The Great Pension Debate: Greenhut vs. Berardino
Here’s a fun match up between pension watchdog Steven Greenhut and the head of the OCEA public employees’ union, Nick Berardino. The subject of yesterday’s debate was “Can pensions be reformed co-operatively?”
Who won?
It must be VERY nice for those attending at an AFTERNOON luncheon, while the rest of us peons and peasants working our asses off to pay the damn taxes.
No forum in the evening for us working folks…stiffin’ us?
Great. Now I’m going to have to watch this. Can you just direct me to the point in the video where Steve lays Nick out with a spin kick to the chin?
Just a wholesale slaughter
Of course you and your “friends” here will say it was a slaughter. What I saw was Greenhut being a self-promoting, rude, spastic, hyperactive, interrupting, no manners, note reading book pushing liar. Chris did Tony tell you what to say here?
I’m sure Chris that your little group of friends like Chris, Tony, Shawn, Greggy, Bruce, little boy Travis all agree with you. Not what I saw.
Lotion or oil?
How’s that Fox coming along? Looks great. You guys getting close?
Hey Foxy, can you get a little of that Bain de Soleil on my lower back? Library Boy and Water Franchise Fee are on their way over with the Chief, Double Dipper and Hee Haw and I want to look slickery all over.
Going great ask my good friend Barry. You’re a toad for Tony
Owwwch. Speaking of toads, how’s the weather under that rock?
Let me Guess Savethefox …you’re a Civil Servant ?
…only if you use the terms “civil” and “servant” loosely.
Berardino – “What’s wrong with being able to retire with a defined benefit…in our case in a very MODEST way.” My God. What this guy thinks of the average voter. Unfortunately, he has been right up until now.
Fwiw, the Replay TV schedule shows an Orange County Forum program scheduled at 12:30pm today on KOCE (PBS Socal), off-air channel 50. This may or may not be a replay of yesterday’s event.
Thanks Roy. I believe the broadcast version will be cut to 30 minutes, although the quality should be better than ours.
Turns out it was an old program at 1230. You’re right about the 30 mins, which is too bad as it was a great job by Steve and the usual obfuscation and repetition by Berardino. He’s got the wrong position, but he’s holding most if not all the cards.
Nick says: “Just drop the layoff notices and then we will talk.”
right … sure Nick ..
This is all about negotiating position – perfectly legit. As soon as the City of Costa Mesa would recind the layoff notices Nick will be glad to talk …. and talk …. and talk … and talk … and talk …. and talk ……. to no or little benefit for the taxpayers of Costa Mesa.
We were born at night Nick – but not last night.
Berardino got his ass kicked. It’s not really his fault though. He’s tasked with defending a lost cause.
Just talk. No soution.
The solution is to reduce your pay and/or pensions down to sane levels. It’s not complicated.
Yeah, I thought Greenhut made that pretty clear several times. I think Booohh meant, “Just talk, no solution that pays me my money.”
Once again the residents of loserville are sitting on dock looking for minnows while the whales are swimming past them.
Nothing here, the Register, or Greenhut on the golden parachute from the outgoing CEO of PG&E. Almost 35 million. Part of which includes a $10 million pension.
All while managing a private enforced monopoly that exists through government enforcement that is actively supported by the business community.
Greenhut never lets Berardino finish a sentence while pimping his book. And somehow that’s considered winning.
Greenhut is a well-known political observer and editorialist.
You are an unknown and anonymous blogger.
Please don’t talk about winning and losing.
Funny stuff. You just described yourself.
Which means you’re in no position to talk about winning and losing as it relates to Berardino.
In defense of admin, it’s very clear (click on admins tab: Tony Bushala, FFFF founder, site administrator, activist. ) that admin is not an “unknown and anonymous blogger” as are you 4SD Observer.
F. Pantoja, I imagine it’s hard for 4SD Observer to swallow the fact that FFFF is the only political site in Fullerton that anyone of importance (except 4SDO) reads on a daily basis.
How would I know that?
What’s wrong with him using his real name?
I thught 4SD was some heinous tranny. Kind of inknown but in a more pethetic sort of way.
The dictionary is your friend.
Embrace it.
