Santa Rosa council OKs raises for assistant city attorneys

Santa Rosa’s six assistant city attorneys will receive cumulative raises of 7.5 percent over two years under a new contract approved Tuesday by the City Council despite a skirmish over when council members can abstain from voting.

The item passed with five members approving it, Councilman Gary Wysocky voting against it and Councilwoman Julie Combs abstaining.

Mayor Scott Bartey said he supported the new contract as “a sustainable and valid agreement with our employees,” reached after much negotiation.

“One of the things you have to have is employees who are satisfied working here,” Bartley said.

The attorneys will receive total cost-of-living increases of 4.5 percent and total equity increases of?3 percent over the period. The second year’s increase will be offset by a 1.5-percent increase in contributions toward pension costs, resulting in a 6-percent net increase.

The city and the attorneys, represented by the Teamsters, engaged in a lengthy and expensive fact-finding process before striking the deal short of a decision by the panel.

Wysocky and Combs said they didn’t think the city could afford to give workers such large raises. They cited long-range financial projects that show the city, which last year had a budget surplus, sinking back into deficit in future years.

Combs said she was happy the employees were getting raises but couldn’t support them.

“I do not want to vote against our employees, but I cannot vote in favor of this document under these circumstances,” Combs said.

Combs’ announcement of her intent to abstain caused Councilwoman Erin Carlstrom to ask City Attorney Caroline Fowler about when a council member can abstain.

Fowler advised that according to the council’s rules and procedures, council members should not be abstaining from votes unless they have a financial interest in or bias regarding the matter.

Bartley painted his colleague’s vote as inaction. “Abstaining is not action, and that isn’t wasn’t what I was elected to do,” he said.

Wysocky, who last month abstained from voting from one employee group’s new contract because he said he wanted to support them “morally,” called Tuesday’s discussion a “silly debate.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.?On Twitter @srcitybeat.