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San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
If Goldsmith drops the appeal the case is over. He has not said yet if he will drop it or continue it. By dropping the appeal the trial court's ruling becomes a final disposition.— January 2, 2009 11:26 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Response to post #58: Yes, but would the top-level bureaucrats take pay cuts? Doubt it. Best, Don Bauder =========================== When the leaders do not take cuts-BIGGER cuts than those they want the peasant workers to take then there is no credibility and the plan is not going to fly. We ar seeing this at the state level right now-the state legislature wants huge tax increases but refuses to make their own cuts-they have bought new cars, increased staff levels, given out huge raies to those at the top of many agencies....it just rubs people the wrong way-and by people I mean the little guy getting slammed with higher taxes and no benefit. Carl DeMaio has reduced his staff and expense level and is asking for the entire SD City council to do the same-that is a good start.— January 2, 2009 8:12 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
I took that to mean that they lost their appeal-"they did not succeed". the 3 unions were granted their leave to appeal in late October and filed their opening brief Dec 1st with Vallejo having until 01/05/09 to file their response. ======================== The trial/BK court found that Vallejo was BK. That was indeed appealed by the unions to the BAP-and that appeal is pending. No one in the legal community expects it to succeed though-in fact the only ones who seem to think they have a chance are the unions- and that is wishful thinking. The BK judge, in his 53 page opinion (which I have linked here before), laid out a very methodical, detailed and pretty much unimpeachable case that the city qualifys for the Ch 9 BK. I can't post that link until I get my computer back.— January 2, 2009 8:05 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Also, according to the OC Register, the county informed labor leaders that all 4,218 workers at the SSAgency will each be required to take up to 80 hours of unpaid leave over the next six months. ============================= OK, I goofed that one up. I thought a large number were getting canned.— January 2, 2009 8:01 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Johnny, so by pension spiking, you mean the city losing a lawsuit which required it to increase benefits? Think maybe a BK judge might take that into account? ======================================== JF, SD has not lost any pesnion case, no case is won or lost until a FINAL ruling as been entered. There has beenno final ruling-everything is on appeal. SD has pension chalenges based on conflict of interest laws, OC has challenges based on CA constitional requirements banning "gifts of public funds" by paying spiked pensins for work already performed-both cases are at least 2 years from a decision-minimum. So your claim that the city has lost their penson lawsuit is not accurate.— January 2, 2009 8 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
JF, You're right. OC didn't cut employee benefits while in bk. They did however get rid of a couple of thousand employees about 1/2 of which came from social services departments. ============================ How many did OC lay off, or have plans to lay off, last week in at the SS department?? I think it was 2,000. Exactly as 1994 it appears. I would suggest that anyone earning over $100K take a 10% pay cut, and increase the % as the pay goes up-that is something no gov official has suggested at the city, county or state level. It is very fair and no one gets laid off to strain the already overburdened social services system. Full emloyment at a reduced wage is far superiour than retaining the 6 figure emoloyees and cutting $40K, $50K and $60K employees.— January 1, 2009 7:59 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Do you have something other than anecdotal evidence that payments are not being made that you can share? ---------------------------------- The pension bill is not being paid. Sanders stated he was going to put $600 million into it to shore it up, and he only put in $163 million-$100 million of which was a tobacco lawsuit windfall. So that alone would be enough for BK IMHO-especially considering the fact that it is only going to get larger, not smaller.. I would also suggest when the infra structruture cannot be maintained, bills/debts cannot be paid. As for the Vallejo decision, the judge has ruled they have met the standard of Ch 9, and I have a link, but my comuter is being worked on and cannt post it until it gets back next week. The decision is under appeal to the BAP, which is going to uphold the BK judge IMHO (99% sure). The next BK hearing is set for February-and that is the hearing that where the judge will decide if the labor/pension contracts get tossed-he has postponed it a number of times already to see if the city and the unions can work someting out-they cant.— January 1, 2009 7:52 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Johnny makes some interesting comments about OC. Know the one thing that wasn't cut at all? Yep, employee benefits. ===================================== JF-there were no pension problems in 1994-they didn't have the spiking until 2001 in OC-and after they spiked they added $500 million in unfunded pension costs and are once again facing BK. So you are corrct-no pensions were cut in 1994-because no one was retiring at age 50 getting full pay and healthcare. Lets compare apples to apples, not oranges.— January 1, 2009 7:42 p.m.
Cheap History
Yep-Bun E Carlos was chain smoking when I saw him in 81 and every now and then the cig would go flying and the sparks from the head would flow all over the area by the drums-that guy could pound those drums with authority! One hell of a great drummer..................He is the one I vividly remember from Cheap Trick.— January 1, 2009 3:26 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
"The functions of the bankruptcy court in chapter 9 cases are generally limited to approving the petition (if the debtor is eligible), confirming a plan of debt adjustment, and ensuring implementation of the plan. As a practical matter, however, the municipality may consent to have the court exercise jurisdiction in many of the traditional areas of court oversight in bankruptcy, in order to obtain the protection of court orders and eliminate the need for multiple forums to decide issues." I read the 2nd section as saying that any court action beyond approval, confirmation and implementation is up to the city. ======================================== The court apears to be able to void all contracts- and prepare a plan which the muni can afford-which is what is going on in Vallejo. The last sentence states that the muni can allow the court to oversee it's management and operations-at the muni's request-appoint a receiver or some sort of oversight manager. I don't see that happening for San Diego-the council won't give up their power to wreck the city all over again. When OC filed BK in 94 they actually came back much faster than they thought they would. They tightened their belts up and really watched their expenses. One thing I remember they did to save money, and this was typical of their approach, was the paving of streets. They used to repave every 4 years, and they changed that to every 5 years, cutting their expenses by 25%-they did things like that all through the county-really worked out good for them in the long run.— January 1, 2009 3:18 p.m.