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Please view the latest President's Message to hear what I have to say to our members. Thanks for your support.

Fred Rowbotham
President, CVPOA

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE>

Viewpoints:
Pension-cutting plans on ballot promise savings but don't deliver

Published Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012

Sometimes the truth hurts. In this case, the truth is that the two pension-slashing ballot measures that may face voters in November would provide no effective reform while dramatically increasing taxpayer costs by as much as $1 billion a year for as long as 30 years.

As the Legislative Analyst's Office's detailed analysis points out, these ballot measures would shift pensions for new public workers into insecure 401(k)-type plans that would not be able to guarantee workers' retirement security.

This would substantially reduce cash flow into current plans. It also would force many plans into more conservative investments to meet existing benefit obligations. Large chunks of future investment returns would be lost, sharply increasing costs and unfunded liabilities. That's where much of the projected $1 billion per year in new taxpayer costs would come from.

Worse, rather than hiking taxpayer costs, governments could declare that paying the new costs would impair essential governmental services and decide to stick the higher costs to their employees instead. If the idea is to make public employment unappealing, this provision would do a good job of that. The LAO also finds that the shrunken and insecure pensions required by the initiatives would discourage new workers from seeking public jobs, forcing public employers to raise salaries to attract these workers and adding still more to public costs.

The pension busters' responses are bizarre. They claim that public salaries are so high that even reduced pensions won't discourage public job applicants. But their own July 11, 2011 study found that salaries for the highest-skilled public workers – scientists, engineers, technicians, analysts and the like – are substantially lower than for their private sector counterparts, saying, "The top 10 percent of public sector employees are paid $20 per hour less than their (private sector) counterparts."

They then say that higher wages to compensate for smaller pensions are a fantasy because government can't afford them anyway. Perhaps, but taxpayers will pay nonetheless because the important work of protecting public health and safety and well-being must continue.

If lower wages and reduced pensions make it difficult for the public sector to attract these highly skilled workers, the state will either have to contract out this vital work or cede it to the private sector where wages (and thus costs) are higher. Contracting out is particularly expensive. At the federal level, for instance, a report by the Project on Government Oversight shows that private-sector service contract billing rates – deemed fair and reasonable – pay contractors 1.83 times more than the government pays federal employees in total compensation.

The pension busters then launch the cheapest of cheap shots, tarring the current pension system as a Ponzi scheme, though knowing that in a Ponzi scheme, no money is invested and funds from new "investors" are used to pay off earlier investors. In a pension system, large sums of real money are being invested prudently over the long term and earn real returns. Sixty cents out of every dollar paid in pensions comes from such investment earnings.

Finally, they try to make the new shrunken pensions look better by comparing them favorably to federal pensions. But for regular civilian federal employees, the government contributes 8.51 percent toward their defined benefit and an additional 6.2 percent for Social Security (in addition to employee contributions toward both). That combined employer contribution rate of 14.71 percent is significantly more than the pension caps set forth in the initiatives, making their benefits much smaller than those provided in the federal system.

I am hopeful that where changes are needed to ensure public pensions systems are stable and affordable, they will be worked out where they should be – at the bargaining table and in the Legislature. Both ballot measures are so sloppily written and costly to taxpayers that even advocates of "reform" are shying away from contributing to efforts to put them on the November ballot.

But there is still plenty of time for the measures to qualify.

That makes it critical to point out that the millionaire Republican backers behind these measures have arguments that are both dangerously wrong about the huge added public costs and cavalier about the hardships and retirement insecurity the proposed initiatives would have on current and retired public employees.

Steven Filling is a professor of accounting at California State University, Stanislaus.

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Do you value your quality of life?

By Michael Stewart, Director

This isn’t about pay, benefits or pension. It’s about crime, disorder and your quality of life. The Chula Vista Police Officers’ Association (CVPOA) represents the 215 hardest-working police officers in San Diego County who patrol the woefully understaffed streets of your City. At last count, the Chula Vista Police Department is staffed at 0.85 officers per 1000 citizens. This is the fewest number of police officers per citizen in San Diego County.

