CHC 1979-03-13 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MR. MOSS: SayT hear that again ...please? MR. TRULS.ON: By reading it the first time through, it would appear to me that a possible employee salary raise, for county employees, may come under referendum without limitations in Article XL. The limitation of powers. . "any financial matter relating to public works ; any ordinances making or repealing any appropriation of money or fixing the salaries of county employees or officers`®'" Section 11-2 limits the powers of initiat <veand referendum so as not to effect that type of thing. If you takeaway all your limitations would it be possible for a referendum on salaries? The poss- ibility is there. Though the possibility of it ever happening might be very slim but without your limitations that possibility is there. MR. MOSS: I . guess my not very well thought out answer- wouldbe if the voters- are eventually paying the salaries of the administration and its employees , then really, why shouldn ' t theyhave the last word on how much it is? MR. ' TRULSON: Don ' t misunderstand me. I`'`m not 'trying to argue with you. I 'm just kind of playing devil ' s advocate. Okay, then you have the union coming in with the union contract of the county 'mployees. So the union ' contract is negotiated. All of a sudden the voters come up and says =no by referendum. . MR. MOSS: It ' s funny. I 've been on both sides of the fence. I'-ve been a union member and I 've been a manage- ment member. I can be reasonably objective, I think , about the question of unions and salaries and contracts. I sometimes think , right now, that the hand of the administration of the council needs to be strengthened a little bit more versus the union. In the light of the last few years and the growing unionism of the government employees. I 'm not against it. I am a firm believer that when you get a large corp.oration , you . practically have to have a union. In the administration of the county the government is like a large corporation . I 'm not against unions but I do think that sometimes the scales tip a little bit too far one way and ��a` iittl e bit too far the other. The only way you get back--you never get it exactly in balance. You always 'are tipped a little one way or the other way. Right now, I 'd like to see it tipped a little bit more on the +slide of the people who are paying the salaries . Again, Icome back to the fact that initiative and referendum is a last ditch procedure. But it is a club you can hold over people' s heads and say, now let ' s be reasonable about this and not go whole hog. MR. ISHIDA: Mr. Moss, on this district repre- sentation. Your basis is the voter registration. Has your committee determined that this would be. a valid base upon which to determine representation? - 27 -