Commentary: COIN ordinance is saving taxpayers money

At the last Costa Mesa City Council meeting, I was pleased to see savings of more than $1 million result from negotiations with employees. The transparency of COIN confirmed this success.

COIN, the Civic Openness in Negotiations ordinance, requires public disclosure of traditionally closed labor negotiations between the city and its public employee unions. COIN allows the public to see and comment on formal proposals before the council votes on them.

Had COIN been in place from 2000 to 2010, residents would have learned that the city’s three public employee unions were pushing through major increases in employee pensions. Pensions were increased as much as 50%, and increases were “retroactively applied” to each employee’s hire date.

Retroactive application gave city employees pension benefits that instantly added millions of dollars to the city’s unfunded pension liability. If that seems strange, it gets worse. The higher pension benefits approved by the City Council in 2008 encouraged more than 100 experienced employees to retire the following year. The cost will now be picked up by two generations of taxpayers.

By California law, retirement benefits cannot be reduced once granted to a public employee, even to a young employee just starting a career with the city. Employees with these increased pensions represent more than 90% of the city’s current workers.

From 2000 to 2010, there was little public opposition to union demands because of the lack of public disclosure. At that time, Costa Mesa city councils, acting under general law, approved the high-risk union proposals. Those pension increases are the primary cause of the city’s $228 million unfunded pension liability — which will affect the city’s ability to hire adequate levels of police, firefighters and other employees.

I was privileged to serve on the charter committee, which wanted COIN and voter approval of any increase in retirement benefits added to the charter to limit the power of future city councils and hopefully avoid further increases in unfunded liabilities.

COIN and voter approval will reduce the influence of organized labor unions. Sadly, it appears some want unions to retain their excessive power in Costa Mesa.

GENE HUTCHINS served of the Costa Mesa Charter Committee and is a member of the Pension Oversight Committee.