Cupertino City Council
October 25, 2023

CC 10-25-2023
Item No. 1
Conference with
Labor Negotiators
Written Communications
From: Rhoda Fry
To: City Council; City Clerk
Subject: Comments Agenda Item 1 Labor October 25
Date: Wednesday, October 25, 2023 3:21:10 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Comments Agenda Item 1 Labor October 25

Dear City Council,

Short Message – Please pay great wages and make Cupertino less top-heavy

It is important that we pay competitive wages to our City of Cupertino labor force. We don’t want the good folks to leave. You know the 80-20 rule – 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work!
So we need to keep the folks who are doing great work here in Cupertino. By paying the good folks appropriately, means that we won’t have to pay as many people to get the work done.

I have had the pleasure of working with staff members in a number of departments and have been very impressed by their knowledge, responsibility, and dedication to customer satisfaction.

That said, our budgeted employment costs are out of control, see the table below comparing FY 2019 (pre-covid) and 2023 (current). Cupertino population is shrinking but our budgeted employment headcount, compensation, and benefits cost is way to high, especially considering the City’s financial situation. I have also included contract services because those could be considered external labor (we need to reduce that too). My ask is that Council take a hard look at all of the jobs in our City and determine the appropriate wages/benefits.

Furthermore, consider reducing headcount among the more highly-paid positions as it appears that City-employment is overly top-heavy when comparing increase in headcount (11%) vs increase in wages (30%).

2019 2023 % Increase
Contract Services $21.6M $24.8 15%
Employee
Compensation
$19M $24.7M 30%
Employee Benefits $8M $11M 38%
Employee Headcount 203 225 11%
Community
Development
28 37 30%
Administration and
Administrative
Services
30 42 42%

Sources:
https://cupertino.opengov.com/transparency#/33189/accountType=fteCount&embed=n&break down=28459e6a-563e-4695-97d4-
8a0d97d881e1&currentYearAmount=cumulative&currentYearPeriod=years&graph=bar&lege ndSort=desc&proration=true&saved_view=103397&selection=3B47265EDAEBBD4AA92D 700FE18A69B7&projections=null&projectionType=null&highlighting=null&highlightingVar iance=null&year=2023&selectedDataSetIndex=null&fiscal_start=earliest&fiscal_end=latest

https://cupertino.opengov.com/transparency#/28184/accountType=expenses&embed=n&brea kdown=types&currentYearAmount=cumulative&currentYearPeriod=years&graph=pie&legen dSort=desc&proration=true&saved_view=83836&selection=9C2A43FB322CD4C8B0EBF19 802609C1F&projections=null&projectionType=null&highlighting=null&highlightingVarianc e=null&year=2024&selectedDataSetIndex=null&fiscal_start=2016&fiscal_end=latest

Sincerely,
Rhoda Fry
From: j w
To: City Clerk; City Clerk
Subject: negotiation special meeting Oct 25
Date: Wednesday, October 25, 2023 5:08:53 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Dear City council,
As long time residents of the city, This city used to have box for any residents to put their comments including about the employees to it and open door policy too, We'd like to see those measurement together with increasingly added the pay,
The above mentioned policies are common practice in other cities.

Instead, talk about complicity or relationship with residents, and argue, shall show us that tho ones asked also set an example to lift up the standard comparable with increasingly staggering pay.

Thank you!
Jane from
Huang residents