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Ms. McGovem felt the major concern of the public was that this is an enormous amount of money and the public is concerned about how the money is being spent. How can the public be made aware that these kinds of issues are coming forward so they could give input before the final ratification. Ms. McKeehan indicated municipalities are notified of pending legislation that would affect them and Council takes positions along the way. There are services for anyone who wants to follow legislation. There are hundreds of bills during a legislative session and it is frequently unknown until the very end whether a bill is successful or not. Ms. McGovem believed that when there is a major change in the way the City is spending funds that there ought to be a way to make the public aware as the process proceeds. People talk about affordable and work force housing in Pleasanton yet the public doesn't know what employees are being compensated. The public needs to be aware of how the employees are doing and whether more work force housing is necessary or whether some kind of loans need to be provided, or whatever is necessary to help people be able to work and live here. She asked if the City would publish on its website the ten cities used for comparison as well as the total compensation package for employees. Robert Wright, 2538 Corte Bella, urged Council to concur with the staff recommendation. Ms. McKeehan presented a very good explanation of the proposal. He has 34 years of experience in the construction industry and has participated in contract negotiations. He agreed a long-term contract is very beneficial. This is a benefit to future Councilmembers because there is a fixed item in the budget. This should have been a Consent Calendar item and it is only involving .06% of the budget. Somehow some people have equated this to the billions of dollars to fight in Iraq and he felt that was blowing this out of all proportion. He urged Council to approve this item at this meeting. Steve Brozosky, 1700 Vineyard Avenue, was happy this was opened for public discussion. The staffreport contained a lot of information, but he had more questions. He was concerned about taking action before it is know what the state will do with regard to budget cuts. He would like to see more comparative studies with the cities, school districts, and private sector companies in the area. In the private sector, employees have to contribute to Social Security and 401(k) accounts. He wished his 401(k) were doing as well as the proposed retirement package. He referred to the fact that the formula is retroactive and asked if that meant that an employee who has been with the city for twenty years would have all that time at 2.7%. Ms. McKeehan indicated that was correct. Mr. Brozosky asked if a person had PERS contributions from another city, would Pleasanton be responsible for that period of time as well. Ms. McKeehan indicated Pleasanton pays for the part of the time in its employment and the other city would pay for the time the employee was working in that organization. Pleasanton City Council 13 10/01/02 Minutes