County demonstrates incompetence as it blows chance to restructure retiree benefits (OPEB) in negotiations with prosecutors
March 12, 2008
File under “What were they thinking!”
The Times reports today that Contra Costa County’s Board of Supervisors agreed to terms of a new contract with county prosecutors Tuesday, after 10 months of negotiations that included threats of a walkout. The deal includes 9.6 percent of mostly retroactive pay raises dating to 2006 for some of the Bay Area’s lowest-paid prosecutors. It also includes as much as $9,000 in student loan reimbursements for those who stay for five years.
AMAZINGLY…”The deal did not address retirement medical benefits. Grove called it disingenuous for county officials to bemoan steep retiree health care problems when the prosecutors were willing to negotiate a new, “reasonable” plan. Contra Costa County has one of the highest retiree health care liabilities among the state’s 58 counties, at a cost of $2.6 billion over the next three decades.”
“We were ready to negotiate it now. We were ready to give them a leg up on their negotiations with the other big unions,” he said. “For whatever reason, they refused.”
Time for the Board of Supervisors to get with the program or get out.
Video: Pinole Recall campaign makes its case to voters
January 30, 2008
Below see public comment from Jeff Rubin, with CCOP, regarding the Pinole Recall, presented at the January 29th Pinole City Council Meeting. Rubin recounts the common story (in Contra Costa County) of how city councilmembers and Recall targets Maria Alegria and Stephen Tilton are supported by union special interests looking for a big payday from upcoming contract negotiations. Rubin will appear on KPFA-FM 94, Thursday, January 31, at 7:00 a.m. Watch the video of the entire meeting.
Good evening council, staff, and people in the audience and watching on TV. I’m Jeff Rubin. At the January 10 Candidates’ Forum, Maria Alegria said her Form 460s were available to the public, so I thought I’d have a look.
I see where the International Association of Firefighters, the union representing the Pinole firefighters, has given Maria another $3,200 since January 1. That brings the firefighters union’s investment in Councilwoman Maria Alegria for their upcoming contract negotiations with the city of Pinole to $10,700 over the last four years. That’s roughly 16% of the more than $65,000 Maria has raised since 2004, most of it from special-interest groups, some of which, such as TKG Development, have contracts with the city on which Maria votes. Additionally, Councilman Stephen Tilton has accepted $3,500 from the International Association of Firefighters since 2006, including $1,500 since January 1, a period in which he did not declare any expenses. Stephen, why are you accepting money when you’re not spending it?
By contrast, Mayor Peter Murray and Councilwoman Mary Horton have accepted no money from the firefighters’ union, or any other union, during that time.
The Pinole firefighters’ contract expires in a few months. I have heard they will negotiate for retirement at FULL PAY at age 50. Can the city afford to allow ANY employee to retire at age 50, with the possibility that employee will live another 20 to 40 years, while the City of Pinole pays FULL medical benefits AND retirement pay?
Pinole is already in debt. Are Maria and Stephen willing to bankrupt the city to pay back the firefighters’ union for their massive campaign contributions? The city should pay only what it can afford to its firefighters - and to all of its employees. It’s highly unethical when elected officials accept such huge amounts of money - $10,700 for Maria and $3,500 for Stephen - from an organization whose contract they’re going to negotiate and vote on. Maria Alegria and Stephen Tilton have accepted the money. It appears that their votes have been bought. The purchase of political favors cannot - and will not -be tolerated in Pinole.
Both of them need to be recalled.
Supervisor Piepho claims BOS OPEB plan in sync with County Treasurer and Auditor
January 23, 2008
See the e-mail blast ostensibly from Contra Costa County Supervisor Mary Piepho (D-III), who, when explaining Board actions to resolve the County’s OPEB crisis, claimed:
… the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors is committed to continuing our implementation of an OPEB plan which has and will continue to include many of the (California’ Blue ribbon) Commission recommendations as well as those of our OPEB Task Force, which includes our County Auditor Steve Ybarra and County Treasurer/Tax Collector Bill Pollacek. We are getting excellent advice and putting it into policy.
First of all, we suspect this crafty missive was more likely generated on the 11th floor of the County Administration Building in Martinez for Supervisor Piepho to distribute as her own work. That’s what staff is for, isn’t it…to make the boss look good, right?
Secondly, if the OPEB picture is so rosy as Supervisor Piepho maintains, why is it that practically every non-supervisorial elected county official including the Sheriff, Treasurer, and Assessor have for the first time not endorsed a sitting Supervisor (Piepho), but her opponent, Guy Houston?
What is it that Supervisor Piepho knows—or more likely, John Cullen— that these other elected officials, including the suits that handle the money, don’t know?
