It's time to stop the rhetoric about city pay It's time to stop the rhetoric about city pay (December 02, 2005)

For the last several years, the discussion of pay and benefits for city employees has sparked a fire storm in a small group of current and previously elected council members. Those officials have orchestrated a very small group of citizens to show up at Council meetings to support the debate and criticism. We think it is time to stop the rhetoric and set compensation based on good business practices and not politics.

Compensation for public employees is a major element of any local government's budget process. It is important that the public's money is well spent and it is appropriate and necessary for elected officials to be thoroughly educated and to ask questions so that the public can be well informed. This helps to guarantee that our interests as residents of this community can be well protected.

In determining the appropriate compensation, good business practices are used and they should continue to be used to compensate public employees so that they are generally in line with market forces. Pleasanton is a quality community and we expect to have an extraordinary place to live and work. Creating and maintaining our community takes top talent to meet our expectations. To attract top talent in any industry, compensation has to be competitive. It does not have to be excessive, but it does have to be competitive.

While we expect the Council to ask questions on our behalf, we also expect the discussion to be professional and impersonal. We are tired of the debate and rhetoric that surrounds this topic every year led by a minority of elected officials. It is not being done to protect us and to forward the best interests of Pleasanton. It is being done for perceived political gain. We believe that is wrong and inappropriate.

We think the issue is simple. We ask that the Council look at the facts. We ask that the Council look at the market in both the public and private sector for appropriate comparisons to Pleasanton. We ask that the Council take a leadership role and make a business decision as to what is the appropriate compensation package for local government employees. Let the facts and not the politics control the decision.

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