by Sean Morgan
San Diego recently voted to reduce employee pensions. While that must have been a hard decision it’s better than bankruptcy. Stockton took another step closer to bankruptcy this week. How do we avoid it?
Reduce obstacles and barriers to business. Loosen unwarranted “feel good” regulations on business (sustainability guidelines anyone?) Increase the size of the revenue pie while holding or shrinking spending.
What about employee contracts? STOP the bleeding. Tiered contract structures must be put in place now. I don’t believe in breaking current contracts so we must do all we can to keep promises (even bad ones) made in the past. Honor current contracts but make new ones more in line with the private sector.
Any budgeting or contract negotiations that don’t address these issues will ultimately lead to failures like GM and Greece.
It’s not rocket science.
We have to renegotiate current contracts, these pensions are an onerous burden. We were not consulted in the PERS decision to gamble funds on the stock market, and we shouldn’t have to pay for the losses.
We have to get rid of structured overtime in the public safety budget. The old argument that paying overtime is cheaper than hiring additional personnel is not held up with any evidence. But study after study reveals an obvious link between overtime and higher rates of injury. Hennessy has reported two years in a row now that police and fire have gone “over budget” in workman’s comp, and nobody has disputed that statement.
and then we get stuck with pensions based on 90 percent of those overtime-spiked salaries – structured overtime has to end.
And we need to cut management, in every department, including police and fire. We need more lower level salaries that actually do the work.
we have to be bold, or we’re going to be Stockton.
Stockton has engaged in highly irregular City management for years and now they are caught. I would love to see an audit of all the so-called consultants (former supervisors) being paid big salaries and double dipping. Stockton is top heavy and its a good ol boys network gone wild.
Stockton has engaged in highly irregular City management for years and now they are caught. I would love to see an audit of all the so-called consultants (former dept. heads) being paid big salaries and double dipping. Stockton is top heavy and its a good ol boys network gone wild.