Union deal disagreement leads to 4-1 vote to look at Kerr's performance.
Turlock City Manager Tim Kerr is on the hot seat because of a disagreement with City Council members stemming from his negotiations with an employee union. Council members voted 4-1 on Monday to evaluate his performance. They held a special meeting to parse their memories of a closed-door session at which they approved a contract for the Turlock City Employee Association.A majority of the council was concerned that Kerr gave too much to the union after their closed-door vote.Representatives contend they voted to give the employee union as much as 9 percent in raises over two years, or to give ground to the bargaining group on a pension issue, according to people who attended the meeting.The Turlock City Employee Association gained both incentives, picking up the raises and a 0.7 percent increase in pensions."It was repeated over and over again that the enhanced retirement would be at no additional cost to the city," Councilman Kurt Spycher said.Councilman Ted Howze said he was concerned about the raises and retirement benefits because they could come at a cost to the raises the city can afford for its public safety unions.
He said the council had prioritized those contracts because the city's police officers and firefighters earn signifi- cantly less than their counterparts in other cities."It's not that any group of employees are any less important," Howze said. "We'd love to give them all big raises. The problem is we only have so many dollars."Mayor John Lazar said Kerr handled the negotiations as he was directed. Lazar voted against reviewing Kerr's performance."I have full confidence in our city manager," Lazar said. "He's very capable and competent. I'm not a micro-manager."
--Kerr joined Turlock in October 2005 after seven years as Ceres' city manager. The Ceres City Council voted to dismiss him that summer, though its members continued to praise his work after they let him go.
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Don Quixote Note: Turlock is a 55,000 population City just South on I 99 from our sister City Modesto. The other city mentioned Ceres lies between Modesto and Turlock. The city is located in the San Joaquin Valley along California State Route 99, south of Modesto and north of Turlock in Stanislaus County. Ceres is the derived from the name of the Roman goddess of Agriculture. Looks like they have a migrating bureaucrab workforce similar to that of NORD.
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