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Pssst! Howd'ya Like to Retire with $300,000 a Year of Taxpayer Moolah
Oh I also forget this as part of the rebuttal to post 18. You said: "Gordon is getting more than $299,000 a year, plus 2 percent adjustment each year.Gordon is getting more than $299,000 a year, plus 2 percent adjustment each year." Beside the rebuttal comments in #28 above, this statement is wrong in another way. The 2% COLA adjustment, if granted, only applies to the pension portion of his compensation, which is NOT $299,000. All DROP payments come from a separate fixed annuity. The COLA rules DO NOT apply to the DROP annuity.— September 30, 2010 4:57 p.m.
Pssst! Howd'ya Like to Retire with $300,000 a Year of Taxpayer Moolah
#31, Hurl? Something? Isn't there a OTC pink liquid that eases the tendency to hurl? I hear it works better at higher altitudes too.— September 30, 2010 4:47 p.m.
Pssst! Howd'ya Like to Retire with $300,000 a Year of Taxpayer Moolah
Founder, How about Idaho, does that count?— September 30, 2010 4:35 p.m.
Pssst! Howd'ya Like to Retire with $300,000 a Year of Taxpayer Moolah
Response to #18. Wrong again Don. How about doing some research before typing out your emotional responses. 1. SDCERS did not authorize a COLA adjustment in 2009 because of the rules stated in number two below. 2. Each year on July 1 following the employee's retirement date, the monthly retirement benefit may be increased by applying a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). The increase will not exceed 2%. The COLA is based on increases or decreases in the nationwide Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the last calendar year, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 3. As stated above, if our economy slips into a period of deflation and the CPI falls, SDCERS has the authority by ordinance and rules set by the plan sponsor to reduce the COLA payments. 4. For the record SDCERS did grant a 2% COLA adjustment effective July 1, 2010. The Bureau of Labor Statistics measured the nationwide CPI at 3.2%. 5. SDCERS did not grant this benefit. The COLA was granted by the City, and City Council as the plan's sponsor. §24.1505 SDMC was last amended in 1999 but has been in place since 1971 here is the link to the ordinance: http://docs.sandiego.gov/municode/MuniCodeChapter…— September 30, 2010 4:34 p.m.
Pssst! Howd'ya Like to Retire with $300,000 a Year of Taxpayer Moolah
TO #24 Buck and Associates. The City has them under contract for actuarial services. To Surfpuppy: Don't make me laugh so hard. Mike Aguirre? Like he is going to produce a study that would undermine all of his ridiculous reports and lame brain litigation. Jesus, I can't stop laughing. It's idiotic statements like that from you, and Mike Aguirre's legal work product that has been laughed out of every court where he gone. But whats worse, his self-importance display and acts at the La Jolla landslide in Oct 2007, where he was acting more like a plaintiff's attorney, then the City's Attorney. That show ended up costing the city more than six million dollar in outside attorney and experts fees for an act of God. After that, the citizens of San Diego tired of his antics, fired his egocentric ass. His grandiosity the likes of which have never been seen in the city before is more than likely a sign of a deeper illness, not brilliance.— September 30, 2010 3:47 p.m.
Pssst! Howd'ya Like to Retire with $300,000 a Year of Taxpayer Moolah
You Founder you're really stuck on this $600K a day number. I'm just wondering how much do you think it should cost to run a city, providing services for 1.3 million residents, another half million visitors/travelers and about 320 square miles that includes a network of road, water/wastewater services, parks, beaches, public safety, fire, paramedic etc etc etc ? Have you compared our cost to other California cities of similar demographic and geographic circumstances?— September 30, 2010 1:13 p.m.
Pssst! Howd'ya Like to Retire with $300,000 a Year of Taxpayer Moolah
Don, In comment number 9 above you wrote "...after their car hits a pothole, they think of City "retirees" raking in $300,000 a year." According to the PDF you attached to you piece, no City of San Diego retiree earns $300,000. So the word "retirees", plural or not, is inaccurate. One retiree comes close but anyone who has done rounding with numbers would round the amount down, now up as you did. So, your sentence is inflammatory and inaccurate. I'm just wondering if you had an editor would they let that go without questioning it and you? While I understand your personal gripes about the pension mess, you offer no balance whatsoever about the employee you chose to singled out in your story. Mr. Eugene Gordon, a 39.11 year employee for the City of San Diego ended his career as an Assistance City Attorney in the Civil Division. If you will a position second in command to our elected City Attorney. He earned a "pension" payment of $185,203.14, which includes a preservation of pension benefits provision, provisions enacted by the Plan Sponsor, the City of San Diego, of $70,510.44. So his actual pension payment is $114,692.70. He is 69 years old and, as I mentioned, worked just over 39 years for the city. During those years he saved the City and the taxpayers' ass millions of dollars in civil litigation costs and judgments. I realize passions are quite high when it comes to these issues. But when those passions color the words of a professional journalist, one has to step back and think. In my opinion, accuracy in reporting should be job one, while fairness plays a role too. Both you and your stories are more credible when you do so. Otherwise, label it as an Op/Ed piece or tabloid journalism.— September 30, 2010 11:53 a.m.
Pssst! Howd'ya Like to Retire with $300,000 a Year of Taxpayer Moolah
Oh and by the way, for the record, no San Diego city employee hired after July 1, 2005, gets access to DROP Program or employer paid Retiree Health Care.— September 30, 2010 11:20 a.m.
Pssst! Howd'ya Like to Retire with $300,000 a Year of Taxpayer Moolah
Instead of all this speculation and innuendo, guess we'll just have to wait for the City to release its DROP cost analysis. Remember it has been City management, not the employees, who have delayed the study for what, ten years now? The study may show the DROP program is not cost neutral as required by the controlling Ordinances. Then again it may show when all costs are properly calculated it saves or the City makes money on the program. No one really knows. But if we examine just the last fiscal year, SDCERS made 13.1% on its investments which include all the monies in the DROP Pool. DROP annuities are fixed payments over time certain periods. The interest rate ranges between five(5)to eight (8)percent depending on when you purchased the annuity. That means the City/SDCERS earned between 5.1 and 8.1 percent or the margins during the last fiscal year, and those earning LOWERED the City's UAAL. And, yes, before my good friends Billy/Johnny/Surfpuppy and Don ripped me to blog shreds, this example is only for the most recent fiscal year. That's why I began this comment with why don't we stop the speculation. According to the Mayor's office the study is in progress and should be published early next year. It's also part of the requirements of Prop. D so if it passes and they want to start the higher sales tax, the City must publish it or, if nothing else, convince Mr. Luna, the City Auditor, the study is complete.— September 30, 2010 11:17 a.m.
Richest 20% Get 49% of County Income; Poorest 20% Get 4%
Here's some interesting info I found about the Middle Class... it is about three years old so adjust as appropriate: The U.S. Census Bureau breaks down the reported household incomes into quintiles (or five divisions). In 2007, the middle quintile reported an income range of $36,000 to $57,660. Many economists and politicians alike believe this range is too narrow to encompass the true middle class of America. Therefore, a more generous range would include the middle three quintiles, which makes the range from $19,178 to $91,705. This range accounts for 60 percent of all households, and with the lower end balancing near the poverty threshold, this range may not be completely accurate. Median Income The 2008 census reported the medium income as $50,233. The PewResearch Center suggests that the middle income range is 75 percent to 150 percent of the median income. This would make the middle class income range $37,675 to $75,350. To most, this range seems small, and surveys conducted by the PewResearch Center find that many who fall outside this range still consider themselves middle class. Read more: What Is an Average Middle Class Salary Range? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5212740_average-middle-… And here's the link to the PewResearch Center report...again the report is from April 2008, so things have gotten worse so make adjustments as appropriate: http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/706/middle-class-… One of the most interesting parts of study is well down the page and also has a very telling chart about how Median family wealth has grown in recent decades. The biggest gains by far have been made by those in upper income groups.— September 29, 2010 7:29 p.m.