Costa Mesa council discusses proposed $24.7M employee contract

It was a “long haul” full of “spirited talks” among Costa Mesa council members that eventually led to a greater understanding of what was at stake.

That is how Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger described the nearly yearlong negotiation process between the council and the city’s municipal workers union at Tuesday night’s council meeting, which served as the first of two public hearings on the proposed $24.7-million Costa Mesa City Employees Assn. contract. The second public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16, after which the council will vote on the deal.

The negotiations involved about 13 meet-and-confer sessions. Earlier this summer, the roughly 200-member CMCEA ratified the document.

Officials expect the contract, which would run through June 2016, to save the city at least $950,000 a year through various cuts that would particularly affect new employees. Additional savings of more than $1 million would come from outsourcing the city’s street-sweeping service, which the contract specifically permits.

Proposed cuts include 10% salary reductions for new hires, who would also earn fewer hours of paid vacation in their first year — 40 rather than 92.

All employees would face increased contributions to their state pension plans and lose the ability to cash out unused sick pay.

Tuesday’s meeting also served as a test run for the Civic Openness in Negotiations (COIN) ordinance, a law adopted by the council in 2012 that aims to bring more transparency into negotiations with organized labor.

But while Mensinger, the architect of COIN, praised the process for bringing the negotiations more clearly into the public’s view, some characterized it as insufficient.

Councilwomen Sandy Genis and Wendy Leece called for COIN-like disclosure in all types of contracts, not just those with the city’s unions.

“It would show true transparency, across the board,” Leece said.

Greg Thunell, a frequent council critic, was critical of COIN and its insertion into the proposed city charter, which voters will consider Nov. 4.

“COIN is a misnomer, fair and simple,” he said. “COIN is an Orwellian lie.”

Mayor Jim Righeimer acknowledged that the relationship between the employees association and council has been antagonistic in the past.

In March 2011, Righeimer was part of a council voting bloc that wanted to outsource much of City Hall. More than 200 employees could have been laid off, but the pink slips approved by the council that month were rescinded by late 2012.

The CMCEA’s lawsuit fighting the council’s action is ongoing.

On Tuesday, Righeimer said the CMCEA contract was “a hard agreement to come to” but that a new era of cooperation between the council and the association has begun.

“From the bottom of my heart, absolutely, going forward there is a clean slate,” Righeimer said.