City workers criticize council failures

Petaluma's city employees have accused the City Council of causing city services to reach a “tipping point” by failing to attract business and tax revenue.

The major unions for city employees, in a guest commentary titled “Petaluma: A city in decline” in the Jan. 21 Argus-Courier, said that accepting furloughs in January “was not intended to relieve the council of its duty to address the city's financial problems,” and that they “fear now that accepting the pay cuts may have been a mistake.”

The commentary was written by representatives of the Coalition of Petaluma Employees, an organization of the city's unions that includes fire, police and administrative workers. Petaluma has 292 permanent city employees, and 286 of those belong to a union or employee association. City employees agreed to a furlough program in January that requires them to take 32 hours off per six-month period, amounting to a 3 percent pay cut.

“Our confidence is shaken with the current council,” said COPE representatives in an e-mail interview. Employees say they wrote the commentary to spur the council to attract more business and tax revenue, to restore city services.

“Remaining silent has not accomplished positive change. As our ability to respond to requests for service continues to decline, we felt it was necessary to speak up to inform the public,” said representatives.

Employees cited the conditions of roads, public buildings and the response time of requests as indicators that city services are “nearing collapse.” One employee said that cuts have left his department doing 100 things at 20 percent capacity.

“The ability to maintain decent roads appears to be an economic indicator for many cities on the health of their budgets,” said representatives. Also, requests for service are taking longer and there are fewer people to respond to calls, they said.

Mayor Pamela Torliatt said that the council has “aggressively moved forward with projects to generate revenue,” citing the Silk Mill project, the North River Landing development and the Regency shopping center, which should be approved soon, she said.

“I appreciate and I know that the city appreciates the sacrifice that they have made,” she said, adding that “I think these times are challenging for everyone.”

Torliatt met with union representatives four months ago and she has been trying to set up more meetings.

“I let union leadership know that I am completely open to discussing issues of concern they have,” said Torliatt.

Other council members also say they understand the hardships that city employees are going through.

“I can understand how challenging it is to work with less people,” said Councilmember Tiffany Renée. “I appreciate what they are going through.”

Renée said she is working hard on plans to bring business to town in difficult times.

“(For) any other project that comes before us that can be a revenue stream we have to make sure that it will, in the long term, be a revenue stream,” she said.

“They're very justified,” said Councilmember Mike Harris about the employees' comments. He said that the city's General Plan is an adequate way for vetting new businesses and that “now it's up to the council to encourage business.”

(Contact Philip Riley at philip.riley@arguscourier.com)