Council Rolls Back Public Safety Workers Pension Cost

Last night the City Council of Foster City approved rolling back post retirement benefits with its police and firefighting unions, as well as approving to increase water rates to residents.

Under last night's approval, new hires in the city's public safety ranks will be offered  two percent of their wages at 50 years old, which is a one percent decrease from the three percent at 50 years old the city offers to current employees.

The agreement is slated to save millions of dollars for the city over the subsequent years, according to Human Resources Director Rebecca Burnside.

The city's public safety unions also agreed to do away with longevity pay, which awards employees for staying employed with the city for extensive periods of time.

Pension payments to public employees have undergone enormous scrutiny in recent years, and are widely becoming regarded as overwhelming burdens on taxpayer dollars by districts across the nation.

After approving the agreement, council members all took the chance to thank the city's public safety workers for their willingness to give back.

"I'm very proud of all our city employees, and I'm especially proud of the management of police and fire," said Councilman Rick Wykoff, who went on to commend the unions for exhibiting good leadership.

Councilman Charlie Bronitsky said the new contract will give Foster City a better chance at guaranteeing a sound financial future.

"I can't say thank you enough," he said.

Bronitsky said the savings from the new contract will not be realized immediately, but will go on to have a profound impact over the long term of the city's future.

Foster City elected leadership and staff is working for ways to balancing its structural deficit by trimming nearly $2.5 million from its budget over the two years.

The city has also implemented a hiring freeze and salary freeze. The new contract will apply to the public safety manager hire as well, said Burnside.

Only the city's public safety dispatchers saw an increase to their health insurance benefits, which were necessary to make them competitive with other city employees, said Burnside.

No other public safety employees received similar increases, she said.

Burnside said a majority of both the fire and police unions supported the new contract conditions.

"Things are going to change and we're going to have to look at things in a new way, because the dollars aren't there," said Councilman Art Kiesel, in commending both the public safety unions and the city in the ability to agree on the new contract.

In other business, the council approved increasing the cost of water to $2.66 per unit, to keep with increases in what the city is being charged for water.

According to Finance Director Steve Toler, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is billing Foster City more for water, as the SFPUC attempts to pay a share toward the construction project intended to improve the water transportation system from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park.

And now the cost is being passed onto Foster City residents. But not to the extent was initially expected.

The $2.66 residents will be asked to pay per unit is less than the more than $2.80 that was being projected by city leaders, until an SFPUC announcement last month that the price increase was not going to be so severe.

Only one property owner has filed a complaint with the city to protest the increase, said Toler.

Toler said even with the price increase, water rates in Foster City will be some of the lowest in the region.

Under last night's approval, the new rates will go into effect July 1.