Do the citizens of San Jose have an advocate on the San Jose City Council? At times like these I’m not so sure. When it comes to talking about the San Jose City Government budget and the efforts to close the over $116 million deficit, the focus of debate is not about providing for optimum city service levels, it’s about making payroll. Seriously, no one is really talking about quality of service, they’re talking about salaries and pensions. In San Jose, the emphasis is on filling pockets instead of potholes!
Last month, at a meeting where San Jose’s mayor pushed for concessions on the part of civic employees, Yolanda Cruz of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union objected to the city’s push to “balance the entire budget deficit on the backs of city employees.” What in the world is she talking about? The average cost for each San Jose city worker has increased 64 percent since 2000. Had pay and benefits merely increased at the rate of inflation (as measured by the consumer price index) the average cost per employee would have risen only 18 percent to $86,997.
Look, there are a lot of fine and dedicated people working for the San Jose City Government. But, the City of San Jose faces a structural deficit problem that has to be fixed. Absent another “dot-com” miracle, the local economy is not going to grow fast enough to alleviate the problem. Dramatic changes have to occur and past practices have to be revisited. For example, should public employees ever get raises in years where there is a budget in deficit? Should public employees ever get raises and/or bonuses that exceed the rate of inflation? Why can’t 25 percent of city contracts go out to bid in the private sector? (as is done in Chicago and other cities).
Can you find anyone in San Jose who is satisfied with the quality level of public services? San Jose is a city in decline. Every year, for almost a decade, city maintenance has been deferred to help meet the city’s budgetary requirements and payroll. The city’s budget deficit is more than a number on a ledger… it can also be seen throught the city’s landscape in the form of run down parks, cracked sidewalks, and potholed streets. San Jose residents should say, “Enough…no more cuts in services!”
Work furloughs equate to cuts in services, and further cuts in services should be off the table.
Pete:
Good post as usual.
One point of concern I have from reading your post is whether or not San Jose residents even know who represents them on the City Council. By logic, those who serve on City Council are advocates for the citizens who (re)elect them. If you haven’t done this already, ask those you encounter daily if they know who currently represents them on the San Jose City Council. If they know, ask them when was the last time they have ever contacted their City Council member for anything.
From my experience in the Valley, over 99% of those I have talked to don’t even know who runs the Valley Transportation Authority – let alone that it’s run by a Board of Directors. (For those who don’t know, brush up on that knowledge at http://www.vtaridersunion.org/DIY/vtaboard.html – note who is on the VTA’s Board of Directors and its current Board chair.)
We all know the labor union bosses we love to loathe already contact and lobby their City Council member(s). What stops the average San Josean from doing the same? Given deficits at all levels of government, an informed, vocal citizen is our best chance of preserving San Jose’s quality of life for current and future generations. By choosing not to be heard and known by your City Council, you end up playing a key role in San Jose’s downfall as the Capital of Silicon Valley.
Bravo and very well stated!
what has happened in San Jose is a micro-version of what has been done to California which has been ravished, mugged and rolled by the state employee unions. Don’t take my word for it but read here in the city-journal – a sad tale. and when one wonders how our sorry state became this and what will we tell our children – let them read this.
http://www.city-journal.org/2010/20_2_california-unions.html
WARNING: this is a very tragic story
Hugh, that article is truly chilling. And the worst part it’s extremely hard for voters to understand what needs to be done. If you vote against the unions, it’s so easy for them to denounce you as anti-teacher or anti-police. People need to understand the difference between supporting the union political machine and the members the unions claim to represent.
I truly hope a voter uprising is coming, but I can’t say I see much going on.
Hugh, that article should be required reading for everybody. Thanks for the link.
I thought it was important for people to understand what has happened to us. We now have these large public institutions where no matter what happens – – there are NO lay offs. What normal business could operate like that? Yet we are expected to keep coming up w/ more taxes to support these bureacracies.
I have noting against teachers, police and fire persons but something is out of whack.
It would be good to get this info out to people but how? Will the Merc/News run this story?
Hugh B,
And its been done to us at the national level as well. but the big govt on the national level has been to protect and reward banks, oil and our war machine.
Our city, state and country are in alot of trouble.
Thank you for the article Hugh. While I can’t deny there is a lot of truth in this article, I don’t buy it 100%. Teachers are NOT rolling in money. I have enough friends who are teachers and I know better. Having said that, here is why I completely disagree with doing away with Unions. Huge corporations in the private sector make BILLIONS while UNDERPAYING its employees, and rewarding management and investors.
They work their employees half to death, their benefits, if any stink, employee contributions to medical/dental are very high, and their contribution to employee retirement, if any, is minimal. Hence the reason we need Unions.
