In Your Corner

Next week Martin County will begin negotiations with the Teamsters Union on their 2010 contract. We will be following these actions closely and offering our advice and support to what could and should be a precedence setting negotiation. Several of our Board members, including one with vast experience in negotiating contracts and managing Human Resources, will be attending these open discussions and we will offer our perspective to both sides. As both parties prepare for these talks we would like to suggest the following considerations - which we believe should apply to all future personnel contracts:

They must bring into balance the total compensation costs of the County’s direct pay and all benefit programs. This requires that the county do the following:

1. Bring pay in line with both other government entities with which they compete for employees and with the local private sector, which has historically been underrepresented in these calculations. 

2. Review and either amend, reduce, or eliminate entirely, all HR practices and policies that are outdated, ineffective or unnecessary.

Many are carryovers from days when local, state and federal workers were underpaid in comparison with employees in the private sector. This is no longer true and the county should take appropriate short and long term actions to correct these anomalies.

3. Consider new benefit packages that incorporate the intentions of previous policies in a more cost effective parcel.

Many of the above changes will require renegotiations with the various unions in the county and the process should begin now. We have seen the long term implications of unchecked changes in pay and benefits in California’s governments as well as the automobile industry, airlines and railroads, etc. Unless required changes are actively and creatively engaged they will generate ongoing problems with our County’s budgets. Taxpayers should not be held hostage to outdated benefit packages and raising taxes is definitely not the answer. Taking strong positions will be required and the unions should be an active part of the solution, not considered part of the problem.

Many of the policies and practices currently allowed in public sector employment are ineffective and often times unnecessary in order to recruit and retain employees. Policies such as banked sick pay, banked vacation pay, retention bonuses, etc. are not considered best practices in either government or industry and were eliminated years ago in the private sector.

A major public sector issue is the outmoded practice of paying cost-of-living allowances on top of merit increases, step increases, etc. No private sector companies can provide such a fiscally lethal combination of compounded personnel cost. Neither should the public sector.

In summary, to bring about these necessary changes our Commissioners are going to have to instruct the county staff to review each and every personnel policy and practice to determine which should be maintained, reduced, amended, or eliminated entirely - and the attendant cost of each. While we believe that County has well qualified staff, we continue to recommend that an outside professional negotiator be used to provide perspective and personal insulation from those they work with on a daily basis. We have recommended for years that all union negotiations and even senior personal employment contracts with the County be accomplished by outside professionals. It has been the top item on our annual wish list for the County for many years. The effort appeared successful when the administrator attempted to hire such a consultant for this purpose two years ago. It was killed by Commission vote. Maybe increased voter awareness during this period of economic challenges will make our new Commission be more astute in handling the County’s “negotiations”.