STPUD employees receive pay raise, change to health care
By Kathryn Reed
Most South Tahoe Public Utility District employees, including managers, are making more money.
The board of directors this month unanimously approved a four-year contract for the union and two-year for management that is retroactive to July 1. Union members received between a zero and 13.31 percent pay hike, while the management group increase was between zero and 14.1 percent. About two-thirds of the 92 union employees received a raise.
The increases are based on a survey of 14 other agencies. STPUD uses the median to base its salary scale.
The last raise was in 2009 – 2 percent for everyone. This was based on the 2006 contract that called for the salary adjustment.
The medical plan changes Jan. 1. No longer will South Tahoe PUD be self-insured. STPUD will be part of the joint powers insurance agency through the Association of California Water Agencies. Over the course of the four-year contract the district will save $1.5 million. This savings pays for the salary increase.
District spokesman Dennis Cocking told Lake Tahoe News no rate increase will be used to pay for the salary changes.
“It’s a good solution when nobody is happy, but everyone can live with it. We have a good agreement,” board President Eric Schafer told Lake Tahoe News.
“I think some of these things are taken out of our hands like pension reform in California and the Affordable Health Care Act. We brought ourselves into compliance with those,” Schafer said. “Who knows what the state of California will do next? We know they need money. I hope it does not come from us.”
It’s likely with an aging workforce, STPUD will see more savings in terms of salary and PERS contributions because new employees will make less and have a different pension formula.
Why wasn’t money passed back to the customers?
Because the deal results expense neutral – the increase in salaries is off-set by the savings in health care, thus neutral and nothing to give back. Enjoy Rick
Pay RAISE for gov’t employees in THIS economic climate? @Rick, there is nothing like a good white washing to say it’s “expense neutral” A pay RAISE is not expense neutral! That’s the same baloney CalPERs told us all that they were over-funded so the increased pensions wouldn’t cost us anything and its now bankrupting all the cities.
A pay RAISE of 13% is SHAMEFUL – shame on you STPUD! This is why you should be under the control of a municipality so you can’t just increase your pay by increasing rates whenever you give into another union demand. Dennis you are misleading the public by saying the increase won’t from from rate payers , of course it will. Maybe you can finagle the financing today to be able to say, “today the money came from this pot and that one,” but give it up man, the costs for services COMES from RATE PAYERS – ridiculous to say otherwise if not today, tomorrow the piper will need to be paid and you will get it from the Rate Payer.
Any pay raise in this economy is NUTS! You did a survey and found out your workers were making less than someone else. How about surveying your community where unemployment is over the national and state average.
Giving your workers a 13% pay RAISE is ridiculous! Haven’t all the other agencies been cutting pay and laying off employees, but you’re taking rate payers money, jacking up the those on the meters and giving the increases to your employees, to the tune of 13% ! How about employing a few more people, cutting back. You have excess funds? How about putting those in an account to come up with a method to reduce rates, to give back to the community, to discount your enormous hook up fees to encourage construction or incentivize building and remodeling to create jobs. What the heck are you people thinking?
Your agency should be put under the control of another to stop this continual robbery.
This is a crime,
Why don’t you show us what 13% looks like? show the salaries and what the increase amounts to.These are the highest paid people in the Tahoe area. Compare there salaries to the City or the County, The City reduced there employe’s by 30% over the last 2 years, the district should do the same, and to Give Management 14.1% is a CRIME.
Millions of people out of work and everyone cutting back to make ends meet and the district is increasing salaries, wow, what stones they have.
When the district took over and out in the Sewer Plant, the sewer bill was $29.00 per year, when they started buying all the Water Companies the price per year was from $86.00 to $125 per year and the water was great, now the taste of our water is like Sacramento water, there are but a few of us left that remember how great the water used to taste, I’m sure “Old long Skis” remembers!
Once again I would ask that THE SALARIES BE POSTED IN THE LAKE TAHOE NEWS SO THAT THE PEOPLE OF CITY AND COUNTY CAN SEE HOW MUCH THESE PEOPLE ARE MAKING. it will shock you.
The rate payers will pay once again, and the employes will smile all the way to the bank.
S.T.P.U.D. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED
No rate increase? BS… You just had one last year. The union and management has some serious guts asking for raises, and receiving them???
Check out who contriutes to the board of directors. The unions get what they pay for.
No one is buying, “the savings pays for the increase,” … “The medical plan changes Jan. 1… Over the course of the four-year contract the district will save $1.5 million. This savings pays for the salary increase.” Who is kidding whom here?
What happens when the $1.5M “savings” is gone in a year or two? Yeah, that’s when the cost will be passed onto the tax payers – quit calling them rate payers – they are tax payers.
Further insulting our intelligence is “the last raise was in 2009” – right in the middle of the recession! Justified by having to be given because it was agreed to in 2006? When others are losing their jobs and my business is had to cut back our costs , we’re barely holding on, you’re giving our money to your employees? Are you guys laughing in the back room?
This community must come together and demand answers and recall the board who voted for this. It’s utterly insulting.
