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City Pension Fund Is Only 58 Percent Funded, Council Will Learn Tomorrow. Will It and Mayor Listen?
The VoSD had an interesting take on this today. They noted that Sanders had a plan to borrow $574 million by putting city assets up for collateral such as the downtown police station. Aguirre nixed the deal as illegal because the proceeds would not be used for the assets being put up as collateral. If Sanders had gotten his way (which he would have if Goldsmith was CA), the pension fund would have invested that money and would have just lost 20% of it (probably even more by now). Aguirre directly saved the city $115 million dollars that Sanders would have pissed away.— November 12, 2008 8:40 p.m.
City Pension Fund Is Only 58 Percent Funded, Council Will Learn Tomorrow. Will It and Mayor Listen?
Fred and Johnny, I am not sure what happens if the city defaults on the stadium bonds, but it begs the question of how come budgets like the SEDC and CCDC haven't been pegged for large cuts.— November 12, 2008 12:45 p.m.
City Pension Fund Is Only 58 Percent Funded, Council Will Learn Tomorrow. Will It and Mayor Listen?
Richard, Why is it that the Libertarian Party can gain no traction? I understand the mechanisms that have been put in place by the reps and dems to prevent the emergence of any third party, but aside from that why is it that most people I know that aren't ardently partisan dems or reps express views that most closely would align themselves with libertarians, yet those same people tend to view the libertarian party as a bunch of dope-smoking, open-border anti-tax nuts?— November 12, 2008 7:42 a.m.
City Pension Fund Is Only 58 Percent Funded, Council Will Learn Tomorrow. Will It and Mayor Listen?
Response to #5: How in the world is it legal for the city council to vote themselves benefits way out of scope with what is provided to a typical public employee? My understanding is that they also have an abnormally high multiplier to go with the "early" retirement age. There is no way that should be legal.— November 11, 2008 8:30 p.m.
Goldsmith Memo Proves What Many Suspected: He is not the Sharpest Tool in the Shed, and is Tool of the Mayor
Answer to my own post #4: Apparently the quote was from a lawyer in the city attorney's office and not directly from the Goldsmith memo. The perception comes from the fact that the City's Labor Relations secretary reports to Sanders, so submitting a resume to them is essentially running it past the mayor for approval. Aguirre said he hoped that was just an oversight on Goldsmith's part and not the real intent.— November 9, 2008 7:22 p.m.
Goldsmith Memo Proves What Many Suspected: He is not the Sharpest Tool in the Shed, and is Tool of the Mayor
Don, Is the following a quote from the letter, or the interpretation of the lawyer in the office. I can't believe Goldsmith would be stupid enough to put into a memo anything like the direct quote below: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> But most significantly, "The person from whom you are seeking continuing employment is not Jan Goldsmith, but a person serving at the pleasure of the mayor," says another attorney at the office. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<— November 9, 2008 11:12 a.m.
Goldsmith Memo Proves What Many Suspected: