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San Diego mayoral debate abruptly canceled...due to pension truth?
(oops - double post)— October 28, 2013 10:48 p.m.
San Diego mayoral debate abruptly canceled...due to pension truth?
Of course there is a reason not to pay a janitor $500k a year - it means there is less money for other things. In the case of a private company, this might mean money for R and D, or profit, or paying off debt, etc. In the case of a public entity this means more money for goods and services for the citizens. Any fiscally responsible employer certainly should attempt to hold down salaries and benefits. For a public entity, it is the job of the elected officials to negotiate with employees to spend as little money as possible for the best services possible. Within reason, it's public officials' job to pay public employees as little as possible - any other philosophy is grossly irresponsible for a public official to have. Maybe some of the money paid to public employees comes back to the municipality (I think that's what you are implying) but it's not 100 cents on the dollar so it's still a loss to the taxpayer.— October 27, 2013 9:19 a.m.
San Diego mayoral debate abruptly canceled...due to pension truth?
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, after a successful ballot initiative (prop B) to help rein in San Jose's pension problems, is now pushing for a statewide ballot measure http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci…— October 26, 2013 10 p.m.
San Diego mayoral debate abruptly canceled...due to pension truth?
There's got to be a better way to manage risk than the way it's been done. I think you are on to something although I don't know what the exact financial mechanism would be. Even for private companies I think the incentives for prudent risk vs. reward decisions have been distorted a lot in recent years by bailout-mania.— October 26, 2013 2:11 p.m.
Detroit's "laughable" pension tomfoolery akin to San Diego's
I think that may be because policy makers put the cart before the horse. Instead of making policy decisions intended to help the economy and expecting financial markets to benefit as a consequence they might make policy decisions intended to help the financial markets, expecting the economy to benefit as a consequence.— October 26, 2013 7:23 a.m.
San Diego mayoral debate abruptly canceled...due to pension truth?
I think Aguirre's philosophy as city was attorney was that he worked for the citizens of the city of San Diego and his prime objective should be doing what's best for the city of San Diego. I think that many members of the city council felt that the primary objective of the city attorney should be to provide legal representation to the city council members. While in principle both of those objectives are part of his job at many times those objectives may be in conflict - especially if a city council member has done something unethical or potentially illegal. As a citizen of San Diego, I feel Aguirre's priorities are the correct ones and I would support him as mayor.— October 25, 2013 10:28 a.m.
Detroit's "laughable" pension tomfoolery akin to San Diego's
I think we also tend to look primarily at US indices (Dow, S&P, NASDAQ, previously Amex too - maybe a couple of others) and not consider international indices. I'm not sure if it's reasonable to assume that U.S. returns - even over a long period, say100 years, are going to be a good predictor of future returns. The U.S. economy had a hell of a successfull 20th century economically. The country rose to be the world economic and political superpower, and many technological revolutions took place largely in the U.S. I'm not a doomsday guy predicting our demise but I don't know if it's realistic to predict the same kind of rapid skyrocketing economic growth for the next 100 years of the US economy that occurred during the last 100 years.— October 24, 2013 9:19 p.m.
Detroit's "laughable" pension tomfoolery akin to San Diego's
So even if we somehow accept that 8% annual return is a reasonable expectation there were clearly be some volatility so some years will have less than 8% return, requiring taxpayer contributions to the fund. This is completely obvious to anyone. Was this not accounted for properly?— October 24, 2013 9:12 p.m.
San Diego tourism lags other California cities
L.A.'s infrastructure isn't exactly pristine either. I think the occupancy rates in S.D. may just be due to overbuilding of hotels, especially in downtown.— October 23, 2013 9:50 p.m.
City attorney Goldsmith boasted how he worked on Filner ouster for 8 months
Ah yes, here is the part of the 5th Amendment (the Bauder version) which you must be referring to ... "nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, OR REMOVED FROM THE MAYORS OFFICE without due process of law". I wasn't familiar with the capitalized part of the 5th amendment but I'm not a legal expert.— October 22, 2013 9:48 a.m.