Is Metropolitan Water District trying to avoid public scrutiny?
By: Teri Sforza

Those gunning for a new contract hiking pay and pensions for Metropolitan Water District of Southern California employees did not feel well-served by the democratic process last summer.
So that process might change.

THAT WAS THEN

Essentially, negotiations between the union and the management of MWD took place in a cone of silence. Once everyone was reasonably happy, the tentative contracts went to employees for approval first, and then on to MWD’s giant board of directors for the final sign-off.

Well, after the employees approved said tentative contracts, but before the board voted, there was time for muckrackers to do a bit of poking around. The public - stumbling out of a recessional stupor - was outraged that public employees could see their pay rise as much as 23 percent over five years, and incensed at the proposed 25 percent hike in retirement formulas, at a time when pension investments were bleeding.

That the sweetened retirement formula would have been a windfall for many of MWD’s long-time managers (who were negotiating and recommending approval) may have been the nail in the agreement’s coffin. 

THIS IS NOW?  

So our moles in Water World tell us that this time around, the order of events may change.
Rather than going to the employees first - which allowed for the period of public scrutiny that spelled doom last summer - new union agreements may go to MWD’s giant board first.

Some insiders worry that this would strangle the public inspection period. Because negotiations are legally required to happen in secret, a “rush” to the board could allow union agreements to be approved by the board before the public has much of a chance to see what’s in them.

Other insiders, however, feel there would still be time for the public to review the contracts before the board votes in this scenario. Switching the order of approval would just ensure that last summer’s circus would not be repeated: The board would be fully on board before the membership got its heart set on anything.

MWD spokesman Bob Muir assures us that renewed negotiations haven’t even formally begun yet, so no decision has been made on who will be asked to approve them first has been made yet, and the discussion is somewhat premature.

(And we hear that folks at MWD have heard, loud and clear, that pension hikes should probably not be on the table this time around…. we will certainly be watching.)