Council to Discuss City Manager in Closed Session

The Redondo Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to place an item regarding charges or complaints against City Manager Bill Workman on a future closed session agenda.

Councilman Bill Brand, who represents District 2, made the initial motion after Jeffrey Monical, a representative of the Coalition of Redondo Employees, spoke in front of a chambers packed with employees during the time reserved for public comment on non-agenda items during the council's regular meeting. Sammarco seconded the motion.

Brand said he was "moved" by the employees' effort, as this was not their first time filling the council chambers. Last month, CORE members showed up in force to present the results of a no-confidence vote against Workman.

Of the approximately 410 employees under Workman's purview, 297 returned ballots, and about 98 percent of the ballots received expressed no confidence in the job Workman has been doing. 

Employees who work in the City Treasurer's, City Clerk's and City Attorney's offices are not under Workman's purview.

Workman did not respond to the council's decision to place an item about him on the closed session agenda, nor did he respond to Monical's comments. Nevertheless, in a statement released prior to CORE's demonstration in November, Workman indicated that he believed the issue was connected to employee compensation.

He said the city council has approved last, best and final compensation offers for each of the employee unions. The offers were delivered Nov. 13.

"We care about our City employees," Workman wrote. "The City is a healthy, high performing organization that pays competitive wages. 

"At this time, the City is presently engaged in a labor dispute where public employee unions wish for the City Council to pay wages far beyond (the) City's financial capacity," he said. "The City is only now emerging from the financial distress caused by the Great Recession and the significant revenue take-aways by our State and Federal Government."

The council will consider complaints or charges against Workman at a January 2014 meeting.

This is a developing story. Stay tuned for updates.