Council to Discuss City Manager in Tuesday's Closed Session

A week after the city of Redondo Beach released a statement saying the employee unions had declined a "Last-Best-Final" offer that included 3 percent wage increase in contract negotiations, the Redondo Beach City Council will discuss in closed session the performance of City Manager Bill Workman.

Workman was the subject of a no-confidence vote among city employees held toward the end of last year. About 70 percent of the city's total work force—or about 98 percent of the 297 employees who returned ballots—expressed no confidence in the city manager's performance.

After hearing from a representative from the Coalition of Redondo Employees—a loose coalition made up of members of the Teamsters, Redondo Beach Police Officers Association, Redondo Beach Firefighters Association, City Employees Association, and Professional and Supervisors Association—the Redondo Beach City Council voted unanimously Dec. 17 to discuss Workman's performance in closed session on Tuesday.

The item appears as a public employee performance evaluation for the city manager on Tuesday's agenda. It was not clear if an additional item, labeled as "Public Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release - Complaints or charges brought against an employee by another person or employee," would also be about Workman.

City Attorney Mike Webb told the council in December that members could agendize a discussion about the complaints against the city manager under a similar heading.

Because it is a personnel matter, any such conversation is confidential and handled in closed session.

The controversy has come amid a tense set of contract negotiations for five of the six employee groups. CORE members allege that Workman has not been "honest" in his dealings with employees.

"It has been a very long, drawn-out battle in negotiations for all the labor groups dealing with trying to get something from the city," said Brad Sweatt of the Redondo Beach Firefighters Association. Sweatt was authorized to speak on behalf of CORE and its members' general issues with the city. "Start giving us back what you promised you would give us."

At issue is a 6 percent wage concession that employees voluntarily agreed to more than five years ago at the height of the recession. CORE claims that the 6 percent decrease in wages was to be temporary; however, the city is now claiming that the concession is permanent, according to the employees.

The unions turned down the city's offer, described by Assistant City Manager Pete Grant in the statement as "its last, best and final offer," of a 3 percent wage increase because of this.

"We did not turn down a three percent increase or wage offer … We turned down what would be a three percent return of what they took from us," Sweatt said. "They took away 6 percent, you know, years ago (and) promised to give it back as soon as possible."

Redondo Beach city employees are the lowest-paid in all South Bay cities, according to Sweatt. Employees, on average, make 15-20 percent less than their counterparts in the city with the second-lowest employee salaries, he said.

Sweatt said he suspected that the five employee unions—the Redondo Beach Police Officers Association rank-and-file members will not start negotiating a new contract until the beginning of fiscal year 2014-2015—would not have turned down the 3 percent offer, which also included concessions when it came to retirement and vacation time, had it been made in early stages of negotiating.

He said he found the timing of the Nov. 13 offer suspicious, as it came around the same time as the no confidence vote, which was officially presented to the council Nov. 19.

"In my opinion, it was a way to try to look good in the eyes of the press," Sweatt said. "It's a very, very thin coat of icing on the cake trying to make it look good, but it's nothing of the sort. It's an insulting offer in the midnight hour."

Now that the offer has been rejected, the sides will go into the factfinding portion of collective bargaining under California's Myers-Milias-Brown Act, which governs the state's employer-employee relations. In the factfinding portion, representatives of the two sides present evidence to a panel of factfinders, who will then make a recommendation to the city council.

"We look to continue the labor relations process as called out under the Myers-Milias-Brown employer-employee relations law," said Workman in a news release. "The city of Redondo Beach retains a strong reputation as a place to work for employees with a time-tested city council strategy to maintain a balanced budget while delivering quality services to our residents every day."

The city council has the ultimate authority as to whether it implements the factfinders' recommendations.