurisdictions/businesses use to “control costs” is just to pass those expenses on employees. Are the people of this country going to end up where only the very wealthy will be able to afford health insurance?
Regarding retirement, perhaps had PERS not made risky investments that caused them to lose 2/3 of the money they had which was earmarked for paying retirees, jurisdictions would not now need to pay those huge loss amounts to PERS so that they can continue to make retirement payments to existing retirees.
Tony O’Rourke is helping guide us through these tough decisions to make our city solvent. I wouldn’t want his job for any salary. Also the knowledge of the various laws, and contracts that he needs to be aware of our staggering.
You may not like what he’s doing if your on the chopping block, but it is, what it is. We have overextended ourselves and must rope things in. The taxpayers are unwilling to pay more or take on more debt to hold the status quo, so the city has been given it’s orders by it’s citizens.
I understand your wanting to fight tooth and nail, it’s what anyone would do, but also start to think of your options and prepare for the future. When one door closes, another one opens, also everything that happens, is meant to happen.
Care, well said as I have been saying that for quite awhile but as usual I am asked to back up my statements. I have to wonder if I am the only this site calls out for “facts” on a consitent basis.
All these well paid government employees are having to deal with the same thing the rest of us already did. We saw long lines of 1000s of employees wiped out in a matter of days in every industry, people have taken huge paycuts, businesses in town barely making it. Don’t know why it takes the government so long to get to the same place. The retirees like xlocal throw stones while they bankrupt this city with skyrocketing free medical for the rest of their entire lives, whoever promised benefits like that are the ones who should answer for it.
Come on folks, there’s only so much money in the kitty, after all you’ve all been making very good money as reported here. https://www.laketahoenews.net/2011/09/south-lake-tahoe-employees-weighing-down-citys-budget/
If we were to contract out our city’s employee payroll department. We could save a great deal of money and mistakes. It might be easier to track things. We have so many people in that department and there are really not that many employees (even less now) to take care of. Many big companies and other cities do this as a cost saving device. There are companies that specialize in these services and give all required reports on time, etc., this has been proposed in the past. I was looking at the posted earnings of city employees and we seem to be very TOP HEAVY. There are ways to crunch at the top. Consider City issued credit cards for instance…..is anyone paying attention, does EVERYONE give proper receipts and documentation, or do we just pay the bills? $10,000 here, $12,000 there,per month, during the year. It’s quite a chunk of change. Are these figures made public? These little items add up to jobs or jobs lost. We have already failed miserably in one Grand Jury investigation. Let’s be more accountable in the next one. What? You don’t think we are being watched to see how we handle the public’s money?
Does the City publish its “payment of claims*” like STPUD? It can explain a lot.
* Bills presented for payment
To Tahoe Tessy…….well its clear you’ve never worked for the City of So. Lake Tahoe !!You think the” The Xlocal” and the rest of us retirees are bankrupting the city with free medical for the rest of our lives your very badly mistaken! Because you don’t have a clue as to the “Facts”.When you are forced to retire because they’ve done away with your job and your one of 13 positions cut,of which 9 are all over the age of 50,and your 1.7 years from FULL retirement ….you pay a % of the premieum for the rest of your life! And that “skyrocketing” goes from $75 to $345 on a now Fixed income…TRY THAT !! How much does your city manager or your city attorney(by the way got a 5%raise when he came on board before the ink was dry on his contract!) contribute to their medical benefits?? If its $0 I would think that just might be part of the problem! Hey, lets start from the TOP of the $ pole for a change instead of the bottom where all the services you receive are done by the very people it will impact the most.By the way..does your city council receive medical benefits from the City of S. Lake Tahoe? You need to get some FACTS…and they are out there and are SUPPOSE to be Public Knowledge !
Oh, Tahoe Tessy, by the way…you say “whoever promised benefits like that are the ones that should answer for it”..well, ask your City Council members who gave City Managers and department heads a blank check to “do whatever it takes”….Oh, and you say “theres only so much $$$ in the kitty “. Well..How much $$$ is in the”kitty”???? And how much $$ is in the Health Care reserve fund that is used to pay claims as they come in(and is documented that this reserve fund has only gone dry
1 time due to catastropic costs that particular year)….Oh, you might not be able to get that information…since that $$ is thrown into the “General Fund”for use to pay Bills like the OPEN END Credit cards used by UPPER Management(thats over and above the posted salarys)…..even tho it was always been understood by employees that those $$ were to go to pay for health care claims….!!
City Councilmembers, you have asked where those community members who attended the council meeting last night have been . . . I ask you this; When has a Council ever held a private council/employee meeting with the City Manager or City Attorney NOT present, with open, honest, and “no retaliation” communication? It can be done as long as wages, benefits, or work conditions as Kae stated. To my knowledge – this has never been done. There has been attempts to open communication with the city as XLocal had indicated, as well as input or suggestions that are different than the ones proposed in this current budget proposal – it appears that they were deemed unworthy.
