Every week, it seems like another perk floats to the top for
public employees with the city or county. And a correlating lack of
accountability for San Benito County and Hollister points to a cold
reality that local officials just don’t have their fiscal houses in
order at a time when it is more necessary than ever.
Every week, it seems like another perk floats to the top for public employees with the city or county. And a correlating lack of accountability for San Benito County and Hollister points to a cold reality that local officials just don’t have their fiscal houses in order at a time when it is more necessary than ever.
Over at the city, officials recently learned that nearly 7 percent of all Hollister pay comes from the redevelopment agency fund. By systematically shifting portions of general city employees’ compensation to the RDA fund, leaders now will have to find a way to fill the shortfall when the agencies go away.
Two years ago in the same financially collapsing city, officials agreed to change the retirement formula for police officers – to use the final year’s pay in figuring each worker’s annual compensation as opposed to an average of the last three years, with the subtle but permanent bonus given to the police union.
Two weeks ago, we learned that San Benito County has proven somewhat inept at planning responsibly for the future as well. A county employee received an $111,000 cash-out for sick, vacation and other accruals because the government’s policy is lax enough to allow such abuse with no accountability. A subsequent Free Lance analysis of records revealed that San Benito County’s unfunded liability for all the employees’ banked time off amounts to about $5.5 million.
It is the same county whose board has been hacking away at the sheriff’s office workforce as if the supervisors were a bunch of blind butchers. Supervisors in a late June meeting eliminated nearly $800,000 and sent layoff notices to seven employees from the sheriff’s office. It was just the latest round of recent cuts brought on at the sheriff’s office with no apparent purpose or plan in place, other than to redefine barebones.
Overall, the revelations underscore a lack of long-term planning in the two municipal governments. With both facing dire fiscal outlooks, it is never too late to get everybody on board, including the public, and move ahead in a more responsible, resolute fashion.
