Monday: No Impact Man Film at City Hall
Nearly 300 San Jose residents attended to watch this documentary, which portrays a family that adopts environmentally friendly choices over the course of a year. For example, they bike instead of driving, buy only locally produced food and give up their television. The main point of the evening was that we do not have to wait for government to mandate behaviors that help the environment but that collectively we as residents can choose to compost, use less electricity, bike vs. drive today, etc…
A reporter from the San Francisco Examiner attended and wrote about the event. Read the report here.
Tuesday: City Council Meeting
Council waived the business license fee for the first 1,000 business under 35 employees retroactive to Jan 1,2010. Some on the Council commented that it was symbolic and would not create jobs. The Council does not create jobs; private individuals do. If the Council wants to do something symbolic lets get rid of the Labor Peace regulation and allow Starbucks to open at city hall as planned. Nearly five years and still empty.
During public comment on the Mayor’s Budget message, a lobbyist from the union chided the Council for even thinking about 2nd Tier benefits that the taxpayer can afford since it would be unfair to have people working side by side who have different retirement benefits. The next non lobbyist speaker stated that people in private sector are compensated differently from each other today and they survive. The current pension system is unsustainable and must be changed for new employees.
A couple of SJI readers asked last week how retirement works under the city charter. Here is the response to that question:
Each employee puts $3 and the city puts an additional $8 into the retirement fund. On top of the over 200 percent match, the city guarantees an 8 percent net rate of return, but the fund needs to gross 9 percent to cover investment fees. (Average rate of return the last 10 years is 4.4 percent) If the retirement portfolio (stocks, bonds, real estate,etc.) does not return 8-9 percent, then the taxpayer covers the difference.
Any changes to the current system requires a vote of San Jose residents. As we hopefully implement 2nd tier benefits I would suggest an option for new employees of a one-to-one dollar match up to the federal 401K limit of $16,500 and no guaranteed 8 percent return. This way the retirement funds will continue to get funded by new employees much like social security is funded by younger workers. The newer employees will draw less benefits but then we will not have to close more libraries or layoff more police in future years.
A dollar-for-dollar match (100 percent) is extremely generous in comparison to the average 3 percent match of private employers to 401K’s. If there are specific positions in our city that are tough to recruit then raise the entry level salary since young workers want more money up front to buy a home or fancy car. Same time if there are positions with many qualified applicants then those entry level salaries should be frozen indefinitely or lowered.
Wednesday: Grand Boulevard Committee, Member
Attended meeting at SamTrans in San Carlos. The purpose of this committee is to provide a venue for cities and transit agencies from South San Francisco to San Jose to plan transit-oriented developments all the way up and down the El Camino Real. The thought is through density, the El Camino will gain the improvements to add large sidewalks and pedestrian friendly accoutrement’s the entire way creating a Grand Boulevard.
Thursday: Public Safety Committee, Member
The committee received a verbal report from staff on why hiring retired San Jose Police Department (SJPD) officers is problematic. Staff response seems odd. We have many qualified retired SJPD in our area that it seems silly not to hire them to do background checks for new recruits instead of pulling police officers off patrol to do this work. But then again we have postponed the police academy indefinitely yet we fund a community center in Los Gatos for $80K out the $11 million in tobacco funds that goes towards charities.
Friday: Diridon Joint Policy Advisory Board, Member
First meeting of the Diridon Joint Policy Advisory Board whose goal is to create a Grand Central Station of the West by collaborating with state, federal, transit districts, adjacent residents and business owners over the next 10-20 years. We elected Mayor Reed as the Chair.
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> Any changes to the current system requires a vote of San Jose residents.
We’re ready! Bring it ON!!
CHANGE! CHANGE! CHANGE!
> If there are specific positions in our city that are tough to recruit then raise the entry level salary since young workers want more money up front to buy a home or fancy car. Same time if there are positions with many qualified applicants then those entry level salaries should be frozen indefinitely or lowered.
YES! YES! YES! Especially the part about salaries being “lowered”.
What, if any, specific positions are so tough to recruit that the city would need to raise the entry salary? I can’t imagine that the unions would allow any city position to be offered at less than cadillac union wages.
