Opinion: S. Tahoe is being fair to taxpayers, workers, retirees
By Hal Cole
Let me be candid. There is presently a noose around the city’s neck titled “pension and health care” and unless we restructure the way these benefits are delivered it will choke our city’s future.
We are not alone. Most cities are experiencing the same predicament. Those who address it head-on will survive, those who don’t will go the way of Stockton, San Bernardino and Vallejo.
Hal Cole
Our past efforts to address our rapidly rising payroll costs included reducing other expenses by way of debt restructuring, layoffs, and tightening department budgets. In spite of the rapid rise in our employee benefits costs, we have still been able to present a balanced budget. Our actuaries today reveal that unless we address this issue now, we will be facing deficits again within a few years.
As we enter negotiations with our employees, we must partner with them and create a financially sustainable agreement that will allow us to refocus our attention on growing our economy by way of reinvestment in our infrastructure.
Simply put, the problem is the taxpayers are essentially paying for two groups of workforces. One made up of current employees, the other retirees. Our city residents cannot pay the estimated $75 million it would cost to fully fund the health care and pension plans for both groups as they exist today. From our polling of other California cities, very few offer full medical insurance for their retirees. We did. We were told by experts at the time that medical costs would go up gradually and that the cost of the employee retirement program (PERS) was “superfunded” and would require no more contributions from either the employees or the employer. Neither of which was true.
Although we have no control over the state controlled retirement program, we can address our health care costs. The city of South Lake Tahoe is different than most other agencies insofar as we are self-insured. We arrange the plan and we pay the medical bills.
Not to be lost in this process is the commitment we made to our retirees. We must offer them the same plan we offer our current employees. This plan has changed over the years (increased deductibles, removal of prescription plans, increased co-pays, etc.) and our retirees have incurred the same modifications.
We are now offering our employees an option of plans. Employees and retirees will all receive a basic plan in accordance with the Affordable Care Act. The new program will allow both current employees and retirees the option to “buy up” their coverage to meet their family’s needs. Our employees are being asked to do something unique in public service. They are being asked to put the wellbeing of their city and its taxpayers ahead of their personal gain. So far many of them are willing to partner with us and we are negotiating as I write this piece.
I would ask our community to thank these employees as they recognize that we all, both in the private and public sector, must accept the new financial landscape we are entering. I am as optimistic as I have ever been for the future of our city.
I also want to thank our city manager and her staff as they have endured the months of negotiations and remind the community that is was with the unanimous and unequivocal support of the City Council that she initiated these discussions. Any complaints or criticism for these changes should be directed at the council and me. Without financial stability, we cannot deliver the services our residents deserve.
Hal Cole is mayor of South Lake Tahoe.
Hal,
How many terms again on the city council does it take to get LIFETIME MEDICAL? Are the council members current and past going to be on the same plans that they are requiring their employees to be on? If I remember right it’s only a few terms on the council, and not 25+ years of your life of dedicated service to the city to get lifetime medical.
Most of the employees that work for the City of South Lake Tahoe already put the well being of the city ahead of their personal gain. Working jobs that require them to work nights holidays and weekends. When is the last time you missed a thanksgiving meal or Christmas morning with your family?
I know what I am griping about is a personal choice for those who are in those jobs, but this people had a very competitive testing process to get into the jobs they have. The reason the current and retired employees got into those jobs were the benefits that were promised to them from the council, with the expectancy that they would get to retire with them.
Now that the benefits are dropping there will be a lots of people leaving, quality employees, who the tax payers paid to train, and now some other city will get the benefit. There are cities again offering sigining bonuses to pre-trained people.
Just some food for thought
If the City is cutting these benefits to the employees why are they giving a 9%+ raises for the employees to opt out and to help them pay for the new insurance plan being offered but are not offering the same increase to the RETIREES ????? People that retired 20 years ago are being hurt very much.
It’s quite revealing to see the government employees and retirees reveal their true colors here. I never knew quite how selfish and demanding they were. I’ve heard that from a lot of people but to see them be so blind to reality and blind to all of us scratching our way through life who make far less than they do, is very revealing and I’d say it explains so much. “From Tahoe” is clearly resentful of their job and says they only reason they came to Tahoe is for the benefits. Maybe we are recruiting the wrong people. It’s clear they are cop and if they only came here for benefits, maybe that’s why our cops have such a bad attitude. And the retired 20 years wants even more in retirement.
