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Politics & Government

CalPERS Contract Amendment Still Intact After Third Vote

The Cerritos City Council, once again, approved an amendment to a contract between CalPERS and the city of Cerritos.

During its May 26 meeting, the Cerritos City Council voted 3-2 to authorize an amendment to a contract between California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the City of Cerritos.

Like the May 9 and April 28 meeting that lasted more than six hours, councilmembers Mark Pulido and Joseph Cho both voted against approving Ordinance 960, a contract which was introduced on April 28 regarding public employee pensions. During the April 28 meeting, the council's lifetime benefits were met with heavy criticism by residents and Union workers.

As he did during the May 9 meeting, Pulido motioned to have the item considered separate from the Consent Calendar - both motions were approved. Another concern Pulido expressed was why the item included "second reading" in its title although it had been the third time presented to the council. City Manager Art Gallucci explained that one of the three times it had been presented was at a special meeting; ordinances can only be adopted at regular meetings, so Ordinance 960 was brought back on that night's agenda.

During the discussion, longtime Cerritos resident, Ram Kakkar, said that the city pension liability needed to be controlled since pensions were originally decided when the state was “having a good time.”

“The times are tough right now, “ he said. “Everyone needs to be part of the solution and make some sacrifices.”

That same evening the council approved replacement of perimeter windscreens at the  tennis courts and also greelighted the installation of playground surfacing at . Assistant City Engineer, Kanna Vancheswaran, said the city plans to replace the park's equipment along with its surface.

“The new surface, in conjunction with the new equipment, will work nicely to update the entire park and bring it up to current American Disability Act guidelines and therefore provide many years of service,” Vancheswaran said.

Much to Pulido’s concern, Vancheswaran assured the council the concrete would be removed and replaced. “That’s really good to hear,” Pulido added.

During council reports, Cho mentioned the challenges of "unconstitutional" state raidings of local funds - a topic he emphasized during his campaign for re-election - and Gov. Brown's proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies.

"Last May, the City of Cerritos paid to the state $11,800,000 and another $2,400,000 just this month," Cho said. 

Cho believes the elimination of redevelopment agencies will greatly effect California's cities. 

"We  will eventually lose some of our redevelopment revenues," Cho said. "Also, our redevelopment agencies will sunset in the near future - in 2013 and in 2018. So we should start to review our fiscal scales and prepare a plan for the sunsetting of our redevelopment agencies."

The next meeting will be a special meeting held on June 7. 

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