The Lakeport City Council approved the new memorandum of understanding with the Lakeport Employees Association as part of its consensus agenda during the council's regular Tuesday night meeting. The agreement covers the time frame from July 1 through June 30, 2010.
It calls for employees paying 12 percent of their health insurance – the first time city employees have ever had to do so – with a $.60 per hour raise for employees and no furlough days.
In July, the association requested an impasse in the negotiations, which union President Cheryl Smart said had begun early in the spring.
The union made that move after rejecting the city's last, best and final offer which interim City Manager Kevin Burke delivered to them on July 1, as Lake County News has reported.
What the city offered the union was an agreement that included the requirement for employees to pay part of their own health benefits, along with eight furlough days – an increase of two from last fiscal year – and no cost of living increase, according to Smart.
Burke said Wednesday that, after the union requested impasse, the council decided to continue negotiations, recognizing that going into impasse should be avoided unless it's absolutely necessary, and that it doesn't reflect well on the city.
“There's a time and a place for impasse, but you only want to do that when it's absolutely a last resort,” said Burke.
Said Smart, “I think they realized what they were doing.”
She said the union gave the city three choices, including the $.60 per hour raise in exchange for employees paying 12 percent of their health insurance, which she said the union knew the city wanted and which it took.
That was the only part of the city's previous last offer that ended up making it into the final memorandum of understanding, said Burke.
“Health care costs have become a significant issue for cities,” said Burke.
They're of special concern to a small, full-service city – which provides police, water, sewer, parks and public works – like Lakeport, which has a small tax base, Burke added.
Smart said employees weren't very happy about having to pay the insurance but they accepted it. “They didn't have much of a choice,” she said of the 26 or 27 union members.
Insurance costs are estimated to be close $50 a month per person, $105 for two people or $150 for a family. In the memorandum of understanding the city agrees to contribute a total of $434.14 month for health, dental and vision for a single person, $873.99 for a couple and $1,247.44 for a family.
Between the raise and the health insurance, “It turns out to be virtually a wash between the two, so it's very much a status quo arrangement,” said Burke.
Smart said the agreement isn't retroactive, so that while its beginning date was to have been July 1, Sept. 1 was the beginning date for the employees' raises.
At this point there are no furloughs in the agreement or the city's budget, Burke said.
However, Burke said the city reserves the right to furlough if it needs to later in the year and it's too early to tell if that action will be needed.
Smart, who works in the city's building department, said a few building projects and many remodels around the city have already put the department over its projected revenue.
She's hopeful that the strong fiscal outlook early in the year portends well for employees not having to face furloughs at a later date.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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