CDA BUDGET: Employee packages too generous

The voluntary separation program being proposed for Coeur d’Alene employees as a cost-saving measure is just a gimmick/Band-Aid solution to the real problem of city deficit spending, namely, too generous compensation packages having been given to city (fire and police are not automatically exempt from the discussion) employees for years. 

If real cuts aren’t made in that area, this problem will just resurface in the future. City negotiators need to have the discipline to say “no,” or “not that much,” to their employee counterparts during labor bargaining. 

A few excessive or unnecessary comps are the banking of unused paid sick leave hours toward paid vacation and retirement hours, a 40% pay increase after only five years employment for average, not exceptional, job performance, city paid tuition for employee college or technical training. 

There are at least 16 more compensations in addition to their base wages and salaries by my count in the current city labor contract, unsustainable, as we are seeing! 

The Press says this program is “a cost of doing business.” I say “it doesn’t have to be” with more prudent negotiating. We, the tax paying homeowners of Coeur d’Alene, will be the ones paying that cost.  

TED TURRENTINE

Coeur d’Alene