Flap Over Managers’ Perks Delays Budget Vote : Torrance: The city has set aside $357,000 in leave payouts, but it would cost $600,000 annually if the eligible managers cashed out all their leave days.

Amid mounting questions about management perks, the Torrance City Council this week delayed a vote on a 1992-93 budget so several council members could obtain more information about how the city pays its top managers.

Councilman Bill Applegate spearheaded the move to postpone the budget vote, saying he wanted to know more about Torrance’s policy of allowing top managers to cash out up to 36 days of administrative leave annually. Applegate requested records detailing the origins of the administrative leave policy approved in the late 1980s and how many have cashed out over the years.

City Manager LeRoy J. Jackson told the council Tuesday that it would cost the city $600,000 annually if the 66 or 67 eligible managers cashed out all their leave days. However, the city has budgeted only $357,000 in leave payouts in fiscal 1992-93.

Applegate said that he does not recall ever being told the leave system would cost as much as $600,000, but he wants more information before deciding if the system should be changed.

“I can’t remember us ever dealing with a number of that significance,” Applegate said.

Councilwoman Maureen O’Donnell, meanwhile, asked for extensive records on a merit-based bonus system that awarded $65,600 to top officials this year.

More than 200 Torrance workers showed up for Tuesday’s budget hearing at City Hall, many fuming about what they call the city administration’s efforts to shield managers from budget cuts when employees are being denied across-the-board raises.

“All we want is to be treated fairly and with respect,” said Patrick Astredo, president of Local 1117 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 425 Torrance public works and other employees.

The council had been expected to pass the city’s $148-million budget immediately after a budget hearing Tuesday, but deliberations were postponed for one week. The delay was seen as a setback to Jackson, who eloquently defended his budget to the council and praised what he termed his hard-working management team.

AFSCME staff representative Guido De Rienzo on Wednesday praised the council’s delay in approving the budget.

“There seems to be now a real honest attempt to scrutinize the budget process and how different groups are now being treated,” De Rienzo said. “I think the council should be commended for that.”

The tensions between city employees and management were evident Tuesday in disagreements about when the budget hearing was due to begin. A city legal advertisement in the Daily Breeze gave a 5:30 p.m. starting time for the hearing, and some workers showed up at that time. But the council held an investment workshop at 5:30 and did not open the hearing until after 7:30 p.m.

De Rienzo claimed the city intentionally jiggled the times, but Mayor Katy Geissert said the confusion was unintentional.

The budget scrutiny comes amid what Jackson has termed the most difficult budget season in 14 years for the city, which is suffering from declining sales tax revenue and other income.

Meanwhile, contracts with the city’s unions and other employee associations expire June 30, and many workers have been angered by news that the proposed 1992-93 budget contains no money for across-the-board raises. Although the budget plan calls for enhancing health benefits, overtime for hourly workers would be cut by $300,000.

Disclosures this month of the cost of administrative leave cash-outs have fueled employees’ bitterness, and AFSCME officials claim it shows a basic imbalance in the budget.

Jackson on Wednesday said the leave policy is being taken out of context.

“I think the compensation packages we’ve had have been reasonable in the marketplace,” he said. As for the leave policy, he added, “it’s probably a device that’s helped us to attract some key personnel to the city, and retain personnel.”

Geissert said the administrative leave is part of a benefits package offered to top managers. “It is a contract, basically,” she said. “There are department heads that were recruited and came to the city based on that package. . . . I feel we had a great deal of management bashing last night, and I think it was unfortunate.”

The leave policy gives top managers either 24 or 36 days yearly that they can take as days off or cash out quarterly or yearly. A check of six other medium or large area cities found that none granted more than 12 days’ leave annually or allowed cash-outs.

If administrative leave were subtracted from managers’ total compensation, Torrance could fall behind some other cities, officials have said. They call the leave a means of compensating managers for overtime hours.

Airport Manager Jock Cagaanan staunchly defends the leave policy.

When people are promoted to middle-management posts, they lose certain benefits, said Cagaanan, who is president of the Torrance Management Employees Organization, which represents 31 city middle managers.

“We lost overtime, we lost longevity (pay), we lost compensatory time, and we got administrative leave,” Cagaanan said. “We gave up something for something.”

Others lambasted the city’s methods of paying managers.

“Give us a budget that shows us what you pay to these people,” Torrance resident Eileen Hawkins urged.

Jackson has turned down repeated requests from The Times for the amounts of administrative leave paid to individual managers, citing privacy concerns. And on Wednesday, he said he could not make public the specific base salaries paid to individual managers, although he would disclose specific amounts within salary ranges and how many years an individual had worked for the city.