Look government employees, you’re facing what we all have been dealing with for years and I’m appalled the City didn’t correct these problems long before now. We who pay your salaries lost 50% of retirement incomes and more in the market crash, home values dropped and are not back yet, we lost our jobs and have nothing to count on.
My financial planner promised me that all the money I had saved would be enough in retirement, who do I blame that we lost most of it? He was wrong. Banks promised homeowners they could afford their mortgage? Who is to blame when MILLIONs of americans lost their homes? Who is to blame when I lost my job? My father had to go back to work in his 70s just to help make ends meet? Who is to blame for that, who should he have demanded give him more retirement money? Who is to blame you took a government job and work weekends? Lots of people work holidays and weekend, just ask the casino workers who probably make a third of what you make. Get your head out of your bubble people.
It’s most revealing to see these people think you are so different than the rest of us. The world doesn’t owe you anything.
I agree with you completely Scott. Especially when you see the costs we the taxpayers are shouldering for their pay/benefits.
http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2012/south-lake-tahoe/?&s=-base
I suppose the people who work for the city feel they should be insulated from the same economic realities that everyone else has to face.
Thanks for that link. Look at the pension side! A recreation manager making $123,000 in retirement? And all those police officers making so much money and they are retired. Hal is right, it’s like paying twice. And there is some note on there that it might not be their full pension? How cow.
http://transparentcalifornia.com/pensions/2012/calpers/?e=CITY%20OF%20SOUTH%20LAKE%20TAHOE
So sad to see that the moral compass turns so quickly when money is involved. People were made promises about the future when they took those jobs. Now that things have become worse for most, politicians are scrambling to try and please the voters with the most clout. I have not heard of any of our elected officials say ” We are going to keep the promises we made.” I have not heard any of them say “I will take a pay cut and lessen my benefit package to help keep the promises we made.”
Remember that when you listen to the promises they make during election time.
Cry me a river.
This is what happens in the real world. Perhaps we should cut back further on government staffing.
Personally I can’t comprehend why Council members get medical coverage at all. They are part time elected officials who have other positions in the community. In addition, what is it about “vested right” & “contractual obligation” that the Council just can’t quite seem to understand? Health insurance for the older (dying off) retirees became a “vested right” when the City Council signed contracts agreeing to provide such insurance if the employees (now retirees) agreed to waive pay increases repeatedly over many years & provide a certain number of years of service. A “contract” is a binding agreement on both parties to perform the obligation. In the case of the older retirees, that meant they had to work 25 years to fulfill their half of the obligation. Lesser service resulted in them paying a portion of those medical insurance costs. A contract can’t just be set aside because it suddenly becomes inconvenient for 1 of the parties involved. It’s the same as if you’d purchased a car – a legal contract. You made your payments every month on time according to the sales/financing contract but suddenly the dealer decided he wanted the car back & had it repossessed. Same thing. The City needs to honor the contracts they signed & not continually try to weasel out of them because they are now inconvenient.
Haddi, city employees should not “insulated” by having “promises” kept while the rest of us shoulder the burden and are getting by with MUCH less. Boo-hoo. I don’t think you are going to get much sympathy from non-city employees…
Yo Hal are you giving up your benefit package?
Mr. Freestone:
You forgot to mention the medical insurance benefits that were completely eliminated for private sector workers through job loss, downsizing, and restructuring of employee status from full-time to part-time. Because the cost of providing health insurance has become prohibitive for businesses a lot of people working in the private sector have needed to spend a lot of money purchasing their own health insurance at a much higher non-group cost, and then a lot of people unable to afford to purchase what businesses can’t afford to purchase have needed to shift to public assistance for their healthcare needs.
But while both these circumstances are extremely troubling the real crux of the problem is the exorbitant cost of health care in the United States. When are our federally elected government officials going to get their heads out of their as*es and recognize that access to healthcare shouldn’t be a right and privilege of only the wealthy, or a free service to the very poor? And the disappearance of the middle class continues.
