We are concerned that the city continues to close budget shortfalls with reductions in fire, police and community services. Proposed recreation program reductions include closing the Community Pool facility with its three pools. What next?

Overly generous employee benefits continue to create budget problems here and elsewhere. In 2000, 2001 and 2007, the council passed enhanced, retroactive employee retirement benefits: 3 percent at 50 for safety and 2.5 percent at 55 for non-safety employees. This raised pension costs 25 to 50 percent at a time when housing, the economy and revenues were declining.

For non-safety employees, taxpayers pay to CalPERS both the employee and employer (city) pension share, totaling 22 percent of salary; for safety it is near 26 percent. These pensions costs, plus those for family health and dental care, life insurance, survivor benefits, retiree health care, etc., are borne almost entirely by taxpayers.

If employees paid their pension share, 8 percent, it would more than cover the budget shortfall. Longer term, the council must adjust pensions downwards, and increase retirement ages.

Without a voter initiative, San Jose will shift to partial volunteer fire and police service in five years. Increased employee contributions will be too late a remedy. Do we need an initiative, or can the City Council act for taxpayers?

If savings/adjustments can’t be made with employee unions, then the council should get bids to privatize/contract some city operations. Rich Rifkin, in the July 10, 2010, edition of The Davis Enterprise, showed that our employee costs are 50 percent more than private.

Our city employees do a very good job, and should be allowed to bid for the work; e.g., for park and pool maintenance. Our fire service is great but so under-used: three to four calls per day per station, mainly medical calls. Having firefighters live in the Davis and use an on-station-plus-on-call combination to supplement the ambulance service would save $2 million-plus a year.

Contract cities in the Sacramento area have budget surpluses and good reserves (see Sacbee.com). But here, public employee salary and pension costs, over which we seem to have little control, or willingness to deal with, are rising rapidly. These could overwhelm revenues from our relatively fixed population, costing us the loss of facilities and services, and ultimately changing for the worse, Davis, as we know it!

Paul Brady and Kathleen Flaherty

Davis

This letter was updated June 28 to reflect the following information: The Davis Fire Department employees’ retirement deal was changed to 3 percent at 50 years old in September 2000, Police Department employees were changed to 3 percent at 50 in June 2001, and miscellaneous city employees were changed to 2.5 percent at 55 in June 2007.

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