Torrance City Council – A Town Hall Style Conversation About Local Politics

In a stunning move, the City has proposed slashing the compensation afforded to the City Treasurer by over 50%. Per Transparent California City Treasurer Dana Cortez made $134,976 in regular pay in 2016 and received $196,604 in total pay and benefits. The proposal would reduce her salary to $65,088 a year.

Cortez ran unopposed for the City Treasurer’s office in the recent election and received 100% of the vote. Cortez has worked in the City Treasurer’s office since 2000 and has served as the City Treasurer since 2010 when then Treasurer Linda Barnett retired.

The City staff report indicated the reduction in pay was based on a realignment of duties that occurred in early 2017. Cortez stated at the meeting that she expressed concern to the City Attorney’s office at the time the realignment occurred over whether the City Manager had the authority to effectuate the modifications. She was informed at the time by the City Attorney that it was within the City Manager’s purview to effectuate the change even though her duties are outlined in the City Charter.

City Attorney, Patrick Sullivan, affirmed during the meeting that there was nothing improper about the realignment and that such modifications were not in violation of the City Charter.

Cortez asserted that the proposed resolution was brought forward shortly after she refused to sign a confidentiality agreement that the City Attorney had requested that she sign. Cortez also said she did not sign the confidentiality agreement because her job was to be transparent and accountable.

The realignment of duties caused key tasks such as central cashiering, utility payments, coordination and reconciliation of bank deposits, wire transfers of city funds, and processing of parking citations to be assumed by the Finance Department.

When pressed by Mayor Furey about why the realignment occurred, Assistant City Manager Aram Chaparyan referred to errors and omissions in various staff reports and a high turnover rate in the City Treasurer’s office.

Former City Treasurer Linda Barnett spoke at the meeting and expressed concern that the realignment of duties removed important checks and balances pertaining to city finances. Barnett also expressed frustration that the matter had previously been discussed behind closed doors in a closed session of the Council.

On that point she stated:

“To me if there is anything that is going on that is inappropriate, the residents of Torrance have a right to know. This should have been handled a lot differently than it was … it’s not an employee situation … I really do believe this should have been handled in an open forum where issues could have been brought out and Dana would have a chance to speak.”

Cortez herself echoed that concern at one point adamantly stating,”The voters deserved to know before the election so that they could cast their votes informed.”

Councilwoman Ashcraft explained the reasoning for holding the closed door session by saying, “The reason the matter was discussed in closed session was to protect your integrity … it was not to not be transparent.  It was to protect.”

The City Council did not act on the proposal instead opting to have the matter brought forward again at its next meeting where presumably all issues pertaining to the matter can be discussed in an open session since the Council also waived its privilege to have the matter heard in closed session.

The document at the link found here was prepared by a group of local advocates and provides a recent analysis with regard to the effectiveness of the Optimized Street Sweeping Program. Torrance had effectively suspended the ticketing aspect of the Program in the last several months prior to the election, but is expected to resume enforcement via tickets in the coming months.

Torrance Ticketing to Tonnage Analysis

 

At its regular meeting this evening, the TUSD School Board is expected to approve an increase in the salary for the Director of the TUSD Personnel Commission. The increase will raise the salary of the Director to $136,056. The increase is a 5% raise from last year and represents a 14.67% increase from the 2016-17 school year when the Director’s salary was $118,653. The Director is also entitled to employee benefits the value of which was not specifically enumerated in the proposed budget.

As part of the proposed budget, the secretaries and clerks that support the Director will also receive a pay increase. Their collective increase, however, is a more modest 2.3% from last year.

Terry Furey, spouse of current Mayor Pat Furey, is the current Chair of the Personnel Commission. She joined the Commission after replacing her son, Patrick Furey, Jr., who resigned after his position on the Commission had come under fire due to his role in a political scandal involving illegal campaign contributions to his father’s 2014 mayoral campaign that led to a $35,000 fine by the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC). Furey Jr. served as his father’s campaign manager during that election campaign.

Terry was appointed to the Commission by the California School Employees Association (CSEA) Chapter #845. At the time of her appointment, she was listed on CSEA’s website as its First Vice President. The Personnel Commission was established to ensure favoritism and nepotism are kept out of the District’s hiring practices and that employees are hired based only upon demonstrated ability and not on who they know.

The total cost for the Personnel Commission was $518,265 in 2016-17. The proposed budget increases that figure to $584,682. This increase is proposed despite unverified rumors that the District has recently been hiring personnel through a private employment agency instead of utilizing the Commission. In a recent thread on the social media site Nextdoor dated 26 April 2018, one commentator identified as Danielle Zuliani claimed that:

TUSD has been hiring these [paraeducators] through a staffing agency “ Staff Rehab” even though they have a Personnel Commission that is supposed to be doing the hiring of classified staff … The new contracted paraeducator staff were offered 35 hr/ per week plus benefits compared to TUSD employed paraeducators who cannot get that many hours, saves $ on paying benefits, towards retirement, etc…but its the same job that the TUSD employed paraeducators do.

The budget increase for the Personnel Commission comes at a time of heightened tension between the School Board and the teachers union as negotiations for a new labor contract have stalled. The initial deal provided by the School Board offered teachers a 1% raise. That proposal fell through last October when it was not ratified by the TTA membership.