First off, what Newport Beach City Councilman Keith Curry is trying to do with having the voters vote on City Employee Pensions is a very good idea and will help the City save some money, even if 3.5% of the 11% RAISE the City Employees will get over the next three years will go to their own pensions (so technically, they get a 7.5% over the next three years). Its a great start in reining in the overspending City Council's typically do on the Gravy Train mentality City Employees, and City Councils, typically have.
But...before the Lincoln Club of Orange County president Richard Wagner kisses Councilman Keith Curry's butt too much (in this OCRegister opinion piece), lets have him look at a few things the Newport Beach City Council is wrapped up in.
1. They are looking to BORROW millions and millions of dollars ($35-$60 million depending on who you speak with, paid off over 30 years at 4-6% interest) to build a new City Hall (which was originally designed for FUTURE EMPLOYEE GROWTH). This would increase the size of government and add debt for future generations to pay off.
2. Any way you look at it, any way you try to explain it, any way you try to justify it, and any way you compare it to our neighboring cities, WE HAVE MORE CITY EMPLOYEES PER RESIDENTS THAN ANY OTHER CITY. More than Democrat controlled Irvine, more than Democrat controlled Huntington Beach. And the numbers keep increasing.
3. In the past election, the two main City Employee UNIONS (they like to be called Associations) spent almost $50,000 (OUR Newport Beach Firefighters also contributed $1000 to Tom Umberg in 2007 for his failed Supervisorial, not even our Supervisor District, race) on getting their Slate of City Council candidates elected. Do you think keeping the size of Government down is in their best interest?
If you look on the Lincoln Club's website, the motto at the top is "California's leading advocate for smaller Government."
What Councilman Curry is trying to do is a step in the right direction, but in looking at Newport Beach, we can hardly be considered a model for smaller Government.
But it is a start.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
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5 comments:
As the co-author of the article you refer to, I assure you no one in the Lincoln Club is "kissing Councilman Curry's butt". We are only addressing his wise efforts to put this charter amendment to the agenda. I am well aware of the other problems to which you refer in the city, and can only say that for me personally, and for fiscally responsible activists like those of us in the Lincoln Club, even we are limited to "one fight at a time".
...but Keith has such a nice butt(sorry I couldn't help that).
Didn't you see me kissing it in the first paragraph?
So you weren't praising Keith, your were praising his efforts? I kinda thought they were the same thing...
Anyway...the debt the City will go into for the New City Hall is probably larger, nevermind the increased amount of City Employees which will need to get hired, if not more pressing than pension plan. Perhaps that should be the fight to look at first.
And you are assuming that the City will even be able to get this issue to the ballot, and if it does, you don't think that the City Employee Unions won't spend Lots and Lots of money to fight it?
I take that back, the fight that should be looked at first should be the Airport fight, or maybe the Rehab Home Battle and Lawsuit defenses, so nevermind that comment...but the City will be borrowing money to pay for that because all of their other funds will be tied up in the Employee Pensions and the City Hall Certificates of Participation.
Wait a minute...I just realized what you said.
You were not kissing Curry's butt, you said.
What's wrong with saying that you did? Is Keith's butt not kiss-worthy? Are his efforts to keep the employee pensions down not worth some puckering up? Are you ashamed of his efforts? Did he not earn some props for standing up against the Unions? The same Unions who spent thousands to help get him elected? Isn't he a member of the Lincoln Club? Why wouldn't you want to give him some atta-boys for his efforts. What's wrong with saying that he did a good job, made a good suggestion and should receive praise for it? Wouldn't that be kissing his butt?
I did.
The point of my efforts is not personalized to a councilman, other than the fact that it is one particular councilman doing the heavy lifting to start this off.
As for the money the unions will spend to try and defeat this, I simply say that we are perhaps more organized and savvy than you might think.
I think you and I agree on all of this so I would just talk about other things besides Councilman Curry's backside going forward ... =)
Fight on,
David L. Bahnsen
David,
I am very familiar with the Lincoln Club, and personally know many many of the board members, Committee Chairs, and even a few of the Board of Counselors. Some even like me...
But you guys will be busy protecting Supervisor Janet Nguyen when she's up for re-election in 2008. One fight at a time right?
Ok. I'll stop mentioning Keith's backside...you got me there...
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