SOUNDING OFF:

Last week Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor requested city staff to prepare reports on two items dealing with council members’ compensation and benefits that were to have appeared on the agenda of their March 17 meeting. During that meeting Mansoor said a council member had requested the items be continued to a future meeting, so they were rescheduled for April 21. A skeptic might suspect that council member was Gary Monahan, because he was absent from the March 17 meeting and probably has the most at stake if his salary and benefits were reduced.

The first item dealt with the possibility of reducing council member pay — they earn $952 per month — and provided a schedule showing several tiers of reduction. I suspect Mansoor intended to show that the council is willing to step up to the plate in these precarious financial times — probably to influence the four public employee unions to open re-negotiation of their contracts.

However, this proposal is only a smoke screen. The mayor knows full well that no changes can be made to council pay until after the 2010 elections. when new council members are elected. Regardless, he won’t be affected one way or the other: He’s termed-out in 2010!

Similarly, the second item — the point when the $1,483 monthly stipend each council member receives toward health-care premiums can be adjusted — is simply window-dressing and irrelevant to the current budget crisis. Presently, the benefit amount is adjusted on Jan. 1 of each year.

Bringing these items forward at this time is, at the very least, disingenuous and probably fits the definition of hypocritical, too. Apparently that special training the council received at their last study session didn’t take. Maybe they, or at least Mansoor, need a refresher.

Instead of playing games, Mansoor and the rest of our City Council should get serious about the budget and help the public employee unions understand what’s at stake — many of their jobs! If the unions don’t discuss their participation in this budget adjustment process, the council can only authorize very significant layoffs to meet budget demands.

If Mansoor and the council members are serious, they should endorse their paychecks back to the city. They don’t have to keep the money. If they are not serious about their contribution to this problem, how can they ask the union membership to renegotiate?

This is not the time for chest-thumping and subterfuge: It’s time for leadership and team work.

GEOFF WEST is a resident of Costa Mesa.