Cerritos Residents Seek Change in Council Benefits and Expenses

A long public comment session criticizing the City Council's benefits and expenses was the highlight of the council's April 14 meeting. 

Opening the discussion was recent city council candidate, , harkening back to his focus on government transparency during his campaign. 

“We are a leadership city and we can do better,” Fuentes said. “So I say our model city can have an open, frank discussion and let’s just see if we can do something about it. If residents decide, after this dialogue, that the current system is working, at least we would have aired it and would have done it in public.”

Keri Chang, a Cerritos resident, delivered a speech expressing her reasons behind questioning the council’s benefits and salaries.

“ . . . because the city of Bell’s political shenanigans; because of the frequent entitlement mentality at the local, state and federal levels; because of the road to the bankrupcy of our country - out of control spending; because city council positions are gateways to higher office; because of to-the-grave medical benefits for council members and their spouses, “ she said.

Chang requested the City hold studies reviewing the council members’ comprehensive benefit packages – particularly in reference to medical coverage – as well as the city’s budget. According to Cerritos' City and Theater Marketing Manager, Annie Hylton, each member of the council is covered up to the cost of Public Employees Retirement System Choice Family (PERS Choice Family) through CalPERS. If a member has served on the council for at least five years, they will receive lifetime retirement benefits. 

According to Chang, an option, available to council members, is a monthly cash payment of $780 originally adopted in 1970.

“We cannot keep living and spending like we have over the past years and decades,” Chang said. “That means we must eliminate fluff from our budget and that means the city today and not tomorrow. The voters need to cast an election for fringe benefits to the grave, amendments to term limits, Cerritos union jobs and tier perks and outdated parking ordinances.”

In response to Chang, Mayor Carol Chen said the councilmembers are receiving the same amount of benefits as city employees. She said the council does not have the ability to retroactively change what the past councils have passed, but can only affect future decisions.

“Top management was able to reduce our budget by $10,000,000 without any kind of impact,” Chen said. “We reduced our own personal income by 10 percent – reduced our own travel income by 45 percent.”

As for the budget, Chen said the city will have its review in May and that the public will be notified and welcomed to look at each item reviewed.

The next regularly scheduled council meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 28. Please check www.cerritos.us for updates on the upcoming agenda.