Hey 4th, as I recall PG&E is a profit-driven corporation, not a publicly funded babysitting agency like many of the County’s departments. Therefore, if the share holders would like to take less money in their dividends to pay the guy who help those dividends increase, then who are we to bitch and moan.
Stop trying to compare taxpayer funded operations (county, city, state, etc.) to market funded corporations who take profits AND losses (except for those that received federal bailouts).
Hey Gates. They are profit driven. You clearly don’t understand the concepts of the free market if you believe PG&E is engaged in free market capitalism.
The customers in their service have one choice to supply their energy needs. Unless they want to use candles.
Not that I expected folks on this board to understand anything relating to econ principles.
4SD is right here, Gates. The gas companies are monopolies. CalPERS is the largest public employee pension fund in the country. Last I heard they had a huge amount of money invested in PG&E. Did CalPERS approve the CEO bonus 4SD is complaining about?
Usually 4SD is bitching about private sector CEOs. Public utilities are monopolies. Their payouts should be scrutinized. But that’s got zip to do with ruinous public safety pensions. It’s just another 4SD red herring.
So you’re okay with someone receiving an unfunded pension worth millions?
Do you believe he is the only one at that company receiving a DB pension?
You show your ignorance of the topic.
And more importantly, what makes his (or this blog’s) opinion more valid than anyone else’s?
Because this is the Best Blog in OC.
The OC Weekly said so, toots.
That’s a man.
Yes… it’s a wonderful place to find weed and prostitutes. It figures you’d think it was an honor.
A bigger honor than you or 4SD has ever managed!
That award is bought
OOoooo That’s a good one.
as bad and unethical as abusive pensions are, the solutions to the state’s budget problems(and thus the cities, since cities rely so heavly on the stat, thank you Howard Jarvis) lie in far deeper places, such as the initiative process (direct democracy for those that dont understand), the heavy reliance on capital gains taxes and other glaring flaws in the tax code, the horribly unfair affects of prop 13, and extreme partisan politics by both parties due to gerrymandering and term limits. If you guys were really heros, you’d address those issues also (not saying that you shouldn’t address public employee pensions) but being hyperfocused on one issue limits your abilities to do any good. And oh yeah Chris Thompson is posting like a complete ass, dude is this really who you wanna be in life?
I’m a hero. I have to spend my whole life in compton’s front pocket.
Why must every solution solve EVERY problem? compton, the mere fact that reining in pensions will not solve all of the state’s budget woes does not take away the valid arguments about them. Specific to the city, the 3 @ 50 idea was to be revenue neutral. Obviously it isn’t and every dollar spent to cover what was supposed to cost zero means that much less to spend fixing streets, providing hours at the library etc.
The State of California has a ton of other problems as well and they are also worth discussing. Prop 13, redevelopment diverting funds from the general fund etc. Why can’t we talk about one without mentioning the others when the post is specific to one?
McKinley and Baliciki are being investigated by the FBI for corruption, bribery, and federal RICO acts.
FBI offices will take all tips as real. Do NOT make any prank calls. But its cool to call.
FBI Santa Ana (714) 542-8825
If you have a good story, we might put in on TV channel 7.
You can e-mail me…
Hollis, you must not have read my post well, I clearly stated that public employee pensions are a problem, in fact I went out of my way to express that. My point is, 4F hyperfocuses on this issue and does not address any other state issues, especially state issues conservatives dont like to talk about it.
Are those the issues Hairball Sidhu likes to talk about?
I read it. Just saying whether or not this site is hyper focussed on an issue or not does not take away from the validity of the argument. We all tune in here voluntarily.
Aside from that you bring up some OTHER good issues that also warrant discussion here or somewhere. I nominate compton to write the posts.
One speaker is being very polite–he is listening to the other speaker, and waiting for his turn. The other speaker is very rude, and interruptive. I don’t think I need to say which is which–its very evident.
Politeness is overrated and sometimes ineffective.
One speaker is citing facts and hard truths while decimating his opponent. The other speaker is a paid shill that is getting waxed. I don’t think I need to say which is which. It’s very evident.
If there is a comeuppance at the pearly gates, Berardino is going to burn in Hell.