Hmmm… Years spent taking payroll for union workers to the bone, seeking concessions and making cuts, and now it’s bonus time for a few? Without telling the City Council?
From the Nov. 5, 2015, Fresno Bee:
Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin has handed out more than $200,000 in bonuses to key staff members the past few years, raising universal outrage among City Council members who say they were unaware of the cash payouts.
The bonuses at issue – which include the 2014 budget year and continue through the current year – came as the city emerged from dark budgetary times born during the Great Recession that featured the constant specter of bankruptcy. The current $1.2 billion budget includes more money for some departments.
The bonuses also may violate city law. In 2010, the council approved the Transparency in City Government Act, which requires the city to post on its website information about city employee earnings and payments to consultants. Part of the act requires the administration to disclose all compensation – including bonuses and deferred compensation – every year during the budget hearings.
But City Council members say that hasn’t been done since 2012, and both they and union officials were apparently in the dark about these bonuses.
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article43215669.html#storylink=cpy