We are a community and I don’t understand why the public perception always seem to be that if you work for the city that you are not; 1) a part of this community; 2) a taxpayer in this community; and 3) that they also do not enjoy seeing their tax dollars being spent unwisely?
Here’s a simple solution……raise the TOT to 12-13%. As a hotel owner, tourist are not going to stop coming to Tahoe because they have to pay an extra 2% tax. I could contribute an extra $7,000 per year to the city just with this small increase. Makeing the businesses pay extra for our license will no way come close to contributing that kind of money. And for those hotels who can’t seem to pay their TOT on time, or pay at all, give them a deadline and revoke their license. I would love to have their guest come stay at my hotel…….I pay my taxes and I pay them on time.
Layni, great idea. O’Rourke didn’t think it was a good time though to raise the TOT from what I saw during the final comments on streaming last night. I wonder why? Hopefully the council thinks otherwise.
I think it’s a BAD idea. On the occasions when we stay in hotels on our travels, I always look at that TOT and gauge how much that town is trying to stick it to its guests. And spend money on stuff in the area accordingly, actually.
Dogwoman,
Since South Lake Tahoe is a “vacation destination”, most tourist do not inquire or even consider the TOT or city tax rate. Iv’e never had a hotel guest even ask what the tax rate is….it is what it is. Looking at public TOT records, even at 23% occupany the city could collect about $40,000 per month just in raising the tax by a few percent. Lets face it, our city thrives on tourism dollars. Cutting city jobs, the same jobs who clear snow from the streets and make our city inviting for tourism, whould actually end up costing the city more money than saving money from a few lost salaries.
What they NEED to do is cut FAT. Instead they cut service hoping we’ll let them raise our taxes when we’ve suffered enough.
I know it’s a tourist town. And I appreciate the visitors. Why should THEY be screwed because our city has overspent on good-old-boy politicians?
As I stated in a different article, raising the TOT, means less money for the tourists to spend. They may still choose to come, but believe me!, tourists are watching every nickel nowadays! The more they pay for a room, the less they spend at out restaurants, stores and activities!
I’m done with both this Counsel and our City Manager. They knew the job when they took it and continue to not do what is best for our community. Like Washington they serve those with the purse strings and ignore the public which they serve.
Yes, tough decisions are required but to offer raises to management while cutting regular working positions and replacing these positions with temps is baloney. To do so without considering ANY other alternatives makes it plain that these decisions have been made behind closed doors and well in advance.
Our town needs jobs and not more managers. City jobs, school jobs, small business jobs, big business jobs…. all kinds of jobs. I say side with the solution that keeps the most jobs not the one that keeps the most managers. Fire the manager and have each department report directly to our City Counsel and Business Office. If we need the opinion of Vail Resorts I’m sure they can provide a suitable representative without the City of South Lake Tahoe needing to pay the salary, benefits and retirement of this same person.
My Two Cents!
-Local Yokle
And what’s the rush of privatizing more facilities??? Shouldn’t Tahoe Sports & Entertainment have to show success for at least a year before handing over more of our citizens places to them or another group. Agree with a previous Steve Kubby statement – a forensic audit needs to be made.
Yay, Local Yokel, and Tahoan 25!!! Excellent sentiments, indeed!! I Wholeheartedly agree with your comments!! Yes, Fire the manager, and have each Dept. report to the City Council and Business office–a SUPERB solution for our community! Those greedy evil souless people in upper management do not have the best interests of our community in mind AT ALL!! What WAS the answer to Thea Greer’s question regarding the $2000.oo a month rental payment from Cefalu to the City, anyway??? What was their answer?? Heck she is right!! It is bullcrap! that is 1/2 the rent of a commercial building!!!that is about an 1/8 of that size building!! And where is the business license to run the Ice Arena?? Does Cefalu even have one?? Who pays the electric bill?? SHENANIGANS!!!, I SAY!!!!!DOWNRIGHT DECEPTIVE DEALS HAVE BEEN MADE WITHOUT OUR INPUT AT ALL!! Yes, Dirty SHANANIGANS, I say!! Dump the City Manager and all his crooked cronies, and YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!! WE are not that stupid and gullible to swallow the lies! HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT?? If you listen to what the Mgr. said regarding “the HOLE’S” TOT and how it would benefit the other businesses in town, then later he says quite the opposite, that the businesses are not providing the TOT…he is a figgin’ Con Man, and the city council is too blinded to see it. MY two Cents…–CatLapper
So, why is my comment not been posted??? CapLapper
Do any of the city council members know how to run the rotary?
Being very truthful, when I stay at a hotel I don’t ask and don’t care about how much tot I’m paying. I care about how nice the place is the location and nearby places to eat and local sights.
Well put geeper as I travel quite a bit in the winter and reflect your feelings. I do not mind the extra I have to pay because I am getting what I pay for, a clean modern facility that is not just a facade or window dressing.