Rick, I think everyone has done a fine job of exposing your flight from reality with this ‘revenue neutral’ trash. None of your customers are buying this. STPUD is simply living in a parallel world, they have no concept of what’s going on in the real world. Problem is they’re using OUR money for their little hand-wringing journey.
There must be something in the water over there-
One can’t help but wonder why these large, inflated salary increases are being disclosed during this shortened Thanksgiving holiday week when many of the ratepayers are out of town or preoccupied with other matters. Why weren’t they enumerated during STPUD’s regular budget hearings in the spring?
Of course, the government agency salary Leap Dog theory now goes into effect, causing the other agencies in the study to most likely realign (increase) their comparative salaries as a result.
They should be cutting back on management. 14 % plus retroactive back to July is a crime in todays economy. If they were all let go tomorrow you could fill their positions in about 2 seconds with over qualified people at a lower salary. Now I know what the higher water meter rates and connection fees are really paying for.
THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE KIND OF SALARIES THAT ARE MADE BY THE LOWEST PAID JOBS IN THE DISTRICT. BETWEEN $20.00 AND $40.00 DOLLARS AN HOUR PLUS BENEFITS. CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT MANAGEMENT MAKES???
LETS SEE IF THE “LAKE TAHOE NEWS” WILL PRINT THE SALARIES OF ALL S.T.P.U.D. EMPLOYES, WE DESERVE TO KNOW!!!
South Tahoe Public Utility District –
Salary: $19.98 – $28.12 Hourly … Lubricates and maintains equipment and District vehicles. 7. … ©Copyright by South Tahoe Public Utility District.
South Tahoe Public Utility District –
Salary: $29.49 – $41 … and maintenance procedures requested by other departments under the District’s work order … by South Tahoe Public Utility District.
Salaries by position, not name, are public information. The state controller publishes them. The current raises, though, are not yet reflected on the state website. Here is a link to what the state has: http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/SpecialDistricts/SpecialDistrict.aspx?entityid=2186&fiscalyear=2010
Kathryn Reed, LTN publisher
WHAT BOTHERS ME THE MOST IS WHEN I SEE THESE EMPLOYES RIDING AROUND IN DISTRICT TRUCKS TAKING CARE OF PERSONAL BUSINESS LIKE BANKING, SHOPPING AND VISITING FRIENDS WHILE THEY ARE ON THE TIME CLOCK OR AT HOME DURING WORKING HOURS TAKING CARE OF MORE PERSONAL BUSINESS, I THINK THAT SOMEONE SHOULD BE KEEPING TRACK OF THERE WORK PRODUCTION A LITTLE CLOSER AND START THINKING OF WAYS TO IMPROVE AND STOP WASTING THE RATE PAYERS MONEY.
A 30% REDUCTION IN PAY WOULD BE A GOOD START.
WAKE UP, ERIC SCHAFER. AND DENNIS COCKING
What STPUD did was bring the salaries in alignment with the rest of the state. The median increase was not 14% like some of you alluded to. That was the top end. As the article states, some workers received a 0% raise. Some employees have been working for many years well below their market rate. It is short-sighted to think that we can continue to keep talented individuals in this town and pay them well below what they are worth. Has anyone checked into what the STPUD rates are for homeowners as compared to the rest of the state? I’ve heard of 150% and 200% increases in other areas. We have not seen that here. We have smart people running the show and they have kept the rate increases to a minimum despite the massive regulations they face to take care of the infrastructure here in Tahoe.
THANK YOU KAE FOR POSTING THAT SITE ON THE DISTRICT, EVEN THOUGH THE SALARIES ARE 2 YEARS OLD AND DON’T SHOW WHAT A 13%& 14% INCREASE IS IT STILL SHOWS THE SALARIES OF 2 YEARS AGO. I WAS AMAZED THAT THE DIRECTOR SCHAFER MAKES OVER $202,000, PLUS BENEFITS.
EVERYONE SHOULD GO TO THAT SITE AND SEE WHAT IS GOING ON.
THANKS AGAIN KATHRYN REED FOR THE SITE.
It’s the general manager who makes more than $200,000/year.
The board’s biggest compensation is each member can opt to take health care benefits. This is reflected on one of the last pages of the document.
Kathryn Reed, LTN publisher
How many of you complaining went to a STPUD meeting or wrote a letter to voice your opinion? The sound of silence in all aspects of our local community are deafening.
Hoe is it that the state figures are almost 2 years old? 2011 should be available from each gov. agency.
STPUD arrogantly continues to sweeten the pot for their employees and mgmt. Here are some suggestions:
1. Remove the position of Public Information Officer. This would save around 200k+ (guessing). STPUD is a company of only 92 employees. Why does it need to pay Dennis Cocking to put a +spin on every move the agency makes? Like with most water agencies, the General Manager, Richard Solbrig should easily be able to provide whatever company information/commentary to their customers.
2. Hire an independent efficiency expert to review all agency operations. From what I have seen, STPUD could lose many of it’s staff and do just fine.
3. Trying to get STPUD to become more efficient will require a change of Board members. The agency knows how inefficient they are. With such a large customer base living out of town, the opportunity to change things will require locals to vote for a change in the Board makeup.
