HUNTINGTON BEACH : 5% Pay Cut Proposed for City Employees

Councilman David Sullivan said Friday he will propose that city employees take a 5% pay cut when the council meets Monday to consider making about $2 million in budget cuts.

Sullivan said taxpayers have shouldered their share of earlier reductions in the $96-million general fund budget, and now it’s time for the approximately 1,000 city employees to share the burden.

Employees have received pay raises totaling 19% over the last three years at a cost of $14 million, he said.

“If their previous raises had been too low, employees would be saying that it’s catch-up time,” Sullivan said. “Because the pay increases have been excessive, I’m saying that it’s catch-up time for the residents of Huntington Beach.”

Sullivan said the pay increases for city employees far exceed those given workers in neighboring cities.

A 1% pay cut would translate into a $700,000 savings in the general fund, he said.

Sheila Rogers, administrative secretary in the city’s Economic Development Department and a member of the board of directors of the 443-member Municipal Employees Assn., said Friday that she hadn’t heard of Sullivan’s plan.

“I don’t know what to say, but I don’t think it’s fair to take the money from the employees,” she said.