Culver City Observer -

You don’t need 20/20 vision to see the concerns citizens have with their local government. This paper in the last few weeks has printed examples of individual salaries and benefits over $300,000 and annual pensions that were more than their annual wages.

Many received annual pensions of over $120,000. We have many more examples.

There is more to consider than just voting in November on a ½ cent increase on the sales tax.

The council should, in my opinion, hire a non-biased reputable MBA-loaded company to look at our 40,000 population city and determine what caused this crisis, and what we should do now.

We are not only talking about wages and pensions but we should take a long, hard look at other benefits.

For example, what about eight employees who earned over $50,000 each in 2011 for overtime? Or the 19 part-time employees in 2011 whose wages were over $40,000 each?

The council should have also placed on this ballot a proposition to have every new hire get a 401(k) plan effective January 1, 2013, instead of the existing arrangement. Because the city didn’t take a stronger position it is possible another five cents in taxes will be needed.

Neil Rubenstein

Culver City