The district G.M. is top notch, none better. The policy of letting employees take home any tool they want anytime for any use has to stop. This is not a union issue, the board made this decision and can and should reverse it.
Tax Payers are betrayed by their government.
None of these high paid people invested a dime or risked anything to get to where they are unlike a private business owner.
It is not hard to run something that has a captive clientele with NO competition. How can these wages be justified?
The bottom line is Public Unions must be disband!!! They are nothing more than power/money grabbing entities that do absolutly no good for the ulitmate public that is paying for all of this. Just another layer of bureaucrates that are beyond useless. Waste, abuse fraud, lies is all these Unions stand for anymore. They are as obsolete as trying to keep a hand pump going!! Let’s take back our State.
Who are government employee unions fighting for wages and benefits against? Us the tax payers!
Get rid of them all, government jobs should not be union, it punishes every citizen. It’s bad enough in the private sector, but at least we can chose to use their services, or buy their products, in public services, our choice has been taken away, and we are held hostage.
Lets get STPUD meetings on tv[21] so we can to see the madness.
as i have stated here previously, public sector unions must be eliminated. i agree wholeheartedly on this issue with the previous posters. how will we go about this process?
First, to say that taking money that came from rate payers to pay for the old health plan, and then redirecting a portion of that to fund pay increases, and then saying the money for the pay increases does not come from rate payers is disingenuous. Think of it this way, if rate payers stop paying their bills, will the district still have the funding for the pay increases?
Second, in looking at the salary information, the pay rates at the top end do not necessarily look out of line. It’s the salaries in the middle that cause question. More than 20% of full time employees make over $100,000 per year. The HR Director makes $112K. The Accounting Manager makes $111K. The Grants Coordinator Makes $79K. A Lab Tech makes $83K. Here are some more: Accounting Supervisor $85K, Vehicle Mechanic $75K, Maintenance Mechanic $71K, Account Clerk $62K, Admin Assistant $55K, Contract Administrator $69K. And these wages are all before the pay increases.
On the one hand, I don’t begrudge anyone making a good living. But, on the other hand, I’m familiar with the duties and qualifications required for these positions, and I can tell you these are not typical salaries for this region. In fact, a lot of these positions could be filled with well qualified employees at somewhere around 40% of the above wages.
Does a pay scale that is this out of line with geographic market rates for the same qualifications and skills really meet the test of boards fiduciary responsibilities to rate payers?
Is the PERS contribution included in gross salary? PERS is about 25%, so that brings the take-home pay more in line with what I would expect for those positions. But I think it is really irresponsible for STPUD to give themselves a raise, claim its not from ratepayers money (see Say What’s explanation) and try to lie to the public. But, Dennis Cocking is amoral and will say any self serving thing that comes to his mind.
Taxes and regulations are going up on everything you do in California…
EVERYTHING!
Plus many more small business types of people are leaving and those who stay will owe it all…
Get use to it.
13%???. Seems pretty high to me. I’m all for people making more money but that is a huge increase. I’m not looking forward to seeing my next sewer / water bill. No rate hike on my bill? I doubt that very much.
At my old job when we got a raise it was usually around 3%. Small but welcome nonetheless.
Half the homes on my street are second homes for folks that live off the hill, maybe come up for a few days every other month. Fair to them? When their rates go up yet again for a sevice they rarely use? NO!
So congratulations STPUD on your payhike,(wish I had a job there!).
Take Care, Old Long Skiis
LA LA LA! YELL OUT LOUD BECAUSE I AM SUCH A SMART CURMUDGEON! ALL CAPS FOR ME! UNIONS BAD! EVERYTHING UNIONS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR: BAD! HEALTH INSURANCE BAD! WORKERS COMP BAD! THE WEEKEND: BAD!
I 100% agree with Xlocal, the fact is we have a STPUD employee living in our neighborhood, and man does this person think they have an entitlement. This person has been witnessed sneaking off the STPUD job and going home to work on their side business. Fact, this person has also been witnessed using a limb shredder that had STPUD branded on the side of it at their residents. This is just the tip of the iceberg of alarming wrong doings regarding this particularly STPUD employee, plus they get a 13.31% raise for being dishonest! Come on folks we need to take this to the streets than to STPUD admin, the STPUD union needs to go away.
Fact, This GM Solbrig is a far cry from a top notch GM, he is fully aware of these unethical work activities and thus he protects these types of STPUD employees getting away with this behavior.
Why? Because the GM once upon a time was a “good ole boy” of the same union, they protect their own!
Nothing like being bent over for someone else to reap your sewing?
When will any other agency do something to save all us hardship’s to flush the toilet?
The GM was never in the union.
I stand corrected regarding GM Solbrig, I suppose.
However, fact remains, I suspect not all STPUD employee’s display this dishonest behavior, I would not know and would not expect them to, normal employee’s don’t do this. Fact, this STPUD employee displays dishonesty from what has been eye wittnessed for many years in the neighborhood in which we live.
STPUD needs to drug test their employee’s