Dropping wages due to high employment and more young people entering the labor market ultimately could go a long way to curing what ails Manteca’s general fund – high employee salaries.
The theory advanced by City Manager Steve Pinkerton in his weekly blog dovetails into what Manteca was forced to do in the past decade in order to secure and retain qualified employees but especially police officers and firefighters. Ultimately, the city manager believes a large labor surplus will place downward pressure on wages or at least retard their growth.
Manteca’s employment rate is now at 13.7 compared to 7 percent during the 1989 to 1991 recession and about double the normal jobless rate for the community.
In the late 1990s as growth started picking up in Manteca, a surge in public safety retirements statewide coupled with tougher screening standards for police officers and low unemployment that tightened the labor pool put valley cities such as Manteca in the shadow of the Bay Area at a distinct disadvantage.
Bay Area cities were offering base salaries well in excess of $100,000 to long-time police officers – primarily sergeants – from the Northern San Joaquin Valley who couldn’t resist the temptation to get their final years under their belt at substantially more money – often as much as $20,000 a year. Retirement is based on a set number of high years of pay for each individual. Also, the hour that officers worked generally meant they were in a reverse commute.
Making matters worse for Manteca, a decades old reluctance by local leaders against raising taxes or fees any type put Manteca behind on funding for everything from new fire stations to providing adequate revenue to handle needed staff.
As a result, Manteca was always operating a year or so behind staffing levels that were considered minimum for police based on a ratio per 1,000 residents. At the same time, Manteca went almost two decades without hiring additional front-line firefighters.
Tracy responded to the challenge by slightly cannibalizing their police staffing so they could up the pay to stop the flow of officers with long-time experience. It was a trade-off that city took as they determined it made more sense to keep someone who was versed in the local criminal scene and flow of life in Tracy as they’d be more effective per hour or dollar spent.
Manteca - riding the wave of the real estate boom – was able over a number of years to raise firefighter and police salaries to better than the median level of eight cities. They were Lodi, Turlock, Tracy, Livermore, Folsom, Roseville, Stockton, and Modesto. Manteca also raised the salaries of all city employees to be more competitive.
Although pay wasn’t on parity with highest that departments trying to lure public safety personnel away were paying, it was close enough to prevent more from jumping ship and to stop entry level applicants from bypassing Manteca for more pay elsewhere.
It was the city’s efforts to take the final step to stabilize pay and not worry about being severely undercut that has ended up being a burden during the current economic slowdown that’s being dubbed The Great Recession.
Manteca leaders entered into four year contracts with all employee groups. The furlough days or 3.8 percent pay cut that went into effect July 1 basically negates the second year negotiated pay raise for 2009. The city, in trying to bridge the remaining general fund deficit of close to $3 million, is asking all employees to forgo negotiated pay raises under those contracts for 2010 and 2011 as well plus additional compensation concessions.
At the same time, public sector salaries in San Joaquin County were accelerating faster than private sector fueled in part by the wealth being spent by Bay Area commuters who had substantially higher paychecks.
Pinkerton in previous remarks has noted that the city took care of employees in good economic times and now Manteca was forced to asking municipal employees to “give some of that back” primarily in the form of giving up negotiated pay raises.
The city manager has repeatedly stressed no one likes what is going on but that the city has to deal with economic realities.
So far two employee groups – the Manteca Police Employees Association representing non-sworn personnel as well as department managers – have agreed to the salary concessions.
The other employee groups are working against a mid-October deadline to reach consensus with the city or up to 53 municipal employees could lose their jobs. October layoffs will not apply to employee groups that agree to the salary adjustments.
The theory advanced by City Manager Steve Pinkerton in his weekly blog dovetails into what Manteca was forced to do in the past decade in order to secure and retain qualified employees but especially police officers and firefighters. Ultimately, the city manager believes a large labor surplus will place downward pressure on wages or at least retard their growth.
Manteca’s employment rate is now at 13.7 compared to 7 percent during the 1989 to 1991 recession and about double the normal jobless rate for the community.
In the late 1990s as growth started picking up in Manteca, a surge in public safety retirements statewide coupled with tougher screening standards for police officers and low unemployment that tightened the labor pool put valley cities such as Manteca in the shadow of the Bay Area at a distinct disadvantage.
Bay Area cities were offering base salaries well in excess of $100,000 to long-time police officers – primarily sergeants – from the Northern San Joaquin Valley who couldn’t resist the temptation to get their final years under their belt at substantially more money – often as much as $20,000 a year. Retirement is based on a set number of high years of pay for each individual. Also, the hour that officers worked generally meant they were in a reverse commute.
Making matters worse for Manteca, a decades old reluctance by local leaders against raising taxes or fees any type put Manteca behind on funding for everything from new fire stations to providing adequate revenue to handle needed staff.
As a result, Manteca was always operating a year or so behind staffing levels that were considered minimum for police based on a ratio per 1,000 residents. At the same time, Manteca went almost two decades without hiring additional front-line firefighters.
Tracy responded to the challenge by slightly cannibalizing their police staffing so they could up the pay to stop the flow of officers with long-time experience. It was a trade-off that city took as they determined it made more sense to keep someone who was versed in the local criminal scene and flow of life in Tracy as they’d be more effective per hour or dollar spent.
Manteca - riding the wave of the real estate boom – was able over a number of years to raise firefighter and police salaries to better than the median level of eight cities. They were Lodi, Turlock, Tracy, Livermore, Folsom, Roseville, Stockton, and Modesto. Manteca also raised the salaries of all city employees to be more competitive.
Although pay wasn’t on parity with highest that departments trying to lure public safety personnel away were paying, it was close enough to prevent more from jumping ship and to stop entry level applicants from bypassing Manteca for more pay elsewhere.
It was the city’s efforts to take the final step to stabilize pay and not worry about being severely undercut that has ended up being a burden during the current economic slowdown that’s being dubbed The Great Recession.
Manteca leaders entered into four year contracts with all employee groups. The furlough days or 3.8 percent pay cut that went into effect July 1 basically negates the second year negotiated pay raise for 2009. The city, in trying to bridge the remaining general fund deficit of close to $3 million, is asking all employees to forgo negotiated pay raises under those contracts for 2010 and 2011 as well plus additional compensation concessions.
At the same time, public sector salaries in San Joaquin County were accelerating faster than private sector fueled in part by the wealth being spent by Bay Area commuters who had substantially higher paychecks.
Pinkerton in previous remarks has noted that the city took care of employees in good economic times and now Manteca was forced to asking municipal employees to “give some of that back” primarily in the form of giving up negotiated pay raises.
The city manager has repeatedly stressed no one likes what is going on but that the city has to deal with economic realities.
So far two employee groups – the Manteca Police Employees Association representing non-sworn personnel as well as department managers – have agreed to the salary concessions.
The other employee groups are working against a mid-October deadline to reach consensus with the city or up to 53 municipal employees could lose their jobs. October layoffs will not apply to employee groups that agree to the salary adjustments.