Assemblyman Guy Houston to address CoCo Taxpayer breakfast meeting, Jan 25
January 16, 2008
Assemblyman Guy Houston (R-San Ramon; D-15), will address the January 25 breakfast meeting of the Contra Costa County Taxpayers Asociation, to be held at the Black Bear Diner in Walnut Creek from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m.
Assemblyman Houston will talk about the Governor’s recent State of the State message and budget proposals as California faces a $14-billion current year budget deficit, as well as the State’s structural deficit where spending increase built into legislation far outstrip the State’s ability to pay.
Executive Director, Kris Hunt, will also discuss the Governor’s Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) Commission Report just released. Meanwhile Contra Costa County has a $3 billion retiree health care liability that has yet to be adequately addressed. It is hoped that the Commission will offer some solid recommendations for dealing with both pensions and health care at the State and County levels.
The meeting is sponsored in part by Board Member Bill Baker (financial advisor, tax fighter, and former Congressman) and the firm of Baker, Welch and Mitsutome.
$15.00 Includes full breakfast and speaker. RSVP: Please make reservations by Thursday, January 24 by phone, e-mail or at www.cocotax.org. If you have questions, please call Kris Hunt at 925-228-5610 or e-mail her. Prepayment is greatly appreciated. Checks should be mailed to: P.O. Box 27, Martinez, CA 94553
Many County retirees get healthcare for as low as one cent per month
January 9, 2008
This should curl your toes… according to the County’s OPEB Task Force Report available on both the County and CoCoTax websites:
The County had 8,428 active employees and 5216 retirees and surviving spouses as of 1/1/06
The County contributes 80% of retiree health plan cost for most plan options and adds an amount equal to the Medicare Part B rate to this contribution. In many cases this means the retiree’s contribution is nominal. 60% of retirees are over age 65 and pay 1 cent a month: 40% of retired are under age 65 and pay 20% of the cost.
Eligibility for County retiree health coverage only requires that the participant be eligible for a County pension benefit.
A co-pay???… oh no, not that! What an injustice to the working people of this County!
California Legislative Analyst Office releases pension and health benefit report
January 7, 2008
The Public Employees Post-Employment Benefits Commission—appointed by leaders of the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger—released an over-300-page report this morning on pension and retiree health benefits policy for state and local governments in California.
A first-of-its-kind statewide survey identified at least $118 billion in unfunded retiree health (also known as OPEB) liabilities, as self-reported by state and local governments in California, and an unfunded pension liability for all public systems of $63.5 billion. This means that, while pension liabilities are 89 percent funded statewide, retiree health liabilities generally are not funded at all. The bipartisan commission concluded that “prefunding OPEB benefits is just as important as prefunding pensions,” and “the ultimate goal of a prefunding policy should be to achieve full funding.”
For links to the commission’s report, press release, and other materials, visit the LAO Retiree Health Care News and Reports Web site at: http://www.lao.ca.gov/retireehealth/RetSummary.aspx?id=358
Applause for Langley’s editorial in Transcript
January 4, 2008
Congratulations to Peter Langley for his Community Forum View Points opinion column in the Jan 3-08 Concord Transcript. Seemingly, for once, instead of ignoring the elephant in our living room, that important editorial space was used to talk about a critical community problem. Langley presented a thoughtful essay about the awful mess Contra Costans face in the $227-million/yr. deficit the County faces with its inability to pay for promised lifetime employee healthcare benefits (OPEB).
How will Contra Costa County pay for its OPEB debt?
December 27, 2007
Supervisors Mary Piepho and John Gioia will present this proposal to the Board of Supervisors soon. Meanwhile Rollie Katz of Local One truly believes that somehow the debt will all go away once we have gubbermint-run single-payer nationalized healthcare. Like the government would bail out existing OPEB debt. Man, what’s he smokin?
National debt grows by $1.4 Billion per day
December 5, 2007
And you thought Contra Costa County’s budget and OPEB plan was out of control…its deficit grows $1 million per day (based on a Supervisor’s work year including 13-weeks off!). Well, the Feds know how to rack up an insurmountable mountain of debt, too!
- $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States.
- Ten Trillion by the time Bush leaves office; that’s 10,000,000,000,000
- Add $2.4 trillion each for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan over next decade
- Ross Perot’s chart in 1992 was a trillion dollars low (he predicted $8 trillion debt by 2007)
- Can’t blame it all on the war: Add $2.4 trillion each over the next decade for the education monopoly, the farm bill, and corporate welfare.
Can you imagine what would happen if over the next 10 years we put $9.6 trillion back into the economy instead of down the drain?
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