Note: RE: “Cerritos and Union Negotiations Stalemated” (4-22-11) LCCN stands by what Mr. Caballero wrote in the article “Cerritos and Union Negotiat

-It is remarkable that despite
AFSCME Local 619 members providing your reporter, Larry Caballero, substantial information, budget numbers, salary information from the State Controller’s Office about the City Manager and City Council compensation, and other public-interest facts in recent days – as well as our own views as City employees – only some 5 percent of the story’s content reflects the perspective of our union, while 95% is dedicated to Mayor Chen’s unfortunately polarizing rebukes.
I was hired as one of the original Cerritos Center of the Performing Arts employees and was there when the doors opened to the community. I remain a dedicated public employee proud of the cultural richness that Cerritos provides. I am recognized for being thoughtful and reasonable about finding equitable budget solutions and working together. Yet almost nothing of what I told your newspaper ultimately appeared in print. Is a fundamental tenet of journalism no longer to present a balanced and fair story?
After everything this country, state, and community has suffered with the “big guy” taking advantage of the “little guy” over the last several years, it is particularly incumbent upon our media to present responsible information.
Perhaps City of Cerritos leadership and Mayor Chen should reflect on the sense of paying $270 per hour to an outside consultant, Beverly Hills-based attorneys Charles Goldstein and his son. Let’s do some basic math together, since your article chose not to: If said consultant is working eight hour days at the hourly amount you quoted, that math yields a payout of over half a million dollars annually.
What results have come from that cost to the City taxpayers? For starters, this consultant – who has earned tens of thousands of dollars already – has created bitter labor-management division, not positive collaborative solutions. Now, for the first time in Cerritos, a negotiations impasse could be imposed on City employees despite all of the good will and concessions we have made. This is also bad for the community, which deserves a functioning and healthy City government.
It is my hope that your newspaper will have the integrity to publish my response.
Rogan Girard
Cerritos


-I am very disappointed with the comments that Mayor Chen made in this article. This casts unfair, negative attention to the city, the residents, and to my union brothers and sisters. When all the smoke settles - the truth will shine through! The community will continue to grow in support for us – and greater government accountability and openness – once the City Council's huge part-time salaries and perks are exposed in a serious news story. Their car allowances, office toys and electronic gadgets, cell phone bills, etc., are out of hand. We are filing Public Information Requests to obtain the relevant data, and will hope that in fairness, you will print it in a responsible and balanced follow-up. The Council members also get lifetime medical for themselves and their spouses after five years of service – but they are asking many of us to wait 20 years. This is a double standard.
They also are demanding that lower-level workers add a three-tier, unfair pension plan. In addition, they no longer will even recognize our service with plaques, recommendations, certificates that cost the taxpayer nothing but mean a lot to us since we take pride in our work.
We love our jobs and serving the community. We agreed to make major concessions throughout the negotiations process including to no pay raises in years and a gazillion other examples that we have the paperwork to prove. At the same time, Cerritos City Manager Art Gallucci, overseeing a population of under 50,000 is earning more than the CAO of the City of Los Angeles, which serves four million people. These kind of excesses and double standards should have been reported in your story because your readers have a right to know.
Now is the time for Cerritos to demand straight answers, good faith, and collaboration from City Hall. The Mayor has declared war on its rank-and-file employees to deflect attention from the truth. It is up to your readers – the residents we serve -- to call for City accountability and civility with its employees."

Robert "Nick" Melendrez, President of Local 619, City of Cerritos Employee