OC Blog

Unionize This

Not the worst idea you'll hear today: Outsourcing Teaching.

A Little More Union Shop Of Horrors

While we're on the subject, I thought I'd share some more items from the OCEA website:

         2.7 at 55: What a benefit!          

2.7%@55 will be effective on July 1, 2005!         

2.7%@55 will be effective for all general members of the Retirement System, both Tier 1 and Tier 2!         

2.7%@55 will apply to all past and future service!

2.7%@55 is a vested right and cannot be taken away from current employees!

2.7%@55 is an incredible improvement over your current benefits—just look at two typical examples!
________________________________________________________________________         
Here are the two examples. Each assumes a final compensation of $45,000 per year. (This is based on the highest consecutive 36 months, or for Tier 1 employees the highest 12 months.) The examples also assume 30 years of service at retirement, and retirement age of 55. Amounts shown are approximate.
            
Employee "A" (a Tier 1 employee)
Would have received $1,991 per month at retirement under the old formula, but will receive $3,037 per month under 2.7%@55.         

Employee  "B" (a Tier 2 employee)
Would have received $1,679 per month at retirement under the old formula, but will receive $3,037 per month under 2.7%@55.           

2.7% at 55—YOUR FUTURE!

         

            

Just leaves you feeling tingly all over, doesn't it?  Grateful for the yummy taxpayer largesse, yet still vaguely militant because you just know those greedy bastards are still holding out on their public servants!

Then there's this triumph for the working man, engineered by the heirs of Samuel Gompers, George Meany and Jimmy Hoffa:

REOPENER UPDATE REGARDING MILEAGE AND PIP  REIMBURSEMENT             
             
03-09-05
Victory on mileage bargaining! On March 3, 2005, we received an offer from the County for mileage reimbursement. We polled our bargaining team and our Board of Directors, and we have accepted the County's proposal. Our months of hard work have paid off with a great result! The following are the basics of the new arrangement, for miles driven on County business:
             
1. All employees driving less than 250 miles in a month will receive 40.5 cents per mile.
2. Effective April 1, 2005, all employees driving over 250 miles per month will receive 48 cents per mile for all miles driven.
3. Probation Officers will receive 48 cents per mile for all miles driven, consistent with the language in their MOU.
             
Man, judging from the triumphant tone of this report, you'd think they had just outlawed child labor or won passage of the 8-hour workday.

"FEED ME Seymour!" -- The Union Shop of Horrors

I found this on the Orange County Employees Association website:

We are not stopping!

We are not resting!

We are not even slowing down!

It would be nice if these inpirational slogans were part of an effort to make county government more cost-effective and efficient.  Unfortunately, they reference the union's never-ending fight for higher pay, fatter pensions, and more generous mileage reimbursement.

For some reason, the spirit of these exhortations reminds me of a playground game from my childhood. Several boys would link arms and storm around the schoolyard, chanting "We have no brakes! We cannot stop!" You either got out of their way or they walked right over you -- which, come to think about it, is pretty much how the government unions operate.

The Kahuna on transportation (or lack thereof)

Jubal forwarded me the following email from an OCBlog reader asking if I had any comments. Unfortunately, the only thing I know about transportation issues is that I have a number of them (the aforementioned issues that is) and am not particularly enthralled by actions to-date in addressing them.

(Note: In the interest of full disclosure – and a possible explanation for my current state of mind - I spent a significant part of the morning "driving” from LA to OC. By that I mean I was on roads, in a vehicle, trying to make my way from point A to point B which is, after all, the major purpose of a ground transportation system. What I actually was doing, however, more accurately could be described as being pissed off waiting for the endless line of cars ahead of me to inch along reflecting on how there’s no way in hell that this thing we euphemistically call a transportation system can be fixed!)

So I’ve decided that from time-to-time I’ll use the bully pulpit of the OCBlog to rant and rave to its thousands of loyal and regular readers (or at least the twelve or thirteen that will actually admit to it) on the subject of moving people and goods in OC/SoCal with the caveat that I know nothing about transportation policy but do have a modicum of common sense and can usually tell when the emperor has no clothes.

OK, back to the email from one of OCBlog’s astute and loyal readers via Jubal…

To: ocblog@hotmail.com
Subject: news article
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 23:25:02 -0700 (PDT)

Anne Mayer, a regional director for the California Department of Transportation, will step down this month to become senior director of programming and administration at the Riverside County Transportation Commission (http://www.sp-ca.com/newsletter/cgi%204-20-05/cgi.html) She may eventually replace RCTC's retiring Deputy Director and bump the Commission's current Director of Planning/Programming for the #2 position .

.. . will be interesting to see what role and caliber she brings to OC/IE's transportation relations especially the tunnel issue.

I don’t know anything about Mayer or the RCTC but I for one like the idea of a tunnel between Riverside County and south OC. Something has to be done to increase the flow of traffic between there and here. The simple fact of the matter is that unless you have lived and owned a home in OC for the last couple of years you can no longer afford to move here cold and work in the county in an average paying job.

Furthermore, if you look at the jobs that are projected to have the highest growth in absolute numbers for OC you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that everyone concerned with transportation had better find a way of moving workers from places they can afford to live to places where there is demand for their skills because it’s a slam-dunk the developers in OC aren’t going to be building new housing focused on the types of wage-earners making up the vast majority of what we seem to be needing in OC.

Face it…with the LA Megalopolis and traffic gridlock to the north, Camp Pendleton to the south, that large body of water to the west, and OC having priced itself out of affordability for the majority, the only place left is Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. We have to find a way of moving people between there and here.

As to the tunnel…I say start moving rock. The OC side should open somewhere around Mission Viejo and the Great Park and tie-in with the toll road system.

Oh, BTW…the idea of double-decking the 91???  Really dumb idea!  Just isn’t going to happen.

Go for It, Tan!

From the St. Paul Asian American Press, of all places...

California candidate to visit Twin Cities

Mr. Tan Nguyen, a University of Minnesota alum and currently an independent investment advisor in Southern California, has announced his candidacy for the 47^th Congressional District Seat, which covers the cities of Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Anaheim and part of Fullerton. Though the next general election is in November 2006, Nguyen a Republican, is already at work to unseat incumbent Democrat Loretta Sanchez who won with 61 percent of the vote in the last election.

Tan Nguyen was motivated to run for his conservative platform and to bring a voice for the Vietnamese American community at the federal level. He shares the concerns of many Vietnamese-Americans, including the plight of the Vietnamese that are still being subjugated in communist Vietnam.

In 2004, Tan Nguyen first ran for the 46th Congressional seat in a three-way election and against the Regional Vice Chair for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. Tan lost the election but earned 33.6 percent of the vote when pundits had forecasted him in the single digits.

He worked his way through college at U.C.L.A and then at age 21 moved to Minnesota to start a successful restaurant in 1995 with few friends. He soon turned the business over to a trusted friend to complete his studies and in 1999 he graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Baccalaureate degree that emphasized Asian Studies, Business-Economics and Biochemistry.

After graduation, Tan married Hanh Lam of Brooklyn Park and together they settled in Southern California. Tan worked as an Investment Advisor for American Express and then A.G. Edwards where he enjoyed helping clients achieve their financial goals. Currently, Tan is working as an Independent Investment Advisor, specializing in asset management.

300 Morons

Last night's protest in Garden Grove at a meeting of the California Coalition of Immigration Reform with the Minutemen's Jim Gilchrist speaking was a great deal more than some idiots waving misspelled signs.  Per the Times,

...protesters began throwing filled soda cans at the assembled Garden Grove, Anaheim and CHP officers. At least eight people were arrested on suspicion of felony assault, while others were booked for disturbing the peace.

Kudos are in order for the two city police departments and the CHP.  We hope the eight vermin arrested will be checked to determine if they're aliens here illegally and, if so, handed over to the Feds for deportation after their felony jail time.  Considering those soda cans were filled with marbles (per KFI) and being used as weapons, "own recognizance" better not be an option here.  Illegals skip town, as we know, so let's also keep the bail higher than the cost of those Cokes.

We REALLY hope, tho, that either the police or CHP (Or Sheriff?  Where where they?) take a close look into how these 300 protesters were organized and who put them up to assaulting a meeting with, per the news coverage, only 100 people attending.  Outnumbered 3 to 1, had law enforcement NOT been aware, this incident could have been much more serious than it was.  We're thankful for that, but more answers are needed and an investigation is in order to see who's inciting riots here and if this was racketeering. 

Complete stories are linked here:

OCR: Event turns hostile

LAT: Violence Erupts at O.C. Protest. 

SD: Two hurt, six arrested in Orange County protest of 'minutemen'

Greenhut Nails It Again

From the Register's Blog (http://www.ocregister.com/blog/commentary/), emphasis ours:

Jim Silva: enemy of the taxpayer

Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva, a self-styled conservative who never seems to vote in a conservative way, cast his vote as a member of the Orange County Sanitation District Board of Directors in favor of a massive fee increase last night. The vote received only the slimmest two-thirds majority, which means that had Silva voted correctly, he could have saved OC ratepayers/taxpayers a bunch of dough.

On the county board, Silva in the past voted for a pension spike for public employees, for building the CenterLine light-rail boondoggle, for granting unions a Project Labor Agreement, and on and on. But he justified himself as a conservative because he does not vote for direct tax increases. That's not much of a standard, especially since he votes for spending plans that make tax increases more likely. But now that he has voted for an increase, what will he say? Actually, I can probably guess: It was a rate increase not a tax increases. Too bad his only opponent in the race for Assembly is Diane Harman, who is reportedly even more liberal than her Republican In Name Only husband, Tom. In the Assembly recently, Tom proposed ACA 13, which would expand the ability of special districts to pass the kind of increases Silva just voted for. Can't we do better than this in Orange County?
Posted by Steven Greenhut -- sgreenhut@ocregister.com at 11:21 AM

Right on.