Being a retired “Public Safety Employee” I agree with From Tahoe. I also understand the sentiments of the citizens who pay taxes who have a bad view due to obvious waste by government and the common perception of some government workers. Tahoe is unique in that there is mostly a very small pool of people that apply for these safety positions that can pass the vigorous process of being hired, successfully trained and have the skills to perform the duties of the jobs successfully. This is not an opinion it is a fact. Yes, people love Tahoe, but in reality not very many people are willing to relocate to this area for numerous reasons to include winter weather, remoteness, reduced pay and benefits in comparison to other parts of California. In recent years under the former City Manager there were were days when city employees were sent home early from their jobs at the airport offices (paid time off or forced vacation time used, I don’t know but I can guess) so that they did not have to be subject to the forecasted blizzard like, potentially life threatening winter weather storms that had been forecasted. However public safety employees are required to drive to work (most traveling from the valley) to do their “essential” jobs under these same conditions. Yes, I know many of you are saying that “you picked that job” but that is just an easy out for people to use to bash government employees in general. I guarantee you that public safety employees who make a career out of their profession do it because of their passion to help people, often during the most tragic times of a citizens life. No one would stay in this profession for the so called “perks of an easy government job”, as may be the case of other government jobs. There will be a lessening quality of public safety personnel in SLT that will be transparent to the average citizen but with the high potential for needless loss of life and possible devastating “negligent duty” lawsuits against the city that will most definitely increase. Maybe this is an acceptable risk for the citizens of SLT. There needs to be a balance between “screw those government employees” and what they were promised through negotiated contracts over the years. We didn’t build the system, we are/were just part of an already ever changing system doing our jobs knowing what the terms were. So to just pull the rug out from underneath these people with the “screw them” attitude is not only narrow minded and self serving it is unfair. Hopefully there can be an equitable decision made that is fair to the taxpayers and the workers. The likes of “Scott Freestone” who are bitter about life in general will always be out there and I’m sure the majority of people who can only see their side of things will continue to have their blind bias but I know there are two sides to every story and not only one side is complete facts, truth or correct.
BC and Living in SLT.
I am not a city, county or other government employee of any kind. Never have been, never will be.
Sounds to me like you don’t like paying your fair share. Probably don’t keep any promises you make either. The “Real World” is what WE make it. Why not break the promises we made to NATO? Why not break the promises the bank makes to hold on to your money and give it to you when you want it? Why not have everyone just do what THEY want to do?
Do you have any viable solutions or do you just like to ***** about things?
When I retire, I will be offered NO medical insurance from the City.
Hal
I am shocked after looking at the pay and benefits the City employees receive. I spent my entire career in the technology industry that is known for high level compensation. However that compensation was tied to results. These numbers are way out of line vs. the private sector. I remember being told by my depression era parents that government jobs did not pay well but were secure. Today it seems they are secure and pay extraordinarily well with no risk.
Hal-
I must believe you don’t need it now. In retirement you will have medicare. I think the issue is, like Congress, the City Council votes itself some benefits that are not available to common citizens. I.E. full medical coverage for a part time job.
BTW, I disagree with SLTEXPAT about all of our public safety people being willing and great public servants.
Sure, some are of good morals and do have citizens interests at heart. But in my 65 years I’ve known a few who actually bragged about the great deal…Typical boast….I don’t have to go to college, vocational training I may not have to pay for will do, I will retire at 55, and if I can get on a small city fire dept, I can probably get shift work that has enough days off it allows me to run a business or have another almost full time job. One even mentioned full disability was easy to come by if you can call it line of duty. Back pain is the most common (and hard to disprove) way to get disability.
I about puked when I heard this with my own ears.
Then there are the police, some of whom just like the guns and sirens and the power to bust a few heads for fun. How many times have you seen our sheriffs or police with some (often non-white person) handcuffed and face down in snow or wet pavement.
Even the vaunted CHP had one of its own filmed recently, astride a fairly elderly woman beside a freeway pounding her in the head. She was a danger to who??????
