The 2009-2010 budget passed with full support of the Council in part by draining the City’s reserves (the economic uncertainty reserve has only enough funds to cover 1.5 days of payroll now) and by the negotiated/voluntary salary freezes by two unions CAMP and MEF (thank you).
In the case of MEF the money saved can be used to avoid layoffs and retain library hours. This tradeoff is good for residents and good for those who would have been laid off, since they would face a job market that has the highest unemployment rate since 1941.
No structural changes were made by the Council that would lower the structural deficit over time. Next year’s budget will be even more of a challenge and next month we might have another budget shortfall since the State is considering raiding local coffers.
I find it interesting that the Legislature gets elected by city residents but then they choose to take citiies’ money. This resembles a bully who takes kids lunch money on the playground.
The big story last week was that the council spent two plus hours talking about the Operating Engineers Union (OE3), last best and final offer in open session. Prior to the council meeting we had spent hour upon hour in closed session discussing the 35 negotiation points starting back in December 2008.
After 17 meetings over six months between the union and city negotiators an agreement could not be reached—on not even one of the 35 negotiation items could the city and the union agree. So, with the budget deadline, and realizing that dollars saved on a zero salary increase could keep the park rangers employed, the Council made a last and final best offer on just four out of the 35 negotiation issues. The words shared between the city and the union in the public public relations war were not necessarily pleasant. All of this because there is zero sunshine on labor negotiations.
As I mentioned in a prior post, I believe labor negotiations should be conducted as public meetings or at the very least, videotaped to be shown at a later date. Since so much time gets wasted in the back-and-forth of «he-said» and «she said»—this does not add value in fixing issues for San Jose residents but rather is a time-consuming and hair- pulling frustration. The back-and-forth is reminiscent of playground rumors that get blown out of proportion.
There are strong feelings out there right now on the labor side of being upset with city management and in turn the council. Instead of wasting valuable time listening to the rants of city staff and the unions, we need to make labor negotiations public and we need to do it now.
Start sending out termination notices to OEO members, and maybe they’ll be smart enough to tell their union reps to get reasonable. And if they aren’t, oh well.
#1. How about getting somebody else on the City’s Negotiating Team who will actually negotiate rather than dictate. This is supposed to be a mutually agreed upon contract.
The union is reasonable, the city is not.
ps. nice attitude…. “oh well” would you say oh well to a pay cut for you and your family…… I think not. And, that is the attitude of most well to do folks like yourself who think that unions are too powerful or that city employee’s make too much money.
Your not in a position to make judgements on issues or circumstances you know nothing about.
Have a nice day.
Our State Legislature forgot about residents as soon they get to Sacramento. They operate in a different world. Sad to see they cannot make hard decisions and force their way on cities.
Yes please make union negotiations public and stop the back and forth. The grand jury report on the Fire department union is an example of why public disclosure would be best.
#2—not so ernest a beginner. Yes, I would say OK to a pay cut, if it meant saving the jobs of my fellow workers. Actually, I have done that twice in my life.
You, on the other hand, want to keep your raise, even though it would mean several of your co-workers might lose their jobs. So, I’d guess you have seniority, so you’re safe…right? Let your buds go down the tubes. You keep your raise (which is a raise “earned” by your living another year on the job).
#2, Hello Ernie,
Please don’t argue with “Judge JMO”, he knows best: We don’t need no unions, if those guys won’t work for peanuts, let them draw unemployment. Get rid of the new hires first so they won’t be vested for retirement pension.
We don’t need police, let the County Sheriff do it, less bureaucracy (haven’t you seen Gunsmoke – one deputy sheriff with peg leg should suffice). If problems get out of hand call for Clint Eastwood or form a vigilante committee (San Jose has plenty experience).
We don’t need City parks, the kids all play in the streets anyhow.
Sweat jobs for juveniles; they’ll be too busy and tired to join gangs.
Catch kids doing graffitti, cut off their pinky finger (I think they do that in Chicago, the cleanest city in USA).
We don’t need ballet, symphony, mariachis, tyco, Shakespeare, ballet. You can watch that kind of stuff free on PBS.
Close city gates at 11PM, good people should be in bed by that time. Pacific Grove used to do that and no liquor sales either, remove temptation!
Keep out riff-raff tourists. Only those staying at Fairymount and DeCanca spend any money at all. TOT taxes are discriminatory against rich and should be unconstitutional.
Kick out illegals. Prison labor will do quite nicely, potholes shall be filled pronto!
