Cost-of-Living Raises for Torrance Workers

Any situation where administrators are permitted to set their own salary rates in addition to the salaries of the workers is based on one premise: that these administrators are virtuous.

My husband, a mechanic with the city of Torrance, is one of the 1,528 employees who will not receive a cost-of-living increase this year. We must make an out-of-pocket insurance contribution to an HMO that offers us such a poor choice of physicians we are forced to pay for a private pediatrician for our baby. There is currently a proposal to cut $300,000 from the budget for overtime for workers. At the same time, there is a proposal to give city management officials $357,000 in overtime in addition to their year-end bonuses, excellent benefits package and $446-a-month car allowances.

City Manager LeRoy Jackson rationalizes that these unconscionable perks are necessary to “keep top-notch officials in the city.” What he hasn’t stated is that top-notch blue-collar workers are leaving in droves because they can’t feed their families.

The city’s budget is tapped due to a number of multimillion-dollar liability settlements, $6.2 million being lost in an investment scandal, and administrative ineptitude, such as the recent purchase of a $100,000 Caterpillar bulldozer. It was only after this equipment was acquired that our “top-notch” administrators realized that it was useless in that it was too heavy to be transported on any city vehicle. The Caterpillar’s weight is clearly printed on the cover of the brochure!

The City Council’s approval of the proposed budget would send a strong signal to the voters that the city of Torrance rewards incompetence and avarice, and the people who keep the wheels turning and their families are simply not important.

LAURIE O’BRIEN, Torrance