Citizens Lose to Bureaucrats’ Need for Pay Raise
by Dale Tyler

At the Aug. 21 City Council meeting, all five council members buckled under to the city bureaucracy and gave our already very well-paid city staff a 2.3 percent raise. The council did this despite uncertain liabilities for retiree medical care and questions about the additional costs for defined benefit retirement plans. While we have a dedicated and generally competent city staff, there is no need to continue giving away taxpayer dollars as if they were pennies.

Recent studies have shown that taking into account the incredibly generous benefits public employees receive – including almost full pay when they retire at 55 – public employees make $10 more per hour ($34.72) on average than private-sector workers ($23.76). Our city staff works in an opulent setting with the very best of everything. We have the equivalent of 135 full-time people now working for the city. Compare this to 15 years ago when the city had less than half the number of employees. Mission Viejo is supposed to be a contract city, with minimum staff, yet we seem to hire more and more employees every year and pay them generous government benefits.

It's time to freeze salaries and benefits and begin to reduce our city staff as people retire or leave for other reasons. The bureaucracy is running the city for their benefit first and only secondarily for the citizens.