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San Mateo County City Managers Association 6.1G Page 6 b) Maintain City services and infrastructure. Clearly the costs of maintaining the workforce cannot come at the expense of f~ling sewer systems, water plants, library services and recreation programs. The taxpayer who funds City services and programs should have those services and programs available to himlher now and in generations to come. c) Honor the tenets of public service. Many who join municipal organizations do so for the challenging and rewarding work, the ability to make a difference in their communities and the relative security in their positions in a stable organization. Cities don't offer the "glitz" associated with many private sector organizations, but we do offer a sense of purpose and meaning in serving the community. As such, we must examine our .current compensation programs that reward perfonnance and insure that these programs are not so costly that we are forced to continually reduce our workforces because of the exorbitant costs associated with each full-time equivalent employee. Ill) General responses to the recommendations MERC surveyed City Managers, Human Resources Directors and Finance Directors in San Mateo County regarding the Grand Jury's recently released report and has confirmed support for consideration of the options that follow. Many respondents pointed out that they cUlTently employ the stated recommendations: a. Creating a two tier retirement and health-care benefits system for new hires. b. Replacing current post-employment health care plans with health saving plans funded during active employment with the agency. . c.' Lobbying Cal PERS to increase the age at which employees can start receiving retirement benefits from age 50 or 55 to age 60 for non safety employees d. Basing pensions on the average of the last three to five years of salary. . e. Making provisions for increasing. employee contributions to current pensions and post-retirement health care plans. In addition we believe that cities should be looking to active employees to pay for some portion of their health care, vision, and dental cost. . f.' Review the practice of converting accumulated sick leave to cash and consider placing caps on accumulation of sick leave. g. Broadening the compensation discussions by considering comparable jobs in both the private and public sectors. It is important to point out that some professions will not have comparable positions, especially sworn safety positions. A better comparison may be to look at the ratio of salary to benefit costs of private employers and also the average salary increases given in mid- size, private organizations in the region. h. Consider the number of applicants for respective jobs when negotiating salaries.