In the private sector only CEOs and other big wigs get huge salaries. Look to corporations like Target, Walmart, and other such businesses. Their employees are worked half to death and earn a pittance. They can’t complain or they’re booted out. There are thousands of people willing to do that job and take the crap and they KNOW it! It’s sad no matter how you look at it. Something has got to change to bring balance and fairness to the situation.
Kathleen, no one’s talking about the private sector. In the public sector, there are no big wigs and shareholders to suck up profits while the workers suffer. In fact, there are no real profits. There’s the money they collect from us, the taxpayers. In addition, in the private sector employees have no say who their managers will be. Unions use our tax dollars to fill the government with their buddies, with whom they then negotiate their salaries and benefits. It’s completely corrupt and unsustainable.
Your comparison just doesn’t work.
Unfair Comparison- We can agree to disagree.
Unions were established to ensure fair treatment and decent wages because the “private sector” screwed and took advantage of workers. If it weren’t for Unions you wouldn’t have decent wages or clean, safe places to work in that were/are regulated to ensure your safety. Go read the history of Unions. Then imagine our world if they had never come to be.
As for your teacher friends, there’s little doubt they’re not paid fairly. This is because their union ensures they all get the same base salary according to their education and experience regardless of how excellent or incompetent they may be, and they all get the same annual raises. Assuming your friends are good teachers, they’re sharing their salaries with their failing peers. Meanwhile the union president pulls in a six digit salary.
Underpaid Cali teachers is a myth. They’re the 2nd best paid in the nation – behind New York.
“Statewide, teachers average $66,995 annually”
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/01/31/2502276/teacher-pay-can-vary-greatly-by.html
“Teacher salaries: Despite a drop on overall education spending last year in California, teacher salaries increased an average of 3.5 percent to $68,093. … The national average last year was $54,319.”
http://educatedguess.org/blog/2010/04/13/no-longer-highest-paid-teachers/
For the work many teachers do, there should be a one in front of that six: $168,093.00. Now, having said that I also believe teachers have an awesome responsibility because they are shaping young minds. If they are not up for the task, they should find another job which is a better fit and let someone else better suited fill their space. (And let me add that there is nothing wrong with being in the wrong job, it’s when someone stubbornly clings to it that it becomes a problem, especially when kids are involved.)
Just as City workers who are the end point of contact with the public (and public services) should have their jobs saved, so too should teachers who are the end point of contact for our kids (our future!) have their jobs saved and be given a decent wage for the work they do. If cutting and budget reductions are necessary, I would like to see the higher paid management (including school “management”) take a larger hit, and I know that is asking a lot, but after all, if teachers leave for lack of good pay and/or our point of contact employees are cut back, who will management then manage? And who will do the work that ultimately needs to be done?
My .02
Tina
Kathleen, I’m glad you agree, but I do have to point out your friends don’t get a free pass in all this. The teachers union couldn’t operate the way it does without cooperation from its members. For the security of easily obtained tenure and assured raises, your friends sit back while their union leadership cheats them of fair compensation. Their complacency is at the heart of the problem, and as union members they have little right to complain.
Unfair Comparison,
I agree. Very well said.
Unfair Comparison,
We agree again. I guess the days of standing up for what you beleve in regardless of consequence is nearly gone. I do have friends who do fight the Union but they are but one vote in a crowd of hundreds or thousands… It is indeed sad~
H B—the article was an excellent history of how we got in such a mess.
The union folks keep whining that CSJ is trying to fix the budget mess on their backs. They fail to understand it’s mostly ‘cuz of them that we’re in this mess.
We can’t keep giving them raises @ 2-3 times the rate of inflation.
What spineless councilmembers of the past are responsible for this?. I WANT NAMES, so we can vote them out of whatever offices they moved to due to term limits.
I know this sounds counter-intuitive but we need to triple the city work force. Then we need to double their pay.
Think about it.
Yeah, because then they would have more money to spend in other cities. Most of the morons from the city don’t even live here.
> I know this sounds counter-intuitive but we need to triple the city work force. Then we need to double their pay.
You are absolutely right! It DOES sound counter-intuitive.
> San Jose is a city in decline.
Oh wow! Speaking truth to doofussus.
This might get you deputized as an Honorary Doofinator.
It’s a thankless calling, though.
So much truth to spread. So many doofusses.
A Doofinator’s work is never done.
The unkown fact is that employee wages are just a drop in the bucket. The real costs and loss income opportunities lie the following: A city manager that earns $250,000 (and many other like her) who have the ability to spend millions without any oversight. A large glass dome, with huge maintenance costs that sits empty. City owned retail spaces have sat empty for several years due to unreasonalbe restrictions placed on any potential renter. A $20 million dollar property sale were proceeds are going to by more property for a potential ball park instead to the deficit. The list goes on and on. The cause is many highly paid individuals (council included) that do not and have not properly done the job they were given for many years and now their excuse is “we didn’t see it coming”. Their job was to see it coming, and since they didn’t they should now be held accountable.