> First meeting of the Diridon Joint Policy Advisory Board whose goal is to create a Grand Central Station of the West by collaborating with state, federal, transit districts, adjacent residents and business owners over the next 10-20 years. We elected Mayor Reed as the Chair.
Well, this is a useless piece of civic thumb sucking.
Fire Mayor Reed, disband this stupid “Policy Advisory Board” and get back to fixing potholes and cutting union positions, salaries, and pensions.
That “reporter” from the San Francisco is no more a reporter than you are Councilmember Oliverio. He is an “examiner” which is someone who the Examiner uses to cover areas where they have fired reporters. They are bloggers without credentials, without experience, without editors.
Frank, is that you?
Greg,
No, it is not me. I don’t even see what you are referring to. It is more than a little creepy that you are following me this closely though.
Is “The Shadow” one of the aliases listed on your restraining orders?
Nah, good guess though. Speaking of restraining, I heard you may be out by the end of the year. Bet having a window in your room will be nice.
Ahh, the Shadow knows!
We do not need full time city council members in either San Jose or legislators at the state level. San Jose City Council members should only serve part time and receive no benefits. Hopefully, Pierre would agree with this and maybe discuss it with his fellow council memberz and mayor, since Pierre seems to want financial responsibility in our city.
Here is a link to a petition to an organization pushing to make the California state level positions part time, as they are in several other states.
http://www.reformcal.com/cms/index.php?page=latest-news
Like last year, San Jose does not have the money to pay for a 4th of July celebration. So, I was wondering if we will still pay for a Cinco de Mayo celebration like we did last year?
Also, how much does it cost to keep the Police helicopter flying up and down Story Road between downtown and East San Jose each Cinco de Mayo during the evening and night. The police do this every year.
Soup, a great question. Whaddayawanna’ bet that the Diversity Pimps will find a way to pay for Cinco de Mayo and ignore our Independence Day?
PLO, regarding your observation that “a dollar-for-dollar match (100 percent) is extremely generous in comparison to the average 3 percent match of private employers to 401K’s.”
Businesses with 401K matches usually match on the order of dollar for dollar (100 percent) up to around 5% or 6% of salary, with vesting periods ranging from one to five years. They do this to encourage participation by lower paid employees so that their programs are not deemed “top heavy” and therefore not qualified by the government. I guess it would work out to 3% of salary, on average, given that matching is not universal.
Nevertheless, the program as you outline would be competitive with private sector alternatives, and a good alternative to today’s problem.
“the city guarantees an 8 percent net rate of return” [presumabaly each and every year forever, no matter what the state of the economy might be]. What group of idiots agreed to that? Oh, it was the mayor and council, no doubt. EXACTLY when was that deal “negotiated”? Which mayor and which councilmembers can we blame for that giveaway?
PO
So, San Jose’s gold plated pension pays 8 dollars for every employee’s 3 dollars into retirement, then city guarantees 8-9% returns when investments only make 4.4% and San Jose make up any investment losses for all the retirement plans to include police, fire, janitors, clerks, senior staff and departments
No wonder no one in City Hall especially senior management who gets big money did not tell taxpayers about how gold plated retirement plans work, many early retire at 50-56 years old, gold plated health plans, $100-250,000 unused sick & vacation payouts some qualifying for 2-3 government pension plans and double or triple pension dipping and coming back after retirements for $125-200,000 consulting contracts
Taxpayers are being ripppppppped off -again
Where is daily news rag when we need it to tell people what is happening – oh forgot lots of x-Merc reporters work for city and more of them want to – so they keep quiet
I can feel the heat in this discussion room. I can just imagine what it’s like in person for the folks sitting across the table in negotiations or at the dais in council meetings.
I want to just make a few points.
Politics is often a sport where players and fans all like to jump into the fray. Like a European Soccer match that ends with a riot and that’s the way the fans like it.
Pensions, like health care costs, is a fundamental issue that when you remove all the politics really affects real people and their lives. In the heady rush of politics, we forget that there are honorable people who have given a lifetime of public service and receive at the end a reasonably good pension.
