BRAWLEY — Nothing was decided Tuesday but a number of ideas were discussed during a workshop that addressed growing retirement costs at a time when Brawley is operating under an estimated $1.14 million shortfall.
The crowd of mostly city employees broke into clusters of small groups that came with answering the majority of 17 questions related to the pension reform.
Having sworn, or public safety employees, pay 9 percent into their retirement and all other employees pay 7 percent into theirs was considered as City Manager Rosanna Bayon Moore has said such a change would bring in a savings of more than $576,000.
But Moore assured the people who showed up to the workshop that any changes to Brawley’s retirement system would not be applied “until it is negotiated” with bargaining units.
Public Works Director Yazmin Arellano said the group she worked with suggested phasing in employee contributions and requiring any new hires to pay in to their retirements.
At another table, Parks and Recreation Director Karin Morgan announced that her group wanted to have the city’s budget reviewed for any further cuts and to phase in employee contributions by 3 percent.
But Police Chief Mark Gillmore said that the employees he spoke for, which consisted of some in law enforcement, suggested to first “zero out” the budget by doing a number of eliminations, which included abolishing redevelopment contributions of $167,000 and “zeroing out” the nondepartmental budget of more than $131,000.
Fire Capt. Michael York asked if employees may opt out of paying into Social Security, which would stave off the prospect of paying into retirement.
Shirley Bonillas, personnel and risk management administrator, said she would look into the matter today.
At the end of the meeting, Moore discussed a piece of legislation that would seek to have the dissolution of redevelopment agencies pushed back until April 15.
Staff Writer Silvio J. Panta can be reached at 760-337-3442 or at email@example.com