Most of us don’t worry so much about being the victim of a murder or a robbery; however, it is realistic to think you may be the victim of a home burglary or a vehicle vandalism or theft. On a recent night, approximately 50 vehicles were vandalized in the neighborhoods surrounding Orange Avenue and Hilltop Drive. This recent incident brings me to the crux of our plea.

We at the CVPOA learned that after these vehicle vandalisms, members of the City Council received a higher than usual amount of calls about crime. Now, don’t get me wrong, I did not hear how the Councilmembers responded to their constituents concerns, but I can imagine the response was similar to, “Sorry to hear about that. Please call the Police Department and they will be happy to take a report.” At the CVPOA we ask, “Why?”

Why are the councilmembers who signed-off on City Manager Jim Sandoval’s budget that authorized 33 Police Officers lay-offs (resulting in four actual lay-offs) telling their constituents to call the Police Department? Is it the Police Officers fault that there are not enough personnel to adequately and safely staff and patrol your streets? Is it the Police Officers fault that they cannot proactively patrol your neighborhoods to prevent crime and disorder problems, such as speeding, vehicle vandalism or thefts? Of course the answer is an unequivocal, “No!”

So, rather than immediately refer their constituents to the Police Department regarding these crime and disorder issues, the courageous Councilmember should have told their constituents something along the lines of: “I must apologize to you Constituent. Myself and my colleagues on the Council have allowed staffing at the Police Department to be unnecessarily depleted to levels that no longer allow for extra patrols or crimes being adequately investigated. Constituent, I pledge to you, I will stop the smoke-and-mirror and budget shell games and will begin to actively work on increasing Police Officer staffing levels so there are enough Police in our City to assure you the quality of life I guaranteed you when you voted for me. Again, I apologize.” And, in closing, they will brag that they have authorized the Police Department to rehire (yes, rehire) the officers they recently laid-off at a cost of over $100,000 per officer to hire and train.

Chula Vistans, this year at the polls, you will have an opportunity to make a change at City Hall. Please know and understand what is at stake when casting your vote. Now, more than ever, your quality of life is at stake. Despite what Mayor Cox likes to tell you, crime and disorder in your City is on the rise. The only way to slow crime and disorder is through an increased and visible Police presence. This requires your City Council to direct the City Manager to draft a budget that will keep you safe. Choose the City Council candidate that will make decisions that need to be made and increase Police staffing to the levels required to keep you safe.

The hard-working Police Officers represented by the CVPOA take pride in their service to you. For years, they have worked in an understaffed agency and with inadequate resources required to provide you with the service you truly deserve. Please contact Mayor Cox, Councilmembers Aguilar, Bensoussan, Castaneda and Ramirez and City Management and demand to know why there are not enough Police Officers on your streets. Also, you can always contact the Chula Vista Police Officers’ Association at www.cvpoa.org to learn more about issues that impact your quality of life.

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PRESS RELEASE: Results from Chula Vista PD checkpoint

DUI/DL Enforcement

Chula Vista- On Friday, December 16th, 2011, Officers from the Chula Vista Police Department conducted a DUI/Driver's License checkpoint in the 1000 block of Eastlake Parkway in the City of Chula Vista from 6 PM to 1 AM. During the operation, 2341 cars drove through the checkpoint and officers directly contacted 713 of them. Officers conducted Seven Standard Field Sobriety Tests resulting in 1 driver being arrested for Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol. Officers cited six drivers for driving on a suspended license and six drivers were cited for not having a drivers license. A total of three vehicles were impounded. Seven other drivers received citations for various violations.

The purpose of the checkpoint is to promote public safety; increase awareness of the dangers associated with drinking and driving, and serves as a deterrent to potential impaired and unlicensed drivers.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The Chula Vista Police Department will be continuing our efforts to keep drivers in our community safe.

Visit Nixle online article, click HERE for more information.