Seal Beach Police officers received pay raises that outpaced inflation between July 1, 2007, and July 1, 2012, according to a local activist.
According to District Three Planning Commissioner Robert Goldberg, the base salary for officers (below the rank of corporal) increased 21.5 percent over the last two contracts.
Goldberg raised the issues because Seal Beach officials looked at labor negotiations with the police union during a Monday, Feb. 11, closed session of the City Council.
The council gave direction to the city’s labor negotiator concerning the police contract that is scheduled to expire in June.
According to Goldberg, a self-appointed city budget watcher, says that inflation (based Consumer Price Index figures provided by Seal Beach staff) increased by 13.2 percent during the same period.
That information did not include bonuses, special assignments or overtime.
A Seal Beach records officer would have received a 38.9 percent pay increase during the same five-year period, according to Goldberg’s research.
A police sergeant: an 18.5 percent pay increase.
“The raises on April 13, 2009 were outside of the (memorandums of understanding) and were included in a broad package of pay increases granted to almost all city employees,” Goldberg said.
“These were based in part on the ‘Classification and Compensation Study Report’ by Creative Management Solutions Inc dated Feb. 6, 2009. This study analyzed job demands and comparative salaries at other cities. City staff never informed the public what the percent increases were that the council approved,” Goldberg said.
In addition to police salaries, Goldberg also expressed concerned about police health insurance and pension costs. “The current monthly allowance for health insurance for police is 14-49 percent higher than that received by our top executives and managers,” Goldberg said
“The city’s police pension payment to CalPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System) will go up from 26.4 percent to 27.9 percent of salary on July 1st,” he wrote in an e-mail to the City Council.
“This does not include the 9 percent ‘employee share’ that the city is now paying in full as well,” Goldberg said.
“The city, as of yet, has not implemented the ‘second tier’ pension (2 percent at 50) for new hires that the unions agreed to in November 2010,” Goldberg said.
