Two weeks after the Long Beach City Council took away the public’s right to pull items from its Consent Calendar Agenda — typically, a couple dozen issues supposedly so routine that they can be grouped together and approved with one vote — Bill Pearl of LBreport.com has discovered that a major spending provision has been quietly slipped into the mix for Tuesday night’s meeting.

In the item, city management seeks council approval to let managers give annual raises of up to seven percent for “business/executive” level city employees without a specific vote of approval by the council. Pearl’s account includes audio links to the Nov. 6 meeting of the City Council’s three-member Budget Oversight Committee, where the proposal got preliminary approval.

Despite the immense amount of money involved, the item’s wording on the Consent Calendar Agenda is almost deceptive in its legalistic gobbledy-gook.  It reads: Recommendation to adopt amended Salary Resolution for Fiscal Year 2008 (Citywide) Office or Department: Human Resources. Suggested Action: Approve recommendation”

The move comes four months after the Long Beach Business Journal reported that 528 city employees were budgeted to earn salaries of more than $100,000 in 2008 – more than twice as many as the 259 who earned at least that much in 2007.

Tags: $100, 000 club, Bill Pearl, Consent calendar, Dave Wielenga, lbreport.com, Long Beach Business Journal, Long Beach City Council