On Tuesday night, union leaders delivered the results of a vote of no confidence in City Manager Bill Workman to the Redondo Beach City Council.
According to the Redondo Beach Patch, almost 98% of the 297 votes received by unions expressed a lack of confidence in Workman’s ability to lead.
The City of Redondo Beach has roughly 410 employees who are directed by Workman.
“We do not want to be here tonight, but we have no choice,” Brad Sweatt of the Redondo Beach Firefighters Association stated to the Council. “We’ve been pushed into the corner, and we refuse to stay quiet any longer.”
The Coalition of Redondo Beach Employees (CORE), a group of nearly 300 city employees spanning five different labor associations demonstrated outside of City Hall during the meeting, according to Easy Reader News. CORE leaders said the vote of no confidence and public demonstration was a measure of last resort after the city and the labor groups have failed to reach a contract agreement after 18 months of negotiations.
Workman responded to the impending demonstration in a statement released Monday.
“At this time, the City is presently engaged in a labor dispute where public employee unions wish for the City Council to pay wages far beyond (the) City’s financial capacity,” Workman stated. “The City is only now emerging from the financial distress caused by the Great Recession and the significant revenue take-aways by our State and Federal Government.”
“We are a family—a family of dedicated individuals looking out for each other,” Sweatt told the council. “The city employees have not been considered … an important asset—an asset that has been depleted over time.”
Workman has been the City Manager of Redondo Beach for nine years.
Read the full article at the Redondo Beach Patch.