Special City Council meeting unveils successful negotiations to reduce liabilities

To avoid going down the bankruptcy path as many cities had to over the past few years, the City of South Lake Tahoe today adopted resolutions to restructure the wage and benefit packages of its employees.

The new wage and benefit plans include a mixture of more clearly defined benefits and contributions. It was the undefined plans of the past that caused $25M in unfunded liabilities.

In front of a packed council chambers full of firemen and other staff, City Manager Nancy Kerry unveiled the results of negotiations between five of the six employee groups and the City.

Changes to their benefit packages were approved by the Stationary Engineers Local 39 (General and Public Works),South Lake Tahoe Administrative and Confidential Employees’ Association (Local 1), South Lake Tahoe Firemen’s Association, South Lake Tahoe Police Officer’s Association and the South Lake Tahoe Police Supervisor’s Association. The only group still in negotiations is the South Lake Tahoe Police Association.

The City Manager thanked the employee group representatives Bill Kline, Mary Ann Brand, Ray Poole, Shannon Norrgard, Scott Blasser and Melissa Dube and their union representatives. While not everyone might be happy with the results, they did all compromise to resolve the issues in front of them.

"The city continues to demonstrate its commitment to living within its means and current available resources," said Kerry.

Funding for changes to increase wages and optional benefits, has been derived from changes to Medical Plans, elimination of Retiree Medical Benefits and contributions to Retiree Medical Savings Accounts (RMSA), and other wage/benefit
and debt restructuring.

Each employee group was given a "piece of the pie" to divide and use as they deemed the best for their staff. They used these funds to decide wage increases and benefits. They had choices of different options including deferred compensation, cafeteria contributions, longevity pay, capping vacation balances and a PERS swap.

Nancy Kerry commended the Department Directors who took less of a raise so their employees could have more. The chart included in this story shows the increase in wages approved.

The Mayor, City Council and City Manager all spoke to the gathered employees, thanking them for their dedication to solving the problem.