Contract Provisions Would Grant Higher Pay to 3

6/18/09

By Marc Garman

VIB has confirmed that due to contract provisions “grandfathered into” the recent agreement between the City of Vallejo and CAMP (Confidential and Management Professionals Union) three management employees are expected to see an increase in pay. They are:

• Fire Chief--Russ Sherman

• City Engineer—David Kleinschmidt

• Chief Building Inspector—Gary West

In the case of Fire Chief Sherman, the increase is not a current raise, but the payment of a retroactive “equity adjustment” provision present in the previous CAMP contract. The equity adjustment had been suspended during bankruptcy, and came back into play after the new contract removed the CAMP union from bankruptcy.

While Sherman's payment is a retroactive increase, Kleinschmidt and West are slated to receive new pay increases. VIB blogger “Streetsweeper”, a self described IBEW employee who first tipped VIB off (thanks, Street) has indicated that the increases for Kleinschmidt and West are in the 10-15% range, and that Sherman is expected to see something closer to 5%. These figures are not confirmed as of yet.

It seems that these equity adjustment based increases were overlooked by acting H.R. Director (and lead negotiator) Sandy Salerno and Assistant City Manager Craig Whittom during negotiations with CAMP. The increases, suspended during bankruptcy, are now likely to cost the bankrupt City of Vallejo more money unless the employees agree to fore-go them.

Councilmember Joanne Schivley has agendized this matter for discussion before City Council this Tuesday. “No one should be taking pay increases. They all should be taking pay cuts. And management should be setting an example.” she said

Councilmember Stephanie Gomes, who has called for even across the board cuts for all City of Vallejo employees during this fiscal crisis stated, “ No employee should be getting raises right now. We should be implementing pay cuts across the board.”

Clearly, the uneven treatment of the various employee groups in the city, either by intent or accident, is both demoralizing and bad management practice. It must stop.

This is not the first time an oversight has cost the city a considerable toll in both cash and goodwill.