Long Beach Agrees to Pension Deals with Three Unions

Long Beach — On Oct. 22, the Long Beach City Council agreed to pension reforms with three unions.

The deals did not include paying more toward retirement costs.

Contract with City Manager Pat West and other city management still are in limbo. The city council voted 5-4, councilmen Robert Garcia, Steven Neal, Dee Andrews and Al Austin opposed, to holdup on those deals for a couple of weeks.

Engineers and lifeguards will get 15 percent compensation increases in the two fiscal years that follow in a 7-2 vote, with councilmen Gary DeLong and James Johnson, opposed.  Confidential employees will get 12 percent raises.

The unions agreed to increase their pension contributions to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System from 2 to 8 percent of their salaries. So, the 6 percent of the first year’s raise will be paying for their share of pension costs.

The four unions that that dealt with the council Oct. 22 were working with expired contracts. The raises are retroactive to Oct. 1, when the fiscal year began.

The Oct. 22 negotiations expected to cost the general fund $800,000 in 2014 and $1.8 million in the years that follow.