Labor talks under wrap

Dave Brooks

No one noticed much when the Huntington Beach City Council strolled

into Monday’s meeting 20 minutes later than normal.

The tardiness may seem innocuous, but the council wasn’t late

because of poor punctuality. In fact it had been in the building

since 4 p.m., and had spent about three-quarters of that time locked

in labor negotiations.

Six of the city’s labor unions are operating on expired contracts.

The Police Officers Assn.’s last contract ran out in September 2003

while the Municipal Employees Assn.’s, the group representing most

city employees, expired just a few months later.

“Last fiscal year was a bad fiscal year, so when you have nothing

to give, it’s kind of hard to reach [a new contractual] agreement,”

said the city’s personnel director Irma Youssefieh.

In fact it was so bad, the city had to layoff 37 employees in July

2003 to put the city in the black. The cuts allowed the city to avoid

layoffs this year and nearly all the unions are pushing for some type

of salary increase, Youssefieh said. When asked if an increase was

likely, she responded “definitely.”

Not much can be publicly said about the city’s ongoing talks with

its eight labor union and employee associations. Like most municipal

governments and private businesses, the City Council negotiates its

contracts in the City Hall’s “back room,” the little-known conference

area behind the dais where closed session talks dealing with

personnel or ongoing litigation are usually held.

State law restricts council members from discussing what is said

in those meetings and only requires the council to report final

decisions.

City Atty. Jennifer McGrath said “there was nothing to report”

after Monday’s meeting, even after the council took the unusual step

to resume closed session talks after the regular meeting.

But during an earlier study session, Huntington Beach Police

Officers Assn. President Russ Reinhart made a brief plea to the

council, urging them to “approve tonight the offer we have on the

table, we really think it’s a good one.”

A rejection of that offer could hamper an otherwise optimistic

negotiation process. While he couldn’t discuss specifics, City

Councilman Keith Bohr said Reinhart seemed happy with negotiations

before Monday’s meetings, but wanted to improve Huntington Beach’s

benefits to help attract more officers.

“One of their contentions is that they are very short staffed and

they having a difficult time attracting lateral hiring,” Bohr said.

“It seems we slipped a bit as to what we can offer competitively.”

As for the Municipal Employees Assn., it’s going to be looking to

the city to pick up a larger share of the health care costs,

Youssefieh said, adding that she thinks the city will be reaching an

agreement with all of its labor unions in the near future.

Any agreement the city reaches, said City Councilman Dave

Sullivan, needs to tackle the city’s growing pension gap. The

lifetime benefit system given to city employees on top of their

regular state benefits is about $30 million in the red, while the

city’s retiree medical plan is also short about $6.7 million.

“I think in the next couple of years when we begin to enter more

fiscally sound times, we’re really going to have take a look at

putting some revenues aside to prepare for these potentially large

unfunded liabilities,” he said.