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Union members urge Arroyo Grande council to preserve percentage-based medical cost sharing and stronger COLAs in pending contract
Summary
SEIU Local 620 representatives and multiple city employees urged the council to retain proportional medical premium cost sharing and protect multi-year cost-of-living adjustments in labor negotiations, arguing a flat-dollar shift would shift risk to lower-paid staff.
SEIU Local 620’s field representative and city employees urged the Arroyo Grande City Council on June 23 to preserve shared-percentage medical premium cost sharing and stronger multiyear cost-of-living adjustments in the city’s pending labor agreement.
Nicole Bryant, field representative for SEIU Local 620, told the council the union appreciates progress at the bargaining table but that moving from a long-standing shared percentage model for medical premiums to a flat dollar contribution would shift more risk to employees in years of sharply rising health costs. “Maintaining a cost-sharing approach that adjusts proportionally helps ensure the burdens remain balanced and predictable,” Bryant said.
Several city employees — including Kim Lashoff (senior account clerk, Administrative Services), Corey Brooks (12-year city employee), Victor Rocha (parks lead worker), Blake Simpson (public works utility maintenance worker) and Carrie Van Beverin (recreation supervisor) — echoed those concerns at public comment. Lashoff said equity adjustments in the draft contract mattered, but cautioned that expected double-digit premium increases combined with a flat-rate shift would impose real unpredictability on workers’ monthly budgets. She also reminded the council that SEIU members helped pass Measure E24 and asked for reciprocal support.
Council did not take formal action during the public-comment period; the item was related to a closed-session labor negotiation announced earlier in the meeting (Government Code section 54957.6). The council later recessed to closed session on that matter. Union leaders asked that negotiators be given authority to secure multi-year fiscal certainty for employees while balancing the city’s fiscal responsibilities.
Next steps: the council holds closed-session labor negotiations under the Government Code provision for labor negotiations; public comment will inform the council’s negotiators but no detailed contract terms were approved or disclosed in open session.
