City Council Approval of Labor Contracts Anticipated

The San Marino City Council is expected to greenlight memorandums of understanding on Friday to kick off three-year agreements with the municipality’s labor unions.
The new agreements include set salary raises for each year in addition to increasing the cap for insurance allowances and tuition reimbursements. Additionally, two of the city’s unions — the City Employees’ Association and the Supervisory/Confidential Employees Association — will merge, taking on the former’s name. The other two unions are the Police Officers Association and Firefighters Association.
The unions have been operating without contracts since June 22, meaning the city has essentially continued the terms of the respective pacts while negotiations went on. Each new contract will implement staggered pay raises — 3% effective this fiscal year, 2% for next fiscal year and another 2% the year after — in addition to increases of $1,300, $1,400 and $1,500 to insurance purchase allowances. These refer to flat payments employees receive to buy coverage for themselves and their families.
The full list of agreed-upon terms is included in the agenda packet for this week’s council meeting, which will be on Friday morning. The contracts will add $717,540 to the current year’s expense budget, $416,906 to that of fiscal year 2020-21 and $433,820 in 2021-22.
Additionally on Friday, the City Council is expected to approve the review of City Manager Marcella Marlowe — an evaluation via closed session that is rubber-stamped in public session — along with the requisite salary increase per her contract.
The council will also review a needs assessment survey conducted for the city’s Recreation Department, which faces an operational shift as it is consolidated with a Community Services Department and reorganized for financial viability. The third-party firm GreenPlay LLC conducted two surveys of residents and other community members in October to determine what they want in a revamped San Marino recreation program.
Police Chief John Incontro is also slated to present his year-end report for the city Police Department on Friday, analyzing 2019 crime statistics as compared with those of 2018.
The meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. in the Barth Community Room at Crowell Public Library. The agenda report can be accessed at cityofsanmarino.org.