Use funds saved for building bridges, plenty of room for homeless and foreclosed under them.
No more expensive elections. San Jose has a good set of former Irish and Japanese-ancestry politicians. Just like judges, appoint them for life!
Any questions?? Don’t bother- we know best!
BTW, really well to do folks don’t live in San Jose, they live in the hills with a view of San Jose. Some have beach houses in Monterey, Pajaro Dunes or Santa Cruz (saves on air conditioning) or live on yachts!
La Dolce Vita in San Jose, Calif.
#2 >> “Your not in a position to make judgements on issues or circumstances you know nothing about.”
1st: It’s ‘you’re’, not ‘your’. You’re welcome.
2nd: How are we supposed to know about it if the negotiations aren’t public? I think you’re making Pierluigi’s case for him, if you ask me (note correct use of ‘you’re’.)
SO P.O.
WHY DID YOU HONOR OUR X MAYOR WITH 6 MILLION BIG ONES, WHEN “YOUR” ANSWER BETTER MAKE SOME SENCE!!!!!!!!!!!
D.O.A.
#7
You are a broken record.
The farmers market was deliberated in public unlike union negotiations.
#8—true, but you miss the point. The Farmer’s Market has been around for years. Or are you calling Tom McE’s latest venture a farmer’s market???
What do the acronyms CAMP and MEF stand for ?
So, what would it take to make the meetings public, or at least videos made available ?
Is this covered by the Brown act ?
Re: Ernest Beginner & Badcat,
You see what the taxpayers get in return for our generosity? An army of spiteful, angry, civil “servants” who are contemptuous of the people who pay their salaries.
Kinny,
thanK you fo’ the coreksion. Sumtimez my fone makes it hard to tipe. Im glad that we had a skool teachur in the groop to wach for speling erors.
Notice I never agreed or disagreed with PO. And it doesn’t make his case one way or another. Just my opinion which according to jmo is way off base. Yes, I have seniority but that’s not the point. The city has not been able to guareentee (spelling error) that those jobs will be saved in leiu of raises. Until that is in writing nobody will be on board with it. Additionally, if the city get their (notice the correct usage versus there) way all the city workers will get a zero percent anyway so I can’t lose what I don’t have. Again, your not informed. (Kenny, sorry for the run on sentences but it’s hard to have to always put in a period I’ll do better time I promise)
Have a nice day.
Some Unions are better than others. I come from back east where the Unions WORK with business and even own shares in the company. They seem to have a mutual respect and work together in hard times. City workers in the state of Connecticut offered to take one week’s pay cut a month to help keep their fellow employees on the job and to save their own jobs. And yes, they are Union.
Having said that there is much truth in some of what Badcat says. Non-union companies can offer government and business things that just plain Union employees can’t. It is called a much bigger profit margin, and cheaper materials! (Not always a good thing.)
Over the past 5 years, I’ve noticed a real attack on Unions. There seems to be a very real effort to get rid of them all over the US and that concerns me. Private industry takes advantage of employees, has huge profits, and discards their workers with little to no regard; hence the new and profitable increase in outsourcing jobs over seas. The tax breaks, and profits to these companies are just mind-boggling. I feel it plays a big part in why and how our economy is in the crapper.
I’d hate to see Unions become extinct. If you look back at why Unions were formed in the first place you’d know that the only reason you can not be put in sweat shop conditions, or go without many of the privileges you now have on the job, Union or not, came from those efforts. I do think some Unions need to stop hard balling employers when things are this bad, and I think employers need to stop taking advantage of employees during these tough times too. It is all about give and take to get through the tough times, and these my friends are really bad times.
When a transaction occurs in the private sector, it is to the advantage of both parties, otherwise (by definition) it wouldn’t take place. Whether it’s buying a product or working for compensation, both parties choose to engage. If one party is unhappy with the terms, the transaction will not occur or cease to continue.
Demonizing “private” industry (is there any other?) for choosing who they hire, setting the terms/form of compensation, and making money is incredulous. If groups of employees want to band together to protect the jobs of their weakest members, or lobby for better compensation, by all means do so. But they must be prepared to face the potential consequences.
The attacks on unions these days are because they don’t engage in private transactions, there is no mutual benefit on the other side of the transaction, and there are no consequences for their group decisions. Most unions, albeit not all, feed at the public taxpayer trough, which we all know leads to waste and corruption.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Unions represent 12% of the US workforce. It would appear 88% of the US workforce is NON-Union. If we take government jobs out of the 12% number then my guess is that less then 6% of the US workforce is represented by Unions.
