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[by OC Progressive, cross-posted from Calitics with author’s permission. OC Progressive is Gus Ayer, a former mayor of Fountain Valley.].
Huntington Beach Ideologues Reject Pension Savings, Opt for Fire Dept Cuts
A periodic update on the Republican war against public employees in the OC
Is Huntington Beach following the Costa Mesa train to Crazy Town, opting for confrontation instead of common sense with their employees?
On Monday, May 2nd, the Huntington Beach City Council, in closed session, voted against a proposal that would save the City almost $1.3 million in pension costs over the next two years and would also create a second pension tier for future public safety employees.
On May 3rd, Council Member Devin Dwyer was telling city employees that if they hadn’t been there very long, they should start looking for another job. He also said that negotiations with the Fire Association had broken down, only to be quickly corrected by a representative of that group, who expressed an interest in continuing to talk.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Orange County right wing politics, where ambitious young pols like Don Hansen and Matt Harper seem poised to try to get some of the publicity that Jim Righeimer has been garnering in Costa Mesa. Term limits will open up an Assembly, State Senate and County Supervisor seat, and the players want to be seen as pension fighters and union busters to appeal to the hard core of Republican primary voters.
Pictured: the Women's Club Fire, one of FOUR MAJOR FIRES among a total of 36 fire calls in Huntington Beach THIS PAST APRIL. Over the last two weeks, HB also had a fatal fire, a fire where 2 victims were rescued with a ladder from a second story window, and a multi-million dollar home fire.
As Mayor Pro Tem Don Hansen wrote on his Facebook page during the election,
“Let’s take our city back! If you see a police car or fire truck on the mail – that’s code for “union owned” We need taxpayer advocates not union puppets now more than ever!”
Mailers supporting Hansen’s endorsed candidates echoed the attacks on public safety employees and particularly their pensions.
After three months of bargaining, the Huntington Beach Fire Association thought they had a deal that would save Huntington Beach $640,000 a year over each of the next two years. The proposed side letter to their existing agreement would also change the retirement formula for new hires to lower pension costs in the future. After three months of negotiations with staff, Fire Association President Darrin Witt felt that “we had met all of the Council’s goals set out in the strategic planning session at the beginning of the year.”
Instead of taking two scheduled raises, one of which had already been postponed for 18 months, sworn fire officers would apply that money to their pensions, increasing their pension contribution from 2.25% of their income to 6.75% of their income.
In return, the Firefighters asked for guaranteed staffing levels so that they wouldn’t have to cut the number of paramedics and engine companies that were available to respond to emergencies.
As the Council kept moving the goalposts, the paramedics and fire fighters included a budget trigger which would void the guaranteed staffing levels if revenues drop, expenses rise unexpectedly, or if CalPERS increases pension rates.
Monday, May 2, in closed session, the Huntington Beach City Council voted against the savings, moving instead towards further service cuts that would increase response times. Cutting the budget could mean service cuts that might idle one of the eight paramedic engines or one of the two ladder trucks. Budget cuts could also reduce availability of one of the cross-staffed specialized engines. Do you cut one of the paramedic engines which respond to over 12,000 9-1-1 Medical calls a year, or partially idle one of the two ladder trucks which have the ability to put firemen at roof level for the 375 structure fires a year and which also carry additional equipment like the “Jaws of Life”?
Even without more personnel cuts to HB Fire, the annexation of Sunset Beach, coupled with fewer available units for mutual aid in surrounding cities, will put pressure on response times in Huntington Beach. The Fire Department has already reduced six full time employees, including a Batallion Chief, after the City’s revenues dropped substantially during the Great Recession.
In neighboring Costa Mesa, it is Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer who pushes the party line, with staunch ideologue Steve Mensinger at his side, and a bumbling, ineffectual Mayor following along. Their hasty decision to issue layoffs to half the City has made Costa Mesa a laboratory for right wing political experiments in California, with clear results as the continued exodus of police officers, firefighters and management is crippling the City.
In HB, it’s Mayor Pro Tem Don Hansen calling the shots, with Republican Central Committee member Matt Harper, and former Central Committee member Devin Dwyer as comrades. All three are close allies of party boss Scott Baugh, a lobbyist and perennial meddler in Surf City politics. Joe Carchio plays the role of bumbling, ineffectual Mayor, whose deal to become Mayor a year ahead of schedule has been repeatedly questioned.
Huntington Beach's "Red Zone" ideologues: Don Hansen, Matt Harper, and Devin Dwyer.
Don Hansen, his [disgraced -ed.] Red County buddy Chip Hanlon, and their Tea Party allies were big losers in the 2010 election. Two Team Hansen candidates who paid Hansen’s wife’s consulting business, Red Zone Strategies, lost in the 2010 election. Measure O, an initiative which would have shifted money away from public safety, also lost decisively.
Hansen, Harper, and Dwyer are seen as the core who have walked away from the deal that would reduce the City’s current and future pension costs, forcing service cuts instead of compromise.
