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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcc min 1978/11/15 MINUTES OF AN ADJOURNED 'REGULAR MEETINGOF THE CITY COUNCIL OF CHULA VISTA, CALIFORNIA Held Wednesday, 4:00 p.m. November IS, .1978 An adjourned regul'a~ meeting of the City Councii of the City of Chula Vista, California, was held on the above date beginning at 4:00 p,m. in the Council Conference Room, City Hall, 2~6 FourthAvenue. ROLL CALL Councilmen present: Mayor Hyde, Councilmen Cox. Scott, Gillow Carrived late) Councilmen absent: Councilman Egdahl Staff present: City Manager Cole, City Attorney Lindberg Special Guest: Senator James. E. Mills PURPOSE OF MEETING Mayor My~ explained ~he purpose of the informal session was to meet Wi~h Senato~ Mills to discuss comn~nity problem~i. Of concernto the Council'are the financial,problems occur- ring as a result of the passage of Proposition 13 and SB 154; what the legisla{ion proposes to dO about this in t'he next session; distribution plans of funds whereby special districts receive funds but of State surplus. Response bySenat'or Mills Senator Mills responded that as faras ~the public safety regarding funding under I factor wa~ concerned, p61iticS played a role. TheRepu- · ,PropoSition 13 blican members on the Committee on SB 154 insisted on the provision that '!presentlevels of funding would be main- tained for public safety." Senator Mills said he questioned "the levels of funding"-- that'perhaps there Were some pro~ grams that could be eliminated. Republican leaderships in both houses who were strongly in support of Proposition were very anxious that there would be no cutbacks. in fire and police services since they assured the people of this prior to the passage of the proposition. Employee raises Senator Mills explained that the leading Democrats had per- suaded the Assembly that there-would be no increases for State employees. In the course of discussion of SB 154, it was then decided not to allow local governmental employees a pay increase. The Senate, however,,took the position that there should be a 5% cost of'living increase~ but this issue was not settled and the GOvernOr vetoed thfs Bill. Reserves Senator Mills stated that the "battle" was trying to eli- minate the application of the Bill (SB 154) i The subject. ,. of reserves is a very, open question, and the recommendation of staff people was that as long as anybody had any reserves, they would not get any surplus money and this may well be the situation again next year. Council discussion Council discussion followed regarding the City's reserves which were built up by being "prudent"; and now finding itself in a position of subsidizing these cities which were not "prudent." Mayor Hyde noted the City's utility users tax: a l~cal tax permissible by its Charter which repre- sent's am extraordinary local effort to use its own resources to pay its own way. Further discussion ensued regarding the inequities of SB 154; its funding for school districts; and SB90 which the Senator declared the legislature will have to take another look Distribution of sales tax In response to the Council's query, Senator Mills said he was agreeable t~ this plan provided there was a different formula for allocation - by population ~ the position taken by the League of California Cities. The present dis- tribution is inequitable as there are cities with severe financial problems while others have a secure, sales taX base., Adjourned Regular Meeting -2- November 15, 1978 Special districts Senator Mills added that the Chairman of the Special Dis- tricts Committee expects that ultimately, Proposition 13 would diminish a number of special districts. The State has given the County the money to distribute to the special districts, to decide whether the districts need the money, and whether or not they could raise users fees. (Councilman Gillow arrived at this time ~ S:00 p.m.) Bill regarding decompression City Manager Cole discussed SB 1481 which eliminated the chamber - animals use of euthanasia to eliminate animals and allowed the use of an injection system. The County made a study of this and determined that it would take three people to inject one animal. Chula Vista's animal shelter has a total three people and would take the entire staff to do this - in essence, jeopardizing the animal control operation. Mr. Cole added that this Bill should hav~ been looked into more carefully before passage by the legislature. Mayor Hyde noted that the intent of SB 90 was that State-mandated programs would be picked up by the State which isn't being done. Compulsory and binding In answer to Councilman Scott's query, Senator Mills said arbitration his position on this would be to support it for certain categories of employees - that he would not want to see police and firemen going out on strike. He added that Proposition 13 has had an effect on the whole climate of Sacramento, and it has become less favorable for com- pulsory arbitration. Councilman Scott discussed the times before the State-man- dated compulsory and binding arbitration laws whereas the City took a wage survey, employees had complete faith in the Council, and no problems occurred. Since the State dictated the arbitration laws, it has caused many problems, so new laws were enacted, and so on down the line. Senator Mills The following is a verbatim transcript of the minutes: One of the serious things we need to be concerned about too is the whole problem of pension because many public agencies are faced with the problem of employees, who said "well, we're going to increase your pension right" figuring it would get us through this year and we won't have to raise taxes for a couple of years; and it puts off the problem for some other City Councils, or some other Board of Super- visors or Board of Directors of School Board, or whatever it is, and that has become a stupendous problem .... how do we solve that? There again, do you do it by legislative fiat saying nobody is entitled to do that kind of thing - that anybody that makes any changes - any local government that makes any changes in the pension system has to promptly fund it, or what do we do there? I don't know. That's one that concerns me. Councilman Scott Is the pension plan in the State unfunded now or... Senator Mills A lot of those State pension plans are unfunded: the teachers' plan is unfunded, the judges' plan is unfunded, the legislators' plan is unfunded - various others. BUt the problem on the State level is only the small part of the problem that exists in the State of California - unfunded public employees pensions - the largest part is the local governments in the course of a relatively few years. Councilman Scott That's often caused by City Councils taking the expedient thing and giving higher pension rates and not realizing the consequences downstream. Adjourned Regular Meeting -3- November iS, 1978 Senator Mills No, they figure someone else will deal with it. (End of verbatim transcript) Mayor Hyde thanked the Senator for meeting with the Council today to discuss these problems of community interest. AdjOurnment Mayor Hyde adjourned the meeting at 5:20 p.m.