Re: #15
“I think employers need to stop taking advantage of employees during these tough times.”
A couldn’t agree more.
“I do think some Unions need to stop hard balling employers when things are this bad”
But do you think there is a possibility of the POA balling the city? They recieved numerous raised in recent years and now that their practices are under criticism and the city is broke, it certainly seems their turn to squeeze the belt like everyone else.
But is there a possibility that their recent release of a controversial video, penning of newspaper editorials and website launch, are really just attention grabbing and sabber rattling in order to bolster their position at the bargaining table and advocate that they *not* share the pain that the city is now facing and take wage cuts??
I think its very probable.
I think the city workers should be subjected to layoffs and possible pay cuts during these difficult financial times.
Having said that, Mr. Oliverio has become somewhat of a one trick pony in his continuous blame of this financial mess on the city workers.
Has he forgotten about the boondoggles of the past few years where billions have been pissed away by city leaders on ridiculous and frivolous projects? Our city would not be nearly so bad off if we had back just some of the money spent on a new city taj mahal, car races, golf courses, social engineering projects, etc etc etc.
It is reasonable that Mr. Oliverio expects city workers to renegotiate their contracts. I think though the method he has chosen has demoralized and stigmatized many hard working employees of the city and only polarized the two sides, and hardening the unions resolve to protect what it has. It seems like a poor negotiating tactic when getting two sides to see eye to eye.
Given the ridiculous projects the city has spent money on what guarantees are we getting from Mr. Oliverio and the rest of the council they have agreed to stop funding such? Doesn’t seem like they have gotten the message either. Can anyone say “Mariachi Festival”? Mr. Oliverio seems to be looking for a place to deflect blame, in my opinion.
I also agree with Kathleen #15 that unions have served an important place to all workers. Because of unions they have historically raised working standards for everyone unionized or not.
Pierluigi Oliverio, and the city council fail to mention they imposed the contract through a vote in council.
I understand that there currently is alot of animosity targeting unions due to the current economic times. Unions are easy to demonize to get one’s opposing point of view across.
Then again these guys such as Pierluigi Oliverio are politicians and due to term limits want to run in future elections
and basically are liars or less than forthcoming with the truth.
They know there is nothing labor will offer them since it appears we opted for cheap goods made overseas and labor we hire at homedepot. corporate gifts and influence make better bed partners for local politicos.
OE3 never asked for a pay increase and offered to take a work forlough that would have been effectively a 5% paycut.
Reason council imposed the contract was
A. They could, makes good press and sends a signal to the only 2 unions that have binding arbitration, Police and Fire.
B. Wanted language that would take away an
employee’s right to challenge a disciplinary action.
Just the facts, doubt if Pierluigi Oliverio,
would deny it.
Adam,
Steve has hit the nail directly on the head in #19. City leaders have spent millions of dollars carelessly. No matter how many pay cuts employees take, or lay offs happen, if over spending by the City doesn’t stop, we will never get out of this mess. You only have to look at the State to figure that one out. I say we need to bite the bullet, reign in over spending, and take a good hard look at priorities. If we don’t nothing will ever be resolved.
PS
By the wat, the POA did make some big consessions to help solve the problem.
Detroit
I used to work in Hi-Tech, where we would go to trade shows all over the country in convention centers.
Our crates would have to be found, brought to our booth, our display assembled, all by union labor. Though we knew how to put the booth together, we could not “touch” a thing. They did not know how to put the booth together and we would have to direct them. It was like building a small house.
The boxes could be delivered, but not unpacked and brought into our booth, that was another “union workers” that handle that. The lights would be hung, but we couldn’t turn them on, because another “union workers” was in charge of them, the builders wouldn’t touch them. Each had their role, and wouldn’t cross – they wouldn’t even turn on the lights. That was for “electrical”, and we’d have to wait (sometimes for hours) for them (and pay).
Building a booth would take up to 2-3 days.
My job at each city was to walk around with a pocket full of $20 to give to the union workers to get them moving. We’d find our boxes, $20 to encourage them to deliver them within the hour (so they could start). $20 to the fork lift driver. $20 to the steward to get our labor once our boxes were at our booth. A $20 to get electrical to check the lights so we could go back to the hotel rather than wait hours. Sometimes $20 to the steward to have him watch over our competitors to make sure they don’t start building their booth themselves (just to piss them off).
