California: Labor Unions Push for Vallejo City Audit
According to the Times-Herald Online:
Vallejo public employee unions hope to borrow muscle from their state level parents to push for an audit of Vallejo's city finances.
Citing fiscal mismanagement, the state labor groups will ask legislators to demand an independent financial review, Vallejo firefighters union president Kurt Henke said Wednesday. Henke said he expects the state to foot the bill for hearings and a potential oversight committee.
In a related development, Henke revealed that a deal that would have saved the city at least $14 million was offered to the city in an 11th hour negotiation session Sunday. He said the proffered deal would have involved wage reductions and staffing cuts.
When asked to respond to the union's claims the city rejected and ignored credible deals to balance the budget and avoid bankruptcy, West said "we still feel the confidentiality agreement applies, and we are not going to discuss what happened."
The city staff report recommending bankruptcy said a budget balancing plan did not emerge from mediation sessions between staff and labor officials...click to continue.
