The La Habra teachers’ union ended its strike early on Wednesday morning, just a few hours before some Fullerton Friends were set to launch an all out counter-attack on behalf of all La Habran children who have been victimized by union members for nearly a week.
Yes, it’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to strut our stuff for the crowd. But we did end up with a great Christmas card for our loyal FFFF readers! Enjoy:
And Friends, hang on to those signs. They may come in handy sooner than you think.
Maybe our La Habran neighbors to the north do. Their school board is now facing a strike by the La Habra Teachers’ Association, a body of both the CTA and the NEA unions. The issue? Their school board has given them a minuscule 2% pay cut and then refuses to call it “temporary.”
Negotiations had failed after several months and so the board was forced to impose increases in health care contributions as well as a reduction of 2 instructional days in order to deal with a 22% budget shortfall.
Amazing. A 22% budget hole and the teachers only had to take a 2% pay cut, and yet the union still plays the strike card.
Back in Fullerton, Superintendent Mitch Hovey has already articulated grave concern about pending negotiations, and Fullerton is in essentially the same financial straights as La Habra. It will be very interesting to see how our illustrious teachers’ union and our new school board deal with these issues.
As Fullerton is forced to face our own massive pension debt this year, it’s helpful to look around to see what others are doing. And then aim higher. Much higher.
It all started in one careless moment.
The county firefighters’ union just conceded that new members will have to work 5 more years until they reach retirement age, allowing them to retire at 55 instead of 50. OK, so they still get a ridiculous 90% of pay and will retire at least 12 years earlier than the rest of us. But it’s a baby step in the right direction.
To begin addressing the deficit caused by current employees, union members will also pay their own portion of the retirement contributions, building up to the full 9% of pay as required by state law.
Both of these concepts could be applied to Fullerton police and fire contracts. Of course, they wouldn’t come close to solving our pension problems. But if the prima donnas at OCFA will volunteer these concessions, Fullerton should be able to do better. Much better.
Certainly this sets a new minimum for pension reform in Orange County. With soaring pension costs set to take escalating millions out of our budget next year, we must do something NOW.
Of course, we won’t let anyone forget that several of our council members have promised to tackle the issue.
Here’s what happens when your school board doesn’t stand up for kids:
There are now only 14 school days in November. Why? Because the school union demanded days off instead of pay cuts. Sadly, your elected trustees didn’t have the spine to go against them.
Here’s the funny part: the school closures were negotiated by our fainthearted board to prevent some sort of union strike.
So we traded days off due to a strike for… days off.
No. That can't be right.
But rest assured, undereducated children… it was all done in the spirit of “working together,” and only in an effort to do “what’s best for the kids.”
And there you have it. A 5-0 vote. Motion made by Flory and seconded by Norby, to go along with the most irresponsible vote in the history of Fullerton.
Fullerton’s public safety pension debt just exploded. Numbers from a new report just released by CalPERS pin the unfunded pension liability for Fullerton’s police and fire at $126,843,150.
Hey little guy. Cash or credit?
The new figures represent a first look at Fullerton’s pension crisis after the market crash of 2007 (yes, CalPERS is that slow.)
Of course these dismal digits are probably optimistic, given that CalPERS is still using the ridiculous rate of return that the unions used to cook up these obscene benefits in the first place. We did, however, take the liberty of removing the absurd “smoothing” calculation that adds a magical $73,000,000 to the fund, even though that money does not exist anywhere.
$126,843,150.00. Let’s put that number in perspective: it’s enough to fund the entire Parks and Rec department for the next 27 years, re-pave six million square/ft of deteriorating roadway or completely staff Fullerton’s libraries until the year 2058.
Paying that debt (assuming it doesn’t get worse) will require an additional $3,000 from each Fullerton household, above and beyond our current taxes. That’s just for unfunded public safety retirement debt, which allows these public employees to receive 90% of their highest pay at age 50 for the rest of their lives.
Justice requires both integrity and diligence, but sometimes that’s just too much to expect. And it goes without saying that nobody deserves to be thrown in jail for a crime they did not commit.
It doesn’t always work out that way. According to a Register story pointed out by some of our favorite commenters, this kid just spent five months in jail awaiting trial after the Fullerton police set him up on charges of armed robbery, even though the victim clearly identified someone else!
Luckily for him, the botched line-up was captured on an audio recording which his attorney later reviewed, causing the DA to drop the charges.
So critical evidence, namely the victim’s actual testimony, was completely ignored by Fullerton’s finest. Laziness? Incompetence? Malice? We’ll never know. But when the justice system is subverted, everybody loses.
The sad narrative includes a priceless comment from FPD/FPOA spokesman Andrew Goodrich: “Mistakes are made sometimes.”
No need to apologize.
Whew! Responsibility averted. All in a day’s work.
It’s a good thing we don’t give criminals that kind of leeway.
The OC Register is reporting that the former risk manager for the city of Fullerton was arrested today and charged with running an embezzlement scheme and stealing over $35,00 of public funds.
Darryl Phillips, former Fullerton employee
According to the story, Phillips is accused of processing false injury claims filed against city workers on behalf of his friends. Phillips apparently had the authority to approve the claims and authorize payment himself. He has been charged with 10 felonies and is out on $50,000 bail.
Of course this type of thing won’t sit well with the local critics, especially in the awakened age of Bell. Questions abound. For instance, who hired this guy? What else did he steal? Who else is stealing? Why did he have the sole authority to pay fraudulent claims? And finally, was the arrest intentionally delayed until two days after the election, in order to protect the public image of former public employees, two of whom were running for office?
We’ll probably never know the answers to all of these burning questions, but that won’t stop us from asking.
Some new mailers came in this week. In addition to fresh copies of the Roland Chi and Aaron Gregg fliers that we saw earlier, our mailboxes were stuffed with: A brutal comparison of Pat McKinley’s pension to the city of Bell’s Robert Rizzo; a stop-the-unions slate, a comparison piece on Whitaker’s behalf, a large piece of cardboard put out by the Republican Party against Chaffee, and finally, a lame comparison piece that tries to make Roland Chi look special.