I know these are different unions we are talking about here, but I experienced this for over a decade throughout the country. There a certain way to hand out bribes. But if you didn’t do it, you boxes came at the end of the day. You got the worst help when they did show up much later than you boxes, and they never built a booth before (they do hire day labor and you are paying union wages by the hour), while we stand around watching them.
Good times.
Pierluigi,
How much is the city paying for the “Green Mobility Project” (4 LED street lights, charging and cooling stations) across the street from city hall. With all the construction workers, the cost must be high. What is the source of the funds?
#1 Layoffs would have been the alternative for the Park Rangers who are covered by OE3 if the Council did not move forward with Last, Best & Final Offer.
#2 Another reason to have labor negotiations as public meetings. If the city negotiating team is not being fair the public deserves to know.
#7 I blogged on this topic 06/30/08
http://www.sanjoseinside.com/sji/blog/entries/how_do_you_want_redevelopment_money_to_be_spent/
Since that vote Blake’s, Spiedo and the Tied House closed at San Pedro Sq. The real questions now that the loan and sidewalk improvements were approved by the council 10-1, how long will it take for it to get through the planning department.
#10 City Assoc of Management Professionals and Municipal Employees Federation
#11 I believe it would be simply passing a new council policy
#13 Yes the Council imposed the Last, Best & Final offer on OE3. If the 17 negotiation meetings were public over 6 months I do not think the Council would have imposed.
#19 Fiscal responsibility is not only on wages and benefits but also on spending. Local government can only spend money on services that it has revenues to cover so it should only provide services that it is mandated to do.
public employees should not be allowed to unionize
No question that unions once served a very important purpose. Today, though, their main purpose is to extract money from their members for their pension fund.
Also, could someone remind me what “big concessions” the POA made to help the problem? Was it getting rid of unnecessary items like the mounted unit? No, that wasn’t it. Was it something else? Please remind me.
Pierluigi,
Would you address the concessions that the POA made in assisting with the budget problem? Thanks.
Mad Hatter,
The Mounted Unit is a vital necessity. One Officer on a horse takes the place of 10 in crowd control. The Mounted Unit also is trained to find missing children lost in the woods, or parks like Alum Rock Park. Thanks to Denelle Fedor and her fund raising efforts, the Friends of the Mounted Unit will be raising the $225K needed for the Unit. Had the City gotten rid of this unit, these Officers would have been reassigned to other duties. No money on their salary would have been saved.
Public safety was the number one priority expressed by citizens. Money for frivolous things like festivals came nowhere on the list of priorities, by the majority of citizens poled or that took part in public forums held in every district.
Also, if we lose Unions I think you will be very surprised to see how many of the rights, protections, and salaries you now enjoy disappear. Be careful what you ask for because you just may get it~
Kathleen informs us that “The Mounted Unit also is trained to find missing children lost in the woods, or parks like Alum Rock Park.” You mean no cop on foot can find a lost kid? Gimme a break, K. And just how often has that happened in the last ten years?
She also informed us that:” One Officer on a horse takes the place of 10 in crowd control.” This ain’t Tehran, Kathleen, or Berkeley. How many riots/year do we have in SJ, besides Cinco de Mayo?…and even that one went away.
These guys just ride around DT all day. Yeah, the kids they bump into like to pet the horses, and that’s cool for them, but 365 days a year they add virtually nothing to public safety. The bicycle unit was far more effective @ public safety DT, but that sems to have gone away for the most part.
And the horses shit all over DT. The cops eat lunch @ various DT establishments. They tie up their mount just outside the eatery, and the poor animal stands in the sun for an hour or so, and takes a dump right outside the restaurant you’re eating in. Great!!!
The guys that would get re-assigned could actually do something useful, instead of playing Lone Ranger or Cowboy Bob; and the cost of feeding/housing/med. care for the horses would go away.
If this unit is to be kept, it should be privately funded.
#26, I absolutely agree. And in addition to trade shows, I share a couple of stories from a summer job helping a showroom prepare for a show.
1. We needed to paint a couple of panels on a booth. No big deal, 2 pieces of 4’x8’ plywood. Couldn’t find a painter, so we grabbed some paint & brushes and did the job. As we walked to the janitor’s closet to clean up, a painter walks up to us and asks what we were doing, and where we were from. We led him back to our store, where he started bitching at the manager. The problem was solved when the manager pulled out his checkbook and said, “why don’t you come into my office and let me get your name on a piece of paper?” Guy left smiling.