Hal Cole, Thank you for being honest and open about your take on the taxpayers, workers and retirees of the city of SLT. It is a problem that is being looked at by the city council here, and other cities as well.
I hope this issue can be resolved in a fair fashion so everyone comes away feeling the right thing was done…not an easy task!!!
Take care, and say hi to your wife from me, OLS, and thanks to you for working to make The city of South Lake Tahoe a better place to live.
OLS:
Good comments.
While I agree with Mr. Cole that the City is attempting to address the enormous costs of healthcare the real problem is that the United States has a badly broken healthcare system. It is financially crippling both businesses and government agencies that want to do right by their employees and this situation is only getting worse. It is shameful that so many in our country behave like the receipt of needed medical attention is a privilege and that so many others only see the healthcare industry as just another method of making obscene profits.
Please Hal,
You know none of these golden contracts were arms length. You know that the unions bribed the pols by contributing to their campaigns and who knows what else. And you folks buy off cheap. Take a look who paid off the STPUD board with campaign bribes. The new elite: government employees.
When government jobs offer more than private employers can afford, tyranny is not far behind.
Mr. Mosur:
While watching the City Council meetings on the City’s website I have witnessed you speak countless times at countless meetings for many years. I really try to refrain from name calling when I post on this blog and my comments here will likely be removed, but I think you are without a doubt the most negative and critical individual who perpetually addresses the City Council and community at those public meetings while never offering up a single positive suggestion. Your insatiable need to attempt to convince people of how smart you fancy yourself coupled with your equally unquenchable need for attention at those meetings is a confirmation to me that your every appendage must be teeny-weeny.
SPOUSE of 4-mer-usmc
Please SPOUSE refute the facts before attacking the messenger. The El Dorado County Grand Jury slapped SLT’s hand for mismanagement of the RDA and City funds
a few years back. I was told it was great fun to watch some RDA and SLT employees swallow their tongues trying to explain their malfeasance.
legal beagle:
My comments had nothing to do with any supposed facts that Mr. Mosur may have written in his post on this thread and were solely directed at him for the conduct I’ve repeatedly witnessed him display for numerous years at the City Council’s meetings. I realize I’m being a b**ch by posting what I did and by making this post, but I care the same degree about Mr. Mosur’s feelings as he does about the City Council’s, the City staffs’, and the publics’ who are subjected to his drivel when watching a City Council meeting in an effort to be informed.
SPOUSE – 4-mer-usmc
Mr. Ed:
First, I don’t have any cajones, I have boobs. I’m the SPOUSE of 4-mer-usmc. And I don’t use a laptop or go to Denny’s, nor does my spouse. That’s OK though, I’m accustomed to hearing your familiar degree of inexactitude and speculation from listening to you at the City Council’s meetings.
And I don’t use my real name because that, my address, and my telephone number are all in the phone book and it is my preference not to be placed at risk from some individual possessing a similar mental stability as the Unabomber.
Since you believe you have all the answers, why haven’t you run for City Council and shown everybody how government should be operated?
SPOUSE – 4-mer-usmc
Yo Sarge’s Wife old Ed Mosur is stating the facts.
I don’t believe that you have lived here long enough to know them, if you new the blunders that old Hal and the Team have made you would be mad and upset also.
SPOUSE it is the message that counts not the messenger.
Refute Mr. Mosur and lay off the ad hominem speeches and attack his thoughts and ideas. Not everybody is as eloquent as yourself.
Slow and legal beagle:
I don’t care about Mr. Mosur’s thoughts and ideas. He routinely attends City Council meetings and endlessly exercises his right to speak publicly which includes being rude, to demean, to impugn anyone whom he sees fit, and he purposely exploits the circumstance that the people he’s addressing are conducting a public meetings at which they must maintain decorum. He does this on the record at a public meeting that is tape recorded, video recorded, shown on television, and shown 24/7 on the City’s website. I now have exercised my same right as he only to a much smaller audience.
My hope is that someday, some Council member who has been appointed as Mayor will censure Mr. Mosur and demand that he conduct himself in a civilized manner. It is my opinion while Mosur is not necessarily an unintelligent person his bullying tactics at those meetings negates anything he has to say.
SPOUSE – 4-mer-usmc