OC Blog

Taxpayers to Cover Excess Pension Costs? Who Would Have Guessed?

Roscoe hit the nail right on the head.  The August giveaway to the public employee unions is no longer defensible by any reasonable, sensible person. You had county employees negotiating with county employees over how much their pensions would be spiked. That's like having the foxes bargaining with each other over who gets to guard the hen house.

What was it the OC employees union boss depot saying: "This agreement won't cost county taxpayers a cent." Hmmm, didn't take long for that prediction to unravel. 

Here's an idea -- in exchange for keeping their newly-won, European-like pension boondoggle, county employees sacrifice their job security, stay at work past 5:00 p.m. like everyone else, and every five years their job position is declared open and they have to compete with other applicants in order to keep it? That would keep them on their toes.

Or, we could but the new county CEO on paid leave, tap reality show maven Mark Burnett to fill his spot for 12 months, and run county government as a giant version of "The Apprentice." We divide the county workforce into a series of teams and force them to compete with each on a series of tasks to make county government run more cheaply and efficiently. The losing teams would go into the boardroom, where they would make excuses and stab each other in the back until the CEO points to the worst one and blurts out "You're fired!". This way, county employees would be competing with each other in order to do a better job for the taxpayers, and we could simultaneously reduce the size of the county work force -- thus reducing pressure on the pension system.

Plus, it would make great entertainment on the public access channel.

No one saw this coming...

Wow, is there anyone left in the county besides Bill "I'm a businessman" Campbell, Tom "I wish there was still an airport fight" Wilson and Jim "Who am I, why am I here" Silva who still think handing the keys to county employee pension plan to the union bosses was a good idea?

Jean Pasco writes in today's LA Times that yet another problem with the plan has been discovered: "Human resources staffers said they only just realized that checks from the retirement system would fall short for some workers."

Congratulations to the county employee union bosses for scamming the taxpayers once again.

Please Welcome Roscoe

I'd like to extend a warm OC Blog welcome to the newest addition to our author roster: Roscoe.  He'll bring strength, wit and insight to our blogger bullpen.

As for me, I've already learned something new: that Norm Eckenrode is a Democrat -- in addition to being a cad, a drunk and a belligerent lout.

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Can someone put Norm Eckenrode out of his misery?

As reported in the OC Register today and the Los Angeles Times yesterday, once again Eckenrode, a Democrat member of the Placentia City Council (first elected in the 70s) is in trouble with the 'law'.

First it was alleged sexual harassment of a OC Sanitation District employee where Eckenrode is a director.  By the way, his colleagues on the city council should yank him off now!  The Sanitation District paid a six figure settlement to make it all go away.

Next came a story (insider info added) that Eckenrode while supposedly drunk pulled a hit-and-run, the woman he hit followed him in her car and called police...somehow he was never charged with a crime...hmmmm.

Now The Not So Honorable Eckenrode is accused of a "put 'em up" Popeye style fight with OC Water Dist. President and failed Orange City Council candidate Denis Bilodeau.

I don't know anyone who would let Eckenrode baby sit for them, why are the voters trusting him to run their government?

Work? Who -- Me?

There's an excellent article in today's Left Angeles Times on the Schwarzenegger Administration's attempt to make the royally-compensated political appointees to four state boards actually do some work.

The Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. The Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. The Agricultural Labor Relations Board. The Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board.

Few Californians have ever heard of them.  But they are to California's toiling legions of party hacks, what Paradise and 77 virgins (or however many they get) are to Palestinian suicide bombers. Appointment to one of these boards is the great, secret hope of every GOP and Democratic campaign worker, legislative staffer and all-round toiler-in-the-party-vineyards.

When someone is blessed with one of these $114,000 per year plums, it is all the gossip at party conventions: "Did you hear so-and-so got appointed to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board?  Lucky bastard."

Why are these sinecures so prized? Obviously, the $114,000 annual salary for a job you are traditionally allowed to do from your home (or wherever) on a part-time basis is the biggest reason.

But even more than that, these jobs free party hacks from the pressures of earning a living and liberate them to focus all their energies on what they really love: being party hacks!

That's why the current crop of appointees, led by former Gray Davis mouthpiece Steve Maviglio, are squawking at the new rules requring them to actually show up at the office and work a full day.  After all, if you finally landed one of these gigs, it's only human nature to be upset when the rules are suddenly changed and you actually have to work! No fair! It sort of defeats the whole reason for obtaining these appointments.

In the article, Maviglio contends he "completes his board assignments every day," however much or little that actually is. Somehow, I have the sneaking suspicion these "board assignments" don't amount to much.

The article points out the criticism Maviglio received for spending much of his time during the past campaign sending out "scores of campaign-related e-mails criticizing Schwarzenegger and Republican candidates during working hours at the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board."

Maviglio responded that that work -- for which he was paid $20,000 by the Assembly Democrats -- was just a part-time gig.

How much do you want to bet Maviglio spent far more time earning his $20,000 from the Assembly Democrats than his $114,000 from California taxpayers?  It's because when you're a hack like Maviglio and you have one of those coveted slots, you treat it sort of like an annuity -- the money that pays you're bills and frees you to earn additional income (and trash the other party in the process).

Bravo for Bill Campbell

"I'd [prefer] to see more houses, but it's not my property," Supervisor Bill Campbell. "I would have supported a higher, more dense [project]."

Man, it ain't often you see a quote like that from an elected official -- even here in Orange County.  Everyone is too petrified of seeming too "pro-development."

But instead of harrumphing about the need for more open space for the coyotes, wild hares and gnatcatchers that not one person in a million could pick out of an avian line-up, Campbell looks the environmental lunatics straight in the eye and growls, "More houses, dammit!"

And I for one, don't ever think we'll ever see the day when Dan Silver or any of his fellow environuts exhibits a similar respect for property rights and say, "You know, I'd prefer they build fewer or no houses at all, but it is not my property."   

You go, Bill!

Muchas Casas

"Big OC Building Project Approved" -- Orange County Register, November 9, 2004

What a bee-yoo-tee-ful headline.

An building project approved.  And not just any building project, but a "big" one -- as in lots and lots and lots of houses. And right here in our beloved OC.

And best of all, the poor enviros are upset.  What will the animals do?

My favorite understatement is this one from Supervisor Chris Norby: "I think the plan is a reasonable one -- 66 percent of the land will remain open space."

The hysterics of the environmentalists over Board approval of the Rancho Mission Viejo development is just another example of their extremism. Do they know how ridiculous their hand-wringing looks?

Here's Dan Silver of the Endangered Habitats League: "[the Board of Supervisors] was choosing to pave over some of the most important nautral areas left in California."

Puh-leeze! This guy needs to leave his Santa Monica rent-controlled apartment and take a road trip across the state. There are plenty of important natural areas left in California. And since lot of these are places nobody in their right mind would live in, I'm fairly certain they will remain important natural areas.  Mr. Silver is free to buy himself a corrugated shack in Johannesberg and soak in the blazingly hot glory of the California desert. The rest of us will be happy to buy rapidly-appreciating single-family homes in the new Rancho Mission Viejo development.

I got a laugh out of the environmentalists' contention in the Left Angeles Times that "the plans do not take into consideration the flow of wildlife between the conservation areas."

If I were wildlife, I would be insulted by the inference I couldn't find my way from one are to another. Hmmm -- the coyotes, raccons, oppossums and other wildlife seem to have no trouble finding their way into our neighborhoods, yads and garbage cans. Something tells me the critters will find they're way from one empty parcel of scrubland to another.

1st Supervisorial District: Dems da Breaks

As expected, Assemblyman Lou Correa bested Garden Grove Mayor Bruce Broadwater in their battle for the 1st Supervisorial District.  Thus, as the local MSM never tire of reminding us, Orange County now has its first Democratic Supervisor since Ralph Clark left under an "ethical cloud" (as the euphemism goes) in the 1980s.

I predicted a closer race than the conventional wisdom predicted.  I Correa would win by 4-6 points.  As it turned out, he won by 12.  Still, Broadwater covered a lot of ground since the primary, moving from 22.8% to 44.6% -- whereas Correa, with an enormous funding advantage, mad a less spectacular improvement on his primary total from 44.3% to 55.4%. I think that if quotemeister Adam Probolsky's "Republicans for Broadwater" PAC had had sufficient resources and more time, they would have closed the gap. 

Not that it matters -- Lou's the one who'll be sworn in next month.

So what does this mean?  First and foremost, it means the public employee unions now have a rock-solid ally on the 5th Floor. At least Correa's predecessor, still-Supervisor Chuck Smith, voted against them on the latest pension spiking scheme.  Wilson is worthless on this issue, and Silva and Campbell have shown little stomach for jousting with the unions.  That leaves Chris Norby as the lone voice crying in the wilderness about the ongoing union takeover of county government and taxpayer wallets.

Secondly, I doubt we will ever see a plebescite on CenterLine, since Correa has been a supporter of the Bristol Street Trolley.  Broadwater would have been the thrid vote to put that boondoggle on the ballot.

I was intrigued by this tidbit from yesterday's Orange County Register:

[Correa's] immediate goals include studying whether to support an extension of the half-cent Measure M Sales tax to improve transportaton systems...

Boy -- I'll bet that got Leahy & Co.'s attention down at OCTA!  Maybe Lou's craftier than normally given credit for, and he's sending a signal to OCTA and Santa Ana City Hall not to take him for granted. This bears watching.

I have some more thoughts on what Lou's elevation means for the county, but no time to blog them.  They'll keep.

Spitzer's Next Move

Word on the street is that sometime during the next few days, Assemblyman Todd Spitzer is going too announce his intention to challenge District Attorney Tony Rackauckas in 2006.

It isn't surprising that Spitzer intends to run against Rackauckas. After all, he's been criticizing Rackauckas relentlessly for months now, going so far as trying to cut out his own county from a law enforcement pilot program becasue he didn't like the way the D.A. had administered it.

The baffling part is what motivates Spitzer to run for District Attorney in the first place. It's an open secret the hyper-ambitious Spitzer plans to run for President one day. He has even plotted out a year-by-year, elected office-by-elected office plan for when he will reach the Oval Office. Sptizer's already hop-scotched from school board to OC Board of Supervisors to state Assembly. Since he exudes statewide ambitions from every pore, why would he want to step back down to a local elected office?

After all, who was the last politician to vault from a county-wide office -- be it sheriff, D.A. or supervisor -- to a statewide office? If anybody knows, please clue me in because I can't think of a single instance in the last thirty years. Dianne Feinstein went from mayor of San Francsico to U.S. Senator, but she's more of the exception who proves the rule.

The tried and true path is moving from Congress or the state legislature to a statewide office. Every current state constitutional officer (except Arnold, another exception who proves the rule) entered office directly from the legislature, or were self-funding multimillionaires (Garamendi fits this rule as a former legislature and Insurance Commissioner).

Sptizer has amassed a war-chest that is more than sufficient to prevail in a GOP primary, and I doubt any potential GOP opponent can match him in ability to generate free media.

Spitzer's 2006 options include running for any one of several open constitutional offices, or running for Senate GOP Leader Dick Ackerman's seat (Ackerman will be termed out). The latter gives Spitzer eight more years to build a warchest that scares off potential opponents, gain allies by raising money for other candidates -- and of course, make headlines and ratchet himself into as many news stories as humanly possible.

That would make sense. But Spitzer has a weird kamikaze streak that impels him to inexplicable acts of rashness. Frankly, challenging Rackauckas would be a fools errand. Rackauckas smashed Wally Wade by 20 points in 2002, despite months of intensely negative media coverage. Since then, Rackauckas has been getting progressively better coverage. Instead of passively ignoring negative news stories, Rackauckas aggressively responds to them. The plain fact is that as long as crime is low, voters generally don't dump incumbent District Attorneys. There's certainly no history of it in Orange County.

If Spitzer runs against Rackauckas, I predict he will run into a buzz-saw. Spitzer hasn't had a serious opponent since besting Mickey Conroy in 1996 (and it's debatable whether Conroy falls into the "serious" category). The entire county establishment -- Republican and Democrat -- will circle the wagons around Rackauckas -- in no small part because the thought of a District Attorney Todd Spitzer is a terrifying one. As a reader said to me in an e-mail some months ago, "Remember what Spitzer was like on the Board of Supervisors? Just imagine if he'd had the power to subpoena and arrest people." Frankly, I and many other political observers wouldn't put it past Spitzer to use the powers of the D.A.'s office to harass people simply to grab headlines. I think campaign finance crank Shirley Grindle is the only person who thinks that would be a good thing.

A sobering thought that will not be far from the minds of OC politerati should Spitzer run for D.A.

Ruiz Retirement Ruse Reaps Rewards

How's that for alliteration?

It looks as though Armando Ruiz has gotten away with his unbelievably cynical ploy to double his retirement. Judging by the sneaky way he went about doing it (read today's column by the invaluable Frank Mickadeit), it is obviously something of which he is not proud.

It's equally obvious those 108,000 annual dollar signs dancing in his eyes squashed whatever qualms he had about sticking it to the taxpayers.

It's too bad the story didn't get more play before the election. As it was, the meager coverage it received had a significant impact. Ruiz recieved only 40.8% -- down from the 58.9% he got in 2000. community college trustees rarely recieve such anemic pluralities as Ruiz did on Tuesday. In my opinion, the only thing that saved his bacon was he had two opponents splitting the anti-Ruiz vote. If he'd been going mano-a-mano with Bonnie Castrey, Ruiz would have been retired for real.

In any case, I have a feeling this is the last time we'll be seeing Armando on the ballot. But I wouldn't be surprised if Ruiz has suddenly developed stress-induced gastro-intestinal disorder from the negative publicity -- here and here. He's probably already brainstorming with Mike Clesceri about how to add a tax-free medical disability pension to the $108K he'll be collecting.

I did have a brain-flash about how Armando could recoup some of the goodwill squandered by his brazen double-dipping maneuver. Once a month, he could sponsor a "Taxpayer Happy Hour" at a fashionable watering hole. From 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. (none of this 3:30 p.m. happy hour baloney), the drinks would be on Armando. Taxpayers could drink their fill of premium beers, Cadillac margaritas and top-shelf liquor, then tell Armando, "Thanks for the drinks, you schmuck. See you next month!"