Destructive Competition – this political term is usually used to describe how neighboring communities compete for business by lowering standards and basically hurting themselves in the process. I’d like to introduce this term to political discourse like this and point out that because one is suffering doesn’t make it right to hurt someone else. It’s like the lumber-jack theory of self-esteem where if you cut down every other tree in the forest, you will be the tallest one. Destructive Political Competition is like fratricide in the military where friendly fire attrites your own forces.
Let’s talk principles, then get pragmatic and talk about specifics. Social Security was a retirement of last resort for a Great Depression era nation where private pensions were lost due to economic disaster. Over the years, its become a primary entitlement for rich and poor alike. Many individuals and employer’s still accepted that they were primarily responsible for retirement planning and sustained private or quasi-public systems for providing for that with a combination of employee and employer contributions.
Most, but not all, private concerns have shifted the burden of retirement planning to the individual, with some guidance and matching funds available for 401K type plans. I don’t know how bad things will be in 20 years as people who borrowed heavily against 401K plans or invested poorly find themselves dependent on either Social Security or liquidating their assets to sustain their retirement. I’m not looking forward to a lifetime of paying into a plan that’s going to be scaled back as it comes to be my turn.
The City is doing right by offering a pension.
The details, however, could use some work. Could we have a non-political task force really break it down and study what we have, what we could have and how to get there? I think we need to take it to the voters with some charter amendments at the end, but the long term health of the city deserves more than crisis to crisis planning by temporary council members who are just keeping the seats warm for a few years while lining up support for their next political office.
Maybe we could also revisit the make-up of the council and term limits. The system right now is clearly producing poor (short-term political pandering decisions) results. Maybe we could go to 5 districts and 5 at-large seats with more relaxed term limits (2 terms in a district seat followed by up to 2 terms at either at-large or mayor.)
Also, perhaps we could spin-off the airport, wastewater treatment and a few other departments as semi-private public corporations that serve the entire region and not just one city. Let everyone from Los Gatos to Cupertino share in the business of the spin offs.
Finally, let’s explore something akin to what the county office of education does, where certain functions needed by all schools/districts can be collectivized. Could we handle some HR functions with a south bay collective of local governments? Training, recruitment, etc? ABAG (Association of Bay Area Governments) seems like too high of a level to collectivize, but maybe the South Bay cities, county government and special agencies (water district, etc) could find some shared needs that could be handled well through economies of scale.
Its worth talking about.
My apologies, I was reading the pension article and discussion and then Pierluigi’s latest post and walked away from the computer for a bit and came back and posted without looking where I was posting.
The above post really belongs under the pension topic, but having said it once, I’m content to move on to the next topic….
Great plan. Of course it offers no solution to the problem, but good plan.
> Of course it offers no solution to the problem,…
It’s a great solution.
If you don’t think so, you’re looking at the wrong problem.
I suspect that San Jose’s budget problems might be greatly alleviated by hiring Donald Trump as a consultant for one day, and then giving him a walking tour of city hall.
You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired.
You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired.
OK. Let’s go to the next floor.
How many is that?
Do we need to make another pass?
The size and power of government at all levels is reaching its tipping point. Salaries and benefits are an outright theft from taxpayers. Half the jobs don’t need to exist in the first place.
People are just now realizing how many people and things they are forced to fund with their taxpaying dollars. Our representatives (and many citizens) think they can do anything so long as they have a majority vote. Our own tax dollars are given to groups who lobby against us, ask for more, and then create perma-jobs, benefits and fiefdoms for themselves.
Add to that the control these bureaucratic agencies have over every aspect of our lives and you have the seeds of a revolution. I pray it comes at the ballot box, but I highly doubt it. How can it? Too many people have become dependent on the handouts. The number of people on the receiving end is enormous.
The group of people who want nothing more than basic services, simple laws and natural freedom are becoming smaller every day. And they are being abused more and more every day.
Someday they will say enough is enough. I hope its sooner rather than later.
> Someday they will say enough is enough. I hope its sooner rather than later.
You Da Man!
I will be counseling the future ex-Congresswoman Lofgren about this very thing come November.