Archive for May, 2011

Judge tells Encinitas, stop obscuring the California sunshine

News Flash
Judge rules that city must turn over documents.

Approximate Timeline
2006: Engineering department tells Kevin Cummins they don’t play favorites with road maintenance. They say an objective road maintenance schedule report is used and that schedule shows they are not deferring maintenance.
2007-2008: City avoids sharing roads document with Cummins.
2009: Cummins gets more serious in his request for the report. City agrees to show the report, but requires a meeting to discuss it. It turned out that the city only had a long outdated schedule that was no longer useful for the city. The city had been fibbing about basing road maintenance decisions on an objective analysis.
2009: City follows up by hiring a consultant to create an new roads maintenance schedule. The report was contracted to be complete by September 2009.
2010: From about Feb-June Cummins infrequently checks in on the status of the report. Staff was adamant that document was in draft form and they were working really hard to complete the report. Staff, claimed that because the document was draft they didn’t have to release it.
2010: March. The consultants finish their report, print it, bind it and deliver it, and get paid for a final report.
2010: June. Staff still claim the report is in draft form and continue to claim the draft document disclosure exemption.
2010: Mayor Dalager claims the city is not behind on core infrastructure maintenance during public meetings.
2010: Calaware then sends letter to city. City changes its tune and no longer claims the draft document exclusion. It now simply claims releasing the document would hurt the public’s interest in releasing the document.
2010: Tony Kranz calls the consultant and stated the consultant considered the report complete. That made it really hard for the city to continue claiming they were still working hard to finish. See below.

 

Burning Question: Does the city really accept final reports without first reading and reviewing the draft reports? There shouldn’t be anything left to review by the time the final report is issued, no? So, either the city was lying about needing to review the final report or they pay their contractors without checking their work (example).

2010: Cummins contacts Mayor Dalager asking him to help advert a lawsuit and to explain all the inconsistencies in statements and legal justifications by the city. No response.
2010: Cummins with the help of Calaware attorney, Dennis Winston, asks a Superior Court Judge to help.
2010: September. City releases a report dated March 2010, that says city is $17 million dollars behind in maintenance, which contrasts with previous and subsequent statements by Encinitas City Council Members.
2011: Calaware reports Judge Casserly has instructed the city to turn over all the remaining documents it had been keeping from the public.

See Also: For the documents and history of this case read this set of posts.

2011
05/28
POSTED BY
eta
CATEGORY
open government
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Let the public watch negotiations?

Riverside County lets union members watch negotiations. The public is as stakeholder too. Would it be harmful to let the public see how poorly the staff is treated behind closed door sessions? If the unions agree, would the council agree to open or record their “bargaining” sessions?

2011
05/17
POSTED BY
eta
CATEGORY
open government
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Real Estate Agents to Become Taxpayer Watchdogs?

Homebuyers Add State Pension Costs to Home Purchase Decision Checklist

Homebuyers are starting to make purchase decisions based in part on tax rates and underfunded public pension liabilities. Similar corporate relocation decisions are likely. Pension and benefits expert Dr. Mark Johnson suggests buyers be prepared.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 03, 2011 – School districts used to be the number one concern among families shopping for a new home or relocating. Homebuyers may now realize that public pension and retiree health obligations are an essential measure of a state, city, school district, or county’s long term financial viability.

Businesses deciding where to locate a new plant, open a new office, or relocate their headquarters also are adding unfunded public pension and retiree health liabilities to their checklist of selection criteria. Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman underscored this trend in a recent letter to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, raising concerns that recent state tax hikes are unfavorable to business.

“Public employee pension and benefit plans are not covered by the safety net available to corporate plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA),” says Dr. Mark Johnson, founder of ERISA Benefits Consulting (www.erisa-benefits.com). “Taxpayers will be left paying the price of public pension promises that are inadequately funded.”

Public pension deficits vary greatly from state to state, and within a state, from plan to plan.  Residents and real estate purchasers are well advised to acquaint themselves with public funding issues prior to making any significant decision in regard to relocation, a real estate purchase, or a sale, according to Dr. Johnson.

Pension professionals have been aware of the unfunded pension liability issue for some time, while the true dimensions of the need for pension reform are only recently gaining attention among the general public and popular press.

There is a “$1 trillion gap” between states’ pension obligations and the money that is set aside to fund promised benefits, according to the Pew Center on the States. Higher taxes, reduced service levels, and laid off city workers are increasingly common actions being taken at the local level as cities and counties struggle to close massive budget gaps caused in part by pension costs.

Camden, New Jersey, for example, made headlines in January of this year when it announced plans to lay off hundreds of city workers—including police and firefighters—in an effort to close a $26.5 million budget deficit.

“Pension costs will crush government,” warns a February 2011 report issued by the Little Hoover Commission titled “Public Pensions for Retirement Security.” Writing specifically about public pensions in California, the report notes that the 10 largest California public pension plans face a combined shortfall of $240 billion in 2010.
Read more

2011
05/04
POSTED BY
eta
CATEGORY
pension
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Fix Pensions and Save Teacher’s Jobs

California taxpayers would save billions of dollars that would flow to public schools, community colleges and universities if state and local public employees retired with benefits comparable to those provided to employees of Silicon Valley’s top companies. Teachers’ jobs would be saved and school programs spared.

California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility will release a study soon that shows California’s largest and best companies typically spend one-third what the state spends on employee retirement benefits. If California spent the same percentage on retirement benefits as large private employers, taxpayers would save nearly $3 billion this year alone, enough to pay the salaries of 40,000 teachers. The savings achieved by school districts and local governments are an added bonus.

Teachers’ retirement benefits aren’t the problem. Our report shows that teachers contribute more of their salaries and collect less in benefits than other public employees. Prison guards, for example, retire seven years earlier than teachers with benefits that are 77 percent higher. Since teachers aren’t covered by Social Security, their lifetime retirement income is about the same as retirees from large Silicon Valley companies who participate in their employers’ 401(k) plans, earn similar annual wages and retire at the same age.

The problem that teachers and taxpayers must resolve is the lack of a sustainable funding mechanism for CalSTRS, the teachers’ etirement system, which carries $56 billion in unfunded liabilities — $127,000 for each of CalSTRS’ 440,000 members. Pension reform will give teachers better benefits than they have now and deliver them through a system that isn’t run by the bankruptcy courts.

Read the rest at SJM

2011
05/03
POSTED BY
eta
CATEGORY
pension
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