With four conservative members of the council, Escondido has already achieved a balanced budget, implemented E-Verify for city hiring and has created a draft Charter to eliminate the high costs of prevailing wage and PLAs. Now the city council is tackling pension reform. The goal is to create a two-tier system along with existing employees paying their full pension contribution.
As reported in today’s North County Times, “Escondido has joined a growing list of North County cities slashing retirement benefits for newly hired employees, which pension reform advocates call the most effective way to rein in long-term labor costs … The City Council approved a labor contract with maintenance employees on Wednesday that reduces pension benefits by 50 percent for new hires, and the council is unified in making pension reform a top priority of this year’s balanced budget model.”
Read the rest of the North County Times article.