12-19-11 CRC RPT 02 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE To prevent the City Council from taking action in closed session contrary to recommendations of City management, including the City Manager and the Finance Director, with regard to wages, salaries, and benefits, particularly health and pension, to the detriment of the citizens of the City of Riverside, I suggest that you incorporate a provision in the Charter requiring the Council to establish an independent wages, salaries, and benefits committee consisting of seven or nine citizens of Riverside to publically review and then submit and recommend to the Council specific proposals for wages, salaries, and benefits. The committee should be comprised of one councilman, one general employee, one safety employee, one management employee, the Finance Director or a substitute, and two to four private citizens, including a finance person or accountant. All members of the committee should be citizens of Riverside. Having the committee publically propose the wages, salaries, and benefits eliminates the conflict of interest that the Mayor and Council have since they directly benefit from the wages, salaries, and benefits they establish. Further, they will not be able to buy votes with public money as they did in 2003 when they raised the pension contribution from 2.0% per year to 2.7% per year for general employees, a 35% per year increase, and to 3.0% per year for safety employees, a 50% per year increase, and lowered the required age of retirement to 60 years and 50 years, respectively, and made the benefits retroactive to the employees date of employment. Robert A. Krieger 2644 Vista de Victoria Riverside, CA 92506 M