OUR VIEW: Mayor's proposals merit city support (vote in poll)

Suggestions may restore some trust

July 01, 2010 3:27 PM

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Sometimes a politician’s leadership skills are at their finest near the end of a political reign. That seems to be the case with Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera, who made three notable proposals during his State of the City address Tuesday that deserve widespread support for their promise to improve Colorado Springs.

Here’s what he proposed:

• City government must significantly adjust how it shares the cost of health care with city employees. Rivera explained that the city’s Memorial Health System has been adjusting employee health care costs to bring them more in line with employees in the private sector — meaning employees are being asked to pick up more of the tab. He proposes the city follow Memorial’s lead.

“We must move in that direction for both the city and CSU (Colorado Springs Utilities),” Rivera said. “Making those adjustments in 20011 could save the City and CSU over $2 million each. That savings can help mitigate future reductions in services for the city and mitigate future rate increases for CSU.”

Finally, we hear a sensible approach to bringing the compensation of city employees in line with market reality. During the recession, private sector employees have endured wage and benefit reductions, unpaid furloughs and mass layoffs. City employees have suffered their fair share of layoffs, but compensation reductions have been off the table — a fact that has driven a wedge between city employees and the struggling taxpayers who pay their wages.

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• Rivera said city leaders must demand that state leaders enact true reform of the Public Employees Retirement Association. State law requires city government to contribute 13.7 percent of an employee’s salary to the pension fund, while each employee contributes only 8 percent. Rivera said it’s unfair to taxpayers, which was a statement of the obvious. How many private-sector employees — the people who pay the wages of city employees — get a pension match from a private employer that’s nearly double the employee contribution? At minimum, Rivera said, the employee contribution should be as much as the city’s contribution. He also suggested adjusting public safety pension plans, to make them affordable and sustainable.

• Rivera suggested placing a measure on the November ballot that would ask voters to allow the city to retain TABOR surpluses, should there be any, for 2010-2012.

It may be a reasonable request, and one voters should consider granting. It’s not a tax increase, and it doesn’t lock anyone in for a long-term financial commitment to City Hall. It’s a proposal for helping city government recover from recession in the event the private sector continues to recover. If the economy doesn’t recover, there will be no surplus, the city will have nothing to keep, and taxpayers will bear no new burden.

Rivera laid out a plan that would ask a little of taxpayers and quite a bit of city employees. It’s a plan that could do a lot to preserve city services and even restore some. More important, it’s a plan that could begin a much-needed restoration of trust and respect between City Hall and the taxpayers who pay for it. Congratulations, Mayor Rivera, on your last state of the city address. It was a class act. — By Wayne Laugesen, editorial page editor, for the editorial board

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