Sounding Off

Dave Sullivan

It’s interesting to look at how the city staff members handled the

prevailing wage report requested by the City Council.

Because the council did not allow the staff members to bury the issue

in the black hole known as the Competitive Services Committee, they

apparently decided to issue a quickie report and allow no time for public

discussion.

When government is working properly and cares about the input of its

citizens, an important item like the prevailing wage report is available

for at least two weeks for public review. In this case, the public -- if

they were very vigilant -- received the report at 5 p.m. on the Friday

before the Monday- night council meeting. The vast majority never saw it

at all. Somehow, union leaders had enough lead-time to be able to

schedule appointments with council members to lobby for continuing the

prevailing wage.

According to the demographics, Huntington Beach is a well-educated

population. Is it too much of a stretch to assume that some in this city

of almost 200,000 might have valuable input for the council?

Is it possible that the rush to judgment had something to do with the

fact that the heat was being turned up on this issue? Both the

Independent and the Register recently ran editorials critical of the

prevailing wage issue.

I feel that Huntington Beach could save more than $500,000 annually by

getting rid of the prevailing wage provision. For example, Irvine, a

smaller city than Huntington Beach, did $18 million in capital

improvement projects in the year 2000. Only $4 million of these projects,

the ones that received state and federal funds, were required to pay

prevailing wage.

The remaining $14 million worth of projects were not required to pay

prevailing wage. If we use the conservative estimate that 20% of the

projects’ costs were for wages, then $2.8 million went for salaries.

Studies show that prevailing wage provisions increase salaries 10% to

20%. If we take the middle position and assume a 15% increase it means

that, because the Irvine City Council repealed prevailing wage, Irvine

saved $320,000 on capital improvement projects alone. Also, unlike

Huntington Beach, Irvine isn’t requiring a private street sweeping

contractor to pay drivers a prevailing wage of $40.51 per hour

($84,250/year) which, of course, is ultimately paid by Huntington Beach

taxpayers.

Staff and the City Council are always telling us how tight the budget

is, yet they declined an opportunity to save hundreds of thousands of

dollars.

I suppose they intend to “solve” the budget problems by finding some

new taxes to impose on us. I know it won’t be by holding salaries and

benefits in check.

DAVE SULLIVAN is a resident and former mayor and councilman of

Huntington Beach. To contribute to Sounding Off, fax us at (714) 965-7174

or send an e-mail to o7 [email protected]