Monrovia City Manager on Budgeting and Pension Costs

In his weekly report, Monrovia City Manager Scott Ochoa called budgeting a "full-contact sport" and said the city will negotiate with employee groups to reduce pension costs.  http://goo.gl/VnUOX

 

~ In discussing the Monrovia City Council's budget study session at 6 p.m. tonight (May 31), Ochoa says: "These unprecedented economic times in California - if nothing else - make budgeting a full-contact sport as we try to slip between the obstacles posed by the State."

 

~ Also, Ochoa addressed pension reform, saying, "[W]e will negotiate with employees to absorb increasing amounts of their own retirement costs, until they have reassumed the entire employee share; and we will adjust the structure by which employees accrue bankable hours and expend such hours." He writes that a few years ago, the pension system's investments were doing great, but not so any more, and Monrovia's employee groups and management team "all appear to understand the new economic reality."

 

- Brad Haugaard