Comments by Fred_Williams | San Diego Reader

Fred Williams

San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing

Mr. Wondering (or is that Ms?), I saw that article too. Damn! I should have stuck to politics instead of switching to IT in the late '90s. As noted above, public employees don't just make more in salary, they get great benefits and the best retirement outside the corporate board room. Most of all, they cannot be fired except in extreme situations. Even when the city or state claims it's making layoffs, they actually cut planned or budgeted positions...slots used for accounting gimmicks...rather than actually fire anyone. What a difference there is in the rest of the economy. Jobs are being lost all around us, and many of these jobs won't ever come back. There's little or no money for re-training (see the Economist article from a week or two back) while unemployment and COBRA are both more symbolic than substantive. A lot of people would pay a premium to be protected from this, taking cuts in pay, working longer hours, doing more with less in exchange for security. But public employees, shielded from the harsh reality the rest of us face, expect MORE salary and benefits, often with less work. It will indeed be interesting to see what role the unions play in upcoming negotiations, but judging from the kind of hardball we saw in the recent elections (remember how they betrayed Donna Frye?) I don't expect progress unless there are changes. JF, please, please get up in some faces downtown. You and I disagree on many things, but you'd be a big improvement compared to what we have now. Thanks, Fred
— January 14, 2009 3:44 p.m.

San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing

Well, we've come this far...shall we go to 400?
— January 14, 2009 3:33 p.m.

San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing

Yet more reason to have a thorough discussion of what we pay for, and what we get for the money: http://www.reason.com/news/show/130843.html "State, local, and private pension plans covering millions of government employees and union workers with “defined benefit” accounts are teetering on the brink of implosion, victims of both a sinking stock market and investment strategies influenced by political considerations." San Diego seems to be a particularly egregious example. Precisely because of union boss participating in corrupt deals originating in the mid-90s, most coming from the devious mind of Golding's City Manager, Jack McGrory, we are in now dire straits. JF and James aren't the problem. They are at least participating in a conversation about these issues. The problem is that we won't have the money to continue paying the obligations the city entered into under corrupt administrations. This means firefighters, and all other public employees, are not going to get what was promised to them. Our overlong discussion hear on the hiring and training of potential firefighters is interesting, but really beside the point. We're broke. Our investments have all tanked, and look to get even worse. We cannot keep our promises to city employees, though we seem to have plenty of money for sports barons. Revenue will be decreasing for the next few years. So something must be done. For JF and James, the question is very relevant and personal. They would like to keep some version of the status quo. I do not wish to disparage them, or belittle their stake in this crucial situation. But I strongly disagree that the status quo is acceptable. It cannot last, and the longer we wait the worse it will become.
— January 13, 2009 4:06 p.m.