Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

Email: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

Fax: 626-307-9081

Sparks flew and tempers flared at the Monterey Park City Council Meeting on September 1.  Council watchers witnessed the first public split of Councilmember Mitch Ing from Councilmembers Betty Tom Chu and Frank Venti.

It was over money. It was over the salaries of the police officers and the fire battalion chiefs (Items 17 and 18 on the agenda).

The Council majority directed staff to negotiate a 5% reduction in their base salary for a two-year term and agree to modifications in the CalPERS benefits for the employees and their survivors.

The Police Officers’ Association agreed to a 5% reduction in their base salaries for two years and all new-hires contribute 33% of the employee contribution (9%) towards their CalPERS retirement. Currently the city contributes 100% of the employee contribution.

The Fire Department’s Professional Chief Officers agreed to a 5% reduction in their base salaries for two years and a modification to the CalPERS benefits Pre-Retirement Option 2W Death Benefit (Their survivors would receive their pension on the day of their death.) and increasing their life insurance from $50,000 to $100,000.

Councilmembers Chu and Venti demanded these Memorandums of Understanding be voided and their salaries be reduced to 10%. They stated that the budget could be worse in the next few years and the city could not reduce their income for two years if these memorandums were approved.

Staff and the labor attorney reminded Council that they negotiated the memorandums with the Council’s instructions.  They did so in good faith.

Mark Hensley, the city attorney advised Councilmembers Chu and Venti they could not void the memorandums in open session and would have to go into closed session.

Mrs. Chu and Mr. Venti explained that the city’s lack of sales tax and Sacramento’s greed were their reasons for voiding the contracts.

They felt that the $400,000 estimated sales tax from the Atlantic Times Square project was inflated. They stated the earlier city budgets were based on inflated numbers.

Mr. Ing, Mr. Wong and Mr. Lau disagreed with them and voted to agree to both of the contracts. They stated the funds were available to pay these reduced salaries.

Council watchers were surprised by all the yelling and hot tempers between Councilmembers Ing, Chu and Venti who normally support each other in public.

Mr. Venti did announced that he would not be on Council after the March election.  That was good news to most of the residents of our city.

Mrs. Chu was heard to say idiots ran the city. She walked off the dais before the meeting was adjourned. She has made several references to her wasting her time on Council. Will she finish out her term?

Mr. Ing advised the residents that the funds saved by a 10% reduction to these salaries would not be worth the trouble to re-negotiate the contracts.

I am torn between the employment issues and our city’s lack of sales tax to support our services.

I pay 5% into my 401K-pension plan and my employer matches my donation.  I am jealous that some of my employees are not paying into their CalPERS pension plan. We taxpayers are paying for their pensions.

Our new employees will be paying into their CalPERS pension plan so our city government is taking of page from corporate America that employees should be responsible for their pensions.

I have been working in corporate America since 1964 so I have a few small employer- paid pensions that will help in my golden years.  I also have been laid off six times working in the mortgage industry over the last 39 years so I know all about the layoff process. It is very painful to be unemployed and not be able to find another job.

My hometown of Monterey Park has not been blessed to collect sales tax from all the little stores in our shopping districts.  Some shopkeepers do not have cash registers to record their sales and our sales tax dollars.  Therefore we may not be collecting all the sales tax we are due.

The general employees are taking the brunt of the layoffs as the budget is getting tighter and tighter. They are civil servants who can bump another person from their job if they can prove that they have more seniority and experience to do the new job.

While bumping is legal it is a morale issue for all the employees and residents of the city. Some employees have been bumped right out of their jobs and into the street.

Our employees work for a city that permitted previous Councils to reduce our chances for normal shopping centers by restricting the size of commercials lots on Garvey, Garfield, Atlantic and New.

A developer wishing to build a large shopping center needs to collect the little lots and add them together for a good size parcel of land for their project. This takes time and a good deal of money. This is not easy to do in this economic downturn.

Thank goodness that many developers are building small housing projects on the old condo project sites within the city. Three, four or five mini mansions on these sites will produce higher property taxes to keep our city going.

While our property tax future looks stalwart, our sales tax future is bleak.

Monterey Park maybe destined to stay a bedroom community with the residents doing their major shopping in other cities.

Our future is still up in the air…we need faith that it will be successful.

Please remember all the men, woman and children who lost their lives on September 11. They died because they were living the American dream. We must keep the dream alive for future generations.