Council Member Joe Shaw, elected in 2010 without support from the fire union, refused to comment on what happened during closed session, but indicated that he strongly supported the recommendations which the City received from their pension consultant, John Bartel.
“We hired an expert who recommended that we work towards a second, lower pension tier for all new hires and move toward getting employees to pick up a greater share of their pensions while holding salaries down. That is exactly what the Fire Association proposed, and it could have been a model for our negotiations with all of our employees.”
The public needs to see this choice debated in public, not hidden behind closed doors. Writing at Chip Hanlon’s Red County, Don Hansen seemed to agree as he expressed his love for country music
One effective strategy is to adopt a set of financial policies that are debated publicly. These policies are set to guide the labor negotiations prior to commencement. For example, you could adopt a policy that says “The goal of all labor negotiations will be to increase the employee’s contribution to pension costs.” In Huntington Beach, we recently gave direction to negotiate the elimination of pending salary increases by the end of February. By taking a public vote in a meeting keenly observed by many of the union leaders, it sends a signal that there is a solid vote for such a solution.By setting a more transparent policy goal prior to the commencement of labor negotiations, elected officials become more accountable to the ultimate result. Further, if your community leaders are not committed to fiscally sustainable labor policy their position will be publicly vetted as well. The economic consequences of these decisions are too great to keep them hidden.
Because no one knows what goes on behind closed doors.
[Ed. Gus isn’t joking:]
I have three simple questions for the Council Members who rejected the Fire Department’s concessions:
- What policy are you advancing by refusing exactly the type of pension reform that your own expert recommends?
- When are you going to have the public debate on whether the residents and businesses in Huntington Beach want to sacrifice response times for your ideology?
- Are you looking for sustainable budget solutions or just pandering to Republican primary voters so you can get some of the attention that Jim Righeimer has been hogging?
“opting for confrontation instead of common sense with their employees?”…….. Hmmmmm
OK Mr. Common Sense,
What pay should City firefighter get per year?…….
What pension should City firefighter get per year?…….
What free benefits should City firefighter get per year?…….
At what age should City firefighter retire?…….
Should retired City firefighter get pension while working regular job?…….
Please answer!
To associate Hansen and the other Baughites with the “Tea Party” is a little confusing, in the midst of this OC GOP civil war in which the wild-eyed insurgents such as Whitacre and Pauly are much more credible Teabaggers.
But I suppose there are really at least three factions if you count the old-school labor-friendly Republicans like Cathy Green and Wendy Leece. Funny, Wendy called me the other day to tell me I shouldn’t be too rough on Whitacre or else I’m essentially helping Baugh and Riggy. (“Objectively pro-Riggy,” she should’ve said mimicking the Iraq apologists.)
Does she really think Whitacre and his pals wouldn’t be as ruthless with public employees as Baugh and Riggy?
In trying to keep this on topic as a municipal cost cutting/saving issue, it is interesting whats going on in San Fransico, a city arguably the size of Santa Ana or Anaheim (1/2 million).
The chief of Police has given up his SUV (and driver) in favor of a motorcycle and ford fusion, the mayor has done likewise and Gascone doesn’t even use a city/county car!
Further, Chief Suhr has eliminated three deputy chiefs. The POA is currently in discussions for pension reform (For those like the Great One and Junior, who complain about spiralling public pensions, this was ground zero in 1987 is how and where much of todays model began).
Meanwhile Santa Ana and Brea, one of the largest and maybe the smallest OC cities just bought ten Toyota Hybrids?????at top dollar? That certainly explains David Wilson’s support!
Much to be learned, gleaned for those that can type into Dogpile, Google or Yahoo.
Services like retirement and healthcare should be universal (social security and medicare for all) and paid for by something like a VAT.
For those jobs that require special skills (think CEO’s, firefighters, city managers and police) that need extra compensation to attract and keep good people, that compensation would be salary. Everyone would have basic healthcare (including necessary dental and eyecare), and a basic retirement/disability package.
The greater salary would be the compensation. With that, a CEO, etc. could buy a cadillac supplemental insurance plan, invest in private retirement funds etc. All open, above board and transparent.
The focus today is on public employees. For the last couple of years, it had been on banking and health insurance CEO’s. It must all be very amusing to the poor guy making minimum wage (and that under attack), with no health insurance and the congress fighting to take away social security and medicare!
Save us from ideologues! This is exactly the kind of hogwash that happens when politics rules instead of common sense. I do not know why these Republicans are rejecting the way our city and its employees have worked together to make Huntington Beach the wonderful city that it is but its time to stop them. We don’t need any national conservative agenda taking the place of good common sense decisions during this time of economic hardship.
We should be thinking about how to provide more services to our citizens and businesses, not less. Besides, haven’t these guys destroyed their own credibility? I for one do not want anything these republican partisans are selling. The sooner I can vote against them again the better.
