LOS ALAMITOS : City Hikes Benefits, Pay for Employees

The City Council has approved a package of salary and benefit increases for employees that will add $37,900 to the fiscal 1993-94 budget.

Management and public services employees received 2.5% annual pay raises. Clerical employees obtained a 2.4% yearly pay increase and a $10 monthly increase in the city’s contribution to their health insurance coverage.

The pay and benefit increases cover about 30 people, but do not include the Police Officers Assn., which is still negotiating with the city.

“We’re very pleased,” said Pat Maxwell, 49, head of the clerical employees union. “These are tough times, but the city has been fair and generous.”

Assistant City Manager Gerard Goedhart said that the pay increases, which took effect Sunday will cost the city $37,900 for fiscal year 1993-94. The salary adjustments will be reflected when the city revises its $6-million budget in September, he said.

“We did not spend money that we didn’t have,” Goedhart said, adding that the city will still have sufficient reserves.

For the fourth straight year, the city and the employee unions agreed to a one-year contract because of “economic uncertainties,” Goedhart said.

He said that for some clerical employees, the pay raise will boost salaries by as much as $79 a month. Some public services employees will get increases of as much as $73 monthly, he said.

The additional $10 will increase from $440 to $450 per month the city’s contributions to the health insurance coverage for clerical employees, according to Maxwell, a clerical employee for the past 14 years.

She said the increase will lessen the out-of-pocket health care expenses for the eight members of the clerical union, she said. Those who have insurance coverage through a spouse or another employer will receive $150 a month, she said.

Other employees will continue to receive the $400 monthly city contribution to their health insurance coverage, Goedhart said.