From: Amanda Le Gaux
To: City Clerk Dept User
Subject: Public Comments City Council Meeting 03/21/23
Date: Tuesday, March 21, 2023 11:38:08 AM
Good Evening City Clerk, Council Members, and Mayor.
My name is Amanda Y. Le Gaux, a member of the SEIU negotiating team. I am an Admin Aide for the Richmond Police Department and have been working for the City of Richmond for almost 13 years.
I have to cross the bridge every day because as an employee of this city I cannot afford to live in the city I work in. Gas prices have gone up as well as the toll charges, this has impacted my finances negatively.
The recruiting and retention challenges have affected the entire city, the present salaries and listed salaries from the COMP study are nowhere close to other cities in and around the County and the Bay Area. Possible recruits who have been given a conditional offer and jumped ship to another place of employment due to better salaries elsewhere. This has happened one too many times. The council has continued to mention they want a better city for the residents but how can we begin to grant this when the employees who make the city better are in need and rightfully deserve better pay... Give us what we have worked hard for, give us the salaries that equally compare to the cities in and around us so we can retain and recruit good quality people. How do you plan on retaining the hardworking employees that you already have and how do you plan on recruiting more????? All of 1021 is THE backbone to this city. All of 1021 deserves more.
Best Regards,
Amanda Y. Le Gaux
Personnel & Training
Richmond Police Department
1701 Regatta Boulevard
Richmond, CA 94804-7409
Direct: 510-621-1548
[email protected]
From: Yvonne Cuellar
To: City Clerk Dept User
Subject: Public comments- open session prior to closed session Date: Tuesday, March 21, 2023 9:41:19 AM
Thank You Council Members for giving me your time. My name is Yvonne Cuellar and I am a Local 1021 member. I am the Senior Civilian Crime Scene Technician and I work within the Police Department. I would like to speak for most everyone in Local 1021 with regards of obtaining a fair salary comparable to neighboring cities. Everybody here works hard and I am not saying my job is more important than anybody else’s within this city however, I can only speak about my own personal job and situation in the hope that you will understand.
In 2018 prior to the salary study conducted by the City of Richmond, myself and a former CST conducted research on bay area cities for our same position. At that time, we found that the Richmond CST position was minimum of $20,000 less than some of Richmond’s closest neighboring cities. Much to my surprise when Richmond’s salary study came out I knew something was very misleading and amiss. As recently as last year I observed my job description advertised for the City of Fresno. Their advertised lowest step was higher than Richmond CST’s top step. I know for a fact from growing up in that area, the cost of living is significantly lower there than the Bay Area.
Nearly 7 years ago I left the lowest paying city, to come and work for the City of Richmond. I believed working here would give me the opportunity to support myself better and to allow for career advancement. “Career”, not just “job”. The city I formerly left now has salaries which put the City of Richmond beneath them on the salary scale-at least when it comes to civilians. In comparison to my current job position, that particular city has very little to no crime.
I don’t know how the salary survey was conducted but I can assure you the CST position was not interviewed by the civilians currently holding the position. What other jobs was our position compared to and how old were those particular job descriptions? The CST civilian position was new as of 2016 and I was the first to be hired for it.
Your current CST’s are required to have educations so we currently possess bachelors degrees. We are the primary crime scene personnel who arrive at a homicide prior to the Sworn Homicide Detectives. We preserve scenes and locate items of evidence prior to Sworn Detectives arriving. We currently have no hazard pay and are required to enter into hazardous situations on a daily basis. We observe unnatural deaths and crime scenes nobody should ever have to witness in their entire lifetime. I personally attend occasional autopsies to process evidence off the body. We spend most of our time out in the field with sworn personnel. Unlike a sworn officer who is responsible for covering 1 beat, the CST’s cover crimes scenes in all 9 beats. We are required to wear bullet proof vests due to the riskiness of our jobs and citizens assuming we are “the police”. We are subpoenaed to court to testify and get torn apart by defense lawyers. We were deemed essential and worked throughout the Covid 19 epidemic while others had 3 months or more off. Again, I am not saying my job is more important than anybody else’s. We are all unique in our own job positions.
The current economic situation has severely impacted all of us and now we are struggling just to make it. I currently am contemplating selling my own home to rent a room from a friend just to save money. I can’t even afford to fix the heater in my home. Sometimes it is 49 degrees inside my house.
My leaky roof has also taken a back seat during this atmospheric river season. When I grocery shop I have to be very mindful about what I can buy and what food will last me through the entire work week. I have been working more overtime to pay bills that I never had a problem paying before.
While it might be easy to say “well, go find another job that pays more”, it is not that simple for many of us. I absolutely love what I do. I have been dedicated to this city and I am vested when it comes to PERS and medical. I see retirement in the near future and to find another job would be retirement suicide. I would be starting over and be forced to work longer prior to even thinking about retirement. My older age also plays a factor in seeking employment elsewhere. My job position is also extremely competitive because people think CSI is “glamourous”. Again, some of us can’t just leave to a higher paying job.
I am not asking for sympathy as I am only one of hundreds who can tell you of their struggles- some of which are guaranteed to be worse off than mine. All I am asking is that the City Council members do what is right and fair and give Local 1021 members a comparable salary to neighboring cities so that we can survive under the current economic situation. You have great and proud people working for this City who absolutely want to be here. If I am struggling just on my own, I can’t imagine what Local 1021 members who have children and dependents are going through at this time.
Thank you again for hearing me out and for your time.
From: Cordell Hindler
To: City Clerk Dept User
Subject: Public Comments- Open Forum
Date: Friday, March 17, 2023 3:20:50 PM
This email originated from outside of the City's email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
This email originated from outside of the City's email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Hello Mayor Martinez, Council Members and Staff,
I Have Some Comments For the Record
1. Let the Record Reflect That IT was My Idea To Have DR Hurst To Provide an Update On What the District Is Working On to Consider Bringing back the School Resource Officers
2. Also for a Future Agenda, The Council Should Reinstate the Agenda & Rules and the Public Safety Standing Committees in Lined with the City of Berkeley
Sincerely
Cordell
From: Cordell Hindler
To: City Clerk Dept User
Subject: public comments - Q.1 Budget Session
Date: Friday, March 17, 2023 3:42:53 PM
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This email originated from outside of the City's email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Hello Mayor Martinez, Council Members and Staff.
I do Appreciate the Work that the Finance Department with the Assistance of Badawi & Associates on the Comprehensive Report
Sincerely
Cordell
From: Cordell Hindler
To: City Clerk Dept User
Subject: Public Comments- R.1 New Business
Date: Friday, March 17, 2023 3:47:40 PM
This email originated from outside of the City's email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
This email originated from outside of the City's email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Hello Mayor Martinez, Council Members and Staff,
I am Asking that the Council to Fully Support the Addition of Having a Senior Assistant to the Mayor Sincerely
Cordell
3/21/23, 1:04 PM https://richmond.escribemeetings.com/Pages/ReportingPrintFriendly.aspx?reporting-reporttype=PublicComment https://richmond.escribemeetings.com/Pages/ReportingPrintFriendly.aspx?reporting-reporttype=PublicComment 1/2 Portal Search...
Meeting Date
Agenda Item
Name
Email
Comment
Position
Status
City Council
3/21/2023 4:30 PM PUBLIC COMMENT
BEFORE CLOSED
SESSION (limited to
items on the
Closed Session
Agenda only)
Griselda Cortez My questions to
the City Council,
City Administrator,
and Mayor. Which I
don’t expect to be
answered today,
but hope that you
ask yourself, are
these: Why… if you
have the
information of the
comp study, have
you chosen to keep
a classi cation of
employees
nancially
oppressed, earning
below living costs
wages? Why… if
you have
negotiated with
Fire, and Police,
aware that they do
not face a greater
gap on wages and
living costs than
our classi cation,
do you take no
action to complete
a negotiation with
our classi cation?
Why… if you buy
food, ll up gas,
pay PG&E bills and
For Appro
3/21/23, 1:04 PM https://richmond.escribemeetings.com/Pages/ReportingPrintFriendly.aspx?reporting-reporttype=PublicComment https://richmond.escribemeetings.com/Pages/ReportingPrintFriendly.aspx?reporting-reporttype=PublicComment 2/2 see the
consequence of
in ation, are you
not helping our
classi cation of
employees live
with dignity by
a ording basic
needs? Hope that
you are taking into
consideration that
while you wait on
this process to
provide us with
nancial relief,
keeping my family
warm and paying
extremely high
PG&E bills does not
wait…. feeding my
family decent food,
does not wait…
lling up my car
with gas to be
reliable in helping
the City of
Richmond does not
wait… Please stop
waiting…. Help us
achieve nancial
security! Thank you
for your time.