At last Monday night’s City Council meeting, the exchange between Councilman Gary Silbiger and Personnel Director Serena Wright about the Calpers employee pension agenda item reminded me of an exchange years ago between Councilman Alan Corlin and Police Chief Ted Cooke.
In a discussion of the Police Dept. budget, Councilman Corlin asked Chief Cooke if the ordered 14 police personnel cuts had been made, and Chief Cooke said they had.
Pressing on, Mr. Corlin asked Chief Cooke if he was sure the 14 persons no longer were at the Police Dept., that they had not just been moved to new assignments.
Chief Cooke looked directly at Councilman Corlin. “No,” he responded immediately, none of these bodies are still at the Police Dept.
Councilman Corlin thanked the Chief.
He also commended the Police Dept. for making the difficult cuts the Council had been looking for.
As everyone left the Council Chambers that night, most people knew that those positions had been cut but the personnel still were working for the Police Dept.
Playing Chess with Personnel
In the next few months, the Police Dept. would go through reorganization, and the organizational chart would be changed.
The positions that were cut were given new names but kept the same job duties.
One lieutenant position that was cut replaced a 25-year Police Dept. civilian employee who was forced to move to another city department in order to keep the same position.
No personnel were cut. Only the names were changed to protect the innocent.
In defense of Chief Cooke on this one, due to the late hour of that Council meeting on a Monday night, none of those bodies related to the personnel cuts were still at the Police Dept. building at that late hour.
No one believes that the city is going to do away with the Risk Management position; it will just be reassigned under a new title. The Assistant City Manager/Risk Management position that was so important two years ago will now go away forever.
Who is going to ask the question why did we need the position in the first place?
We can’t ask the retired City Manager Jerry Fulwood because he’s gone.
My opinion is that the position was created to bring closer control of the Self Insurance Fund money directly under the City Manager.
As an incentive for this person to manage the fund in accordance with the City Manager’s directives, the person was given the title Assistant City Manager and the corresponding salary.
Well, it is true the city does not need the Assistant City Manager position any longer because all of the surplus Risk Management/Self Insurance Funds are gone. But does the city have to pay for additional retirement benefits for this position? “No” is the answer.
The City Council needs to ask staff direct questions about what new money is being spent by the city at a time we are dipping into reserves to pay for unnecessary management positions and how we got these positions to begin with.
Also, more than just two Council members need to ask questions.
Mr. Smith, a retired police officer, may be contacted at scsinternationalinvestigations.com