2. We needed a hand lift to move some sets around. Another temp & I went down to the basement where there were several forklifts sitting idle. We asked the guy in charge if we could take one. No dice, they were all spoken for. We went upstairs & related the experience to the manager, who asked us to follow him downstairs. As we went, he pulled out a 20, folded it up and palmed it. A handshake later, we left, hand lift in tow.
Is this unique to union folks? Probably not, recent history suggests that it works with politicians, as well. Are all union folks doing this. No, just like not all politicians behave like Terry Gregory.
#15 is correct, unions deserve credit for a significant amount of our quality of work life. But further improvements are becoming marginally incremental, and one must ask if they are worth the cost.
Worse is the perception of entitlement that the public has regarding our city’s employee unions. The unions’ willingness to make concessions in this environment has been refreshing (especially in light of the council’s bungling of their own pay concession). Hopefully this spirit of cooperation for the common good will continue (and I agree with C. Chavez that the dialogue needs to be ongoing).
#28 Hello JMO,
Have you ever thought following the police horses and collecting their droppings?? You could use the stuff for fertilizing your lawn, if you steam it you can grow fine mushrooms in your basement. When stored and dried long enough used as fuel in your fireplace, perfect for those long cold Silicon Valley winter evenings.
You seem to like horses and ponies; surely you can come up with many other uses for this natural organic substance.
Since the material is free for the taking, think of the money you save to offset pesky high taxes.
The added benefit is the sweet aroma that will remind you of the good old days when San Jose was the “Valley of Heart’s Delight”.
You might even reconsider and suggest the Police Dept. get more horses to replace police cruisers that are expensive to purchase, maintain and operate. The mounted officer sits high up to better observe the area than a cop sitting in a car watching an LCD screen while munching on donuts.
Here in SurfCityUSA police are without horses, they do have some bicycles, motorcycles and ATVs. I suspect they’ll soon be using electric bicycles, similar to the lithium-ion battery powered ones at Costco for about $900. They are perfect for cruising the River levy and maintaining order among the homeless.
The Sheriff’s Posse uses horses, but never seeing droppings they must have been specially trained to hold it in until they return to their stables. I think they call their horses TT’s (toilet-trained).
After they’re done, there are rumors that Jack O’Neil uses the glue to manufacture warm wetsuits and fine surfboards. The Irish seem to be most ingenious.
2trickpony of Santa Cruz
JMO- Are you taking grumpy pills or something? Come on Johnmichael, you know very well that a Police Officer on foot is trained and can find a lost child, but an Officer on a horse can get through terrain much easier and quicker. Kids or elderly folks wander off and get lost more than you know. Ask any Park Ranger.
You also know they sit up higher and can see things bike riding or foot Officers can’t. We have a lot of festivals in SJ and crowd control is necessary. (I’ve been to a few of these festivals and they can and do get rowdy.) And God forbid we have little children bonding with SJPD through petting a horse! We want them terrified of the Police like Raj claims they are. And they are far more environmentally friendly than any car, bike, or scooter!
Horses in the sun? God forbid a farm animal is in the sun! These Police Officers take excellent care of these horses, and their droppings provide minerals and food for other creatures. I do think they should use dropping bags like in SF, but hey a little poop never hurt anyone. And JMO, EVERYONE deserves to take a break to eat.
As to cost, you can’t complain it is costing you as a tax payer anything anymore JMO because my understanding is that Ms. Fedor’s non-profit is collecting funds to do just that. I have already donated and I hope the rest of you do too.
K—I’m always grumpy when I hear nonsense from intelligent people. Could a cop on a horse find a lost kid faster? Who knows? But how many times does it happen in a year that a kid is lost in Alum Rock Park? So, you want to pay them 365 days a year for something that MAY happen once or twice in a decade? And besides, the mounted patrol never goes to Alum Rock Park anyway. They just hang around DT SJ sitting on their horses and accomplishing ZERO.
cut city employees pay and retirement. Cut many city jobs and reassign them to existing city workers. There are to many city employees. Renegotiate unions contracts. Cut city employees number of holidays and vacation days. They need to work more days and do more work when at work. Police overtime should be subsidized by who uses them. Again, retirement benefits for city employees must be reduced. Use certain people who are in jails to pick up trash, clean up graffiti, perform public works. The city needs to function like a real business. Cut the fat!