Citizen group calls for cuts on Sammamish employee benefits
May 7, 2010
By J.B. Wogan
New: May 7, 3:03 p.m.
A citizen activist group unveiled a report May 3 that says the cost of city employees is going to drain Sammamish dry.
Harry Shedd, who heads the budget and finance division for Citizens for Sammamish, projected that the combined salaries and benefits of in-house city staff would be the city’s biggest operating expense by 2020.
Citizens for Sammamish is a citizen group that meets on a monthly basis to discuss current affairs at City Hall with a guest speaker — usually an elected official. The group also sends members to monitor the city’s public meetings.
Twenty-four residents attended the May 3 meeting at the Fire Station 82, in addition to City Council members Nancy Whitten, Tom Odell and John Curley.
Shedd’s projections were an extension of a graph produced by the city in March. Both graphs assume that salaries would climb at a rate of 3 percent a year and benefits would climb at a rate of 10 percent a year from 2011 onward.
Those projections are based on historical data, according to the city’s deputy finance director, Aaron Antin.
In 2010, the city spent about $9 million on staff salaries and benefits.* It budgeted 75 full-time employees. The city also hires consultants on a contract-basis who do not receive benefits.
Shedd said the city needed to focus on reducing the cost of employee benefits going forward.
“Do we have the courage to make those tough decisions?” he asked.
Shedd added that elected officials needed to stop fixing all of the blame on the cost of firefighters.
When benefits are included, city employees already represent a bigger cost than fire protection.
By comparison to $9 million in city employee pay and benefits, the city spent about $5.6 million on its entire fire protection contract in 2010.
Whitten said she wasn’t as concerned by city employee pay as by firefighter pay.
“In my mind, it’s not so big a problem … because they are willing to negotiate,” Whitten said. “There are lots of things you can do when it becomes a problem.”
Sammamish city employees are not unionized, though they did collectively offer to take a pay cut of four-tenths of one percent for 2010, based on a drop in the region’s cost of living. The council declined the offer and voted to pay employees at the same level as 2009.
There is a distinction between Sammamish’s city employees and its firefighters: the firefighters are unionized and the city has just a quarter of the voting power and influence over firefighter contracts. Elected officials from Issaquah, North Bend, and two King County fire districts also vote on Eastside Fire and Rescue’s labor contracts.
Councilman Tom Odell said he was following the city employee pay issue closely and anticipated that the city would shop around for less costly health insurance plans in 2011.
He noted that EFR’s firefighters shopped around for less expensive heath insurance plans to help cut costs and avoid layoffs in December 2009.
The same kind of work might reduce the cost of employees within the city, he said.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
*This story corrects how much the city is paying in staff salaries and benefits for 2010.
Comments
Got something to say?
Before you comment, please note:
- These comments are moderated.
- Comments should be relevant to the topic at hand and contribute to its discussion.
- Personal attacks and/or excessive profanity will not be tolerated and such comments will not be approved.
- This is not your personal chat room or forum, so please stay on topic.