I first took up residence in HB in 1969 and have seen a lot of pension spiking through the years here. We residents are fed up with the pay/benefits to public safety personnel. We respect the employees and honor their service but their compensation is totally whack. It is a shame to cut back on their numbers. We should be cutting back their pay so we can staff more people with less money. Beleive me, the line will be a mile long to get a firefighter job. We elected Don and Matt expecting great things from them and I know they will not disappoint. Please don’t send Genis over here again.
UNFUNDED PENSION LIABILITIES………..Three little words that consistently get left unspoken in Costa Mesa…..kind of like “He who shan’t be named”.
The $221 million of unfunded pension liabilities that are currently spread out over seventy years , suddenly become due, with early opt out penalties.
That $221 million turns into over $300 million due in only ten years.
Breaks down to a little over $100,000 a day for ten years.
Steep price to pay for a city that guts all its services and then needs to go out and pay for all of them by private companies.
Costa Mesa is getting driven off a cliff by political ideologues willing to cut off their nose to spite their face.
Huntington Beach…..BEWARE
About time our elected leaders begin reading the fine print in these outrageous union contracts. Minimum staffing is a union scam, aimed at forcing cities to cede to the union bullies. In Costa Mesa minimum staffing is absolutely destroying our finances. No union contract should ever mandate minimum staffing. That decision should be made by the fire chief, not the union thugs who are simply looking for more money. Way to go Huntington Beach! Gericault, it’s too bad you will never get finance. It’s your kids who will suffer your lack of knowledge on this important topic. Keep selling the “raise taxes” bit. That’s been really popular in Costa Mesa.
See …….Phil couldn’t mention, “He who shan’t be named”.
UNFUNDED PENSION LIABILITIES………..PHIL!!!!
It’s like a shell game. No matter if it’s about salaries, or minimum staffing levels, or pensions , they just move the shells around everytime you mention the unfunded pension liabilities and the penalties for early opt out.
You lift off every shell and, the little nut, is that $300 million dollar bill that comes due….payable in full over ten years.
Moorlach just spent $5 million in OC residents tax monies for legal fees , just to be told , “YOU HAVE TO PAY THE PENSIONS”.
I know Moorlach didn’t agree with all the courts, even though they were ruled against three seperate times. That unfortunately, doesn’t get the $5 million back.
Precedent shows that these negotiated contracts are binding.
I’m not against re-negotiating with the Unions for tiered pensions, salary cut backs, structured staffing levels etc. etc. etc.
That’s how it’s supposed to be done.
I’m against these idiots thinking that they can destroy the entire city service departments based on faulty rhetoric that only blows up the residents face.
Come on Phil…….instead of grammatically erring while slamming me on Finance….explain how we pay our UNFUNDED PENSION LIABILITIES…..or is that not something you care about?
Most of the CM Tax Whiners want a Vallejo type bankrupcty……unfortunately for them, The city of Costa Mesa has TOO much money.
How could this happen?
These old established cities like Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, Huntington Breach, etc paying salaries and benefits unheard of outside Orange County.
With the HIGH cost of city management, to get the best of the best, how could these problems happen?
Seem to me that the first priority of local management and civic leaders is their own pocket book.
Local services, what is that?
Not all cities are having the same problems, look at the cities those high paid managers are living in.
If more people would pay attention to what is happening locally and stop worrying about some Hawaiians birth certificate. The local chiefdoms would not be able to rip us all off so badly.
I went to the “We draw the lines” meeting last Friday, and the most people who testified were local politicians or members of their staffs, all signing the same song, “please draw the lines to protect my current district.”
“Huntington Breach?” As in “breach of contract?” A most excellent Freudian typo, Cook!
We love Devin Dwyer….he is dude! Whatever he says must be at least 2/3rd’s right..minimum!
See that’s you two’s problem, you’re like teenyboppers. If you like someone’s personality, you swallow their lies and forgive their misdeeds. Not good.
TAX PAYERS ARE NO LONGER GOING TO TOLERATE HAVING TO PAY RIDICULOUSLY GENEROUS HEALTH AND RETIREMENT BENEFITS FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES WHO, UP UNTIL NOW, HAVE HAD GUARANTEED EMPLOYMENT. IN THE REAL WORLD (PRIVATE SECTOR) PENSIONS ARE A THING OF THE PAST. HEALTH CARE BENEFITS OFFERED BY EMPLOYERS ARE THE EXCEPTION NOT THE RULE AND EMPLOYEES ARE HAVING TO SHOULDER MORE AND MORE OF THE EXPENSE. PUBLIC EMPLOYEES WHO WANT HEALTH AND RETIREMENT BENEFITS SHOULD PAY FOR THESE BENEFITS THEMSELVES. PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS CAN GO TO HELL. AND STAY THERE.
Liberty247, stop yelling. I’m a public employee and I make less than my counterparts in the private sector (who coincidentally have less education but better benefits and they do have retirement plans). It’s all about who you choose to work for. If you’re unhappy with your choices, go and make better ones. Don’t blame me. And seriously dude, stop yelling.