The union that represents slightly more than half of West Hollywood city employees has entered into negotiations with the city to renew its five-year contract. The union, WEHOME/AFMSCME Local 3339, represents 160 city employees. The five deputies who work for City Council members have their own union.
A website operated by the state Controller’s Office with data from 2013 reports that there is one city employee for each 116 residents and that the average wage for city employees is $68,702. In addition, employees receive an average of $26,474 each in retirement and health benefits, bringing the average total compensation to $95,176 a year for each worker.
The city’s total expenditure for wages is $21 million a year, with an additional $8 million spent on retirement and health benefits.
WeHo’s Local 3339 recently announced its endorsements for the March 3 City Council election. It is backing incumbents John D’Amico and John Heilman and challengers Joe Guardarrama, who has D’Amico’s support, and Lindsey Horvath, a former Council member who is seen as an ally of Heilman.
Many of us are all for people making a good living, who work hard and are good at what they do. It’s the American way. And it makes sense in any city and our city as well to pay its employees a competitive wage to attract talent and drive results. But to many in the community, the most concerning annual pay at City Hall is the top level department heads and City Manager, who are are in six figures and are maxed out on the state of California salary caps for government employees. As we see these top paid employees… Read more »
Probably because the deputies are considered management and management can’t be in the same union as the regular workers.
Concerning my experience with a different AFMSCME local, it’s ran by a bunch of raciest union leaders. If your a black union representative your treated better than if your white including senority.
@Snarky: Those hard-working deputies have a difficult job. Checking email, looking at Facebook and maybe occasionally talking to a resident is stressful. Some may have to walk more than a block to their cars while the robo-garage is being built.
It’s tough getting by on WeHo city hall’s version of a bureaucrat living wage; one of the deputies in 2013 had total compensation of $175,781 (wages, health, retirement). So of course they need a union to lobby for higher pay and more perks.
http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Department.aspx?fiscalyear=2013&entityid=244&departmentid=4852
“The five deputies who work for City Council members have their own union.” My question to that sentence is WHY?