Per OCBJ, New UCI Chancellor Named

Orange County Business Journal

UCI Names New Chancellor

By Chris Cziborr - 5/26/2005

Orange County Business Journal Staff

Michael V. Drake, University of California’s vice president for health affairs, was named chancellor of UC Irvine on Thursday.

UC President Robert C. Dynes recommended Drake to the UC Board of Regents, which voted for the candidate at its regularly scheduled meeting Thursday in San Francisco. Drake is the fifth chancellor of UC Irvine.

Drake takes over July 1 from Ralph J. Cicerone, chancellor since July 1998. Cicerone is leaving to head the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.

The UC Office of the President formed a 17-member chancellor search advisory committee in January.Drake, 54, was Dynes’ top choice for the position after a national search that looked at 650 candidates.

Drake was appointed UC vice president for health affairs in 2000 by UC's Office of the President. In the position, he oversees education and research activities at UC’s 15 health sciences schools at seven campuses.

Drake earned his medical degree from UC San Francisco. He also holds two undergraduate degrees: an A.B. in African and African American studies from Stanford University, and a B.S. in medical sciences from UCSF.

Orange County Business Journal, Copyright © 2005, All Rights Reserved.

In Local Government, Nothing Succeeds Like Failure

Remember the Santiago Charter School fiasco? A female teacher was arrested for having sex with some 13-year old boys, and the Orange Unified School District immediately began the charter revocation process before all the facts were in? Parents revolted and the teachers union-dominated OUSD Board gradually backed down, but not before exposing themselves to legal action based on the advice of their law firm.

Now, in the real world, that would lead to the law firm being fired. But this isn't the real world -- it's local government.

Orange Net News has been following this story closely, and on May 23 made the following report:

5-2 VOTE OUSD BOARD APPROVES $60,000

More in Educational Tax Funds for Santiago Revocation Law Firm

At the May 12th Orange Unified School Board meeting the OUSD Trustees voted 5-2 to approve $60,000 more for the Santiago Revocation Report law firm of Miller, Brown and Dannis. Trustee Rick Ledesma pulled the item from the Consent Agenda forcing a separate vote on the new $60,000 payment (the OUSD Board voted to pay the firm $50,000 on March 10th, 2005). Ledesma again made a plea for the OUSD Board to discontinue doing business with the law firm because of the firms work producing the controversial Santiago Revocation Report, which he has characterized as “sub par”. At the March 29th OUSD Board meeting, Ledesma brought a motion forward to end the district’s relationship with the firm. Without commenting on the merits of the motion, the other OUSD Board members shouted their  “No!” votes after Ledesma and Trustee Steve Rocco voted in favor of the March 29th motion to end doing business with the controversial law firm. Since that vote as Ledesma warned, the family of one of the alleged student victims featured in the Santiago Revocation Report has begun legal moves against both OUSD and the City of Orange. At the May 12th OUSD Board meeting Ledesma again voted no and was again joined by Trustee Rocco in losing the 5-2 vote.

Trustees Wes Poutsma, John Ortega, Kim Nichols, Melissa Smith and Kathy Moffat all voted to approve the additional $60,000 payment to the law firm. After Ledesma explained why he would be voting against the additional $60,000 payment, Board President Kathy Moffat made the following statement explaining why she would vote to support the additional $60,000 payment in educational tax funds to the firm:

“I just wanted to add a comment and I know that Mr. Ledesma has brought up his concerns in the past, umm. And umm, obviously we all vote according to our own, umm, ahh, judgment on these matters, but I would like to say for the record that, umm, I believe that we have been very well served by this, umm, law firm and by the individuals that have provided service to us. And, umm, I think that their, ahh, representation, and their, umm, guidance to us has been invaluable to these, umm, issues and, umm, I just didn’t want my support to go, umm, unexplained. Alright umm…”  -

-OUSD Board President Kathy Moffat 5/12/05 (supporting an additional $60,000 payment to the Santiago Revocation law firm).

Which raises the question: just how badly does a vendor have to screw up before being fired by the OUSD Trustees? Since cutting this law firm would be tantamount to admitting their hadnling of the Santiago Charter School issue was a complete SNAFU, apparently ego and pride are more important to those 5 trustees than being good stweards of taxpayer money.

No wonder they voted to stop televising their board meetings.

The Sounds Of Summer

Great story by Gustavo Arellano on his quest for the Mexican Popsicle Guy. You know, you love him, and all us gabachos wish he would come to our neighborhoods (since the pinche Ice Cream Man only blows through my neighborhood every half decade). And it's only a matter of time before some bored city bureaucrats somewhere (probably Santa Ana) find some reason to harass these hard-working entrepreneurs. I'm sure Irvine has erected an invisible force-field to keep them out.