HUNTINGTON BEACH : Group Asks Council to Roll Back Raises

City government is giving its employees champagne pay raises on a beer budget, a residents’ group has charged. City officials, however, have denied the charge, saying the pay raises are a part of three-year contracts negotiated in 1990, before the onset of the economic recession.

Huntington Beach Tomorrow on Monday night chastised the city for giving employees raises totaling 13.5% within the past two years. Dave Sullivan, president of the citizens group, called for a rollback of the 5% pay raise already approved by the City Council and scheduled to go into effect later this year. He said the 5% hike, on top of an 8.5% raise last year, is out of line with what other cities are giving their employees.

“In view of the recession and the fact that the city employees received an 8.5% raise in 1991, we strongly feel that there should be no raise for 1992,” Sullivan said. He added that many businesses, in sharp contrast to city government, are giving “no raises and sometimes cutbacks in pay.”

City officials, in rebuttal, have said the pay raises in the various contracts, including that of city police, were not overly generous when Huntington Beach’s existing base pay was considered.

Sullivan spoke during a public hearing by the City Council about how the city should cope with a $5-million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year.

Sullivan noted that a citizens budget-review committee, appointed by the City Council, has already recommended a reduction from 5% to 2% for the pay raise scheduled for city employees this year. But Sullivan said Huntington Beach Tomorrow believes that the entire 5% pay raise should be scrapped. He said city government has been overly generous, giving pay raises for the past two years that are much higher than those given by surrounding communities.

Sullivan said the combined pay raises for the past two years total 5.5% in Costa Mesa, 6% in Newport Beach, 4% in Los Alamitos and Seal Beach, and 4.5% in Irvine.

Huntington Beach city employees “should be given this choice, either give back the 1992 raise or the city will have to lay off or furlough a sufficient number of current employees to pay for the over $3 million in raises,” Sullivan told the City Council.

” . . . Huntington Beach Tomorrow is in favor of employee raises. However, because of the 1991 8.5% raise and because of the recessionary shortfall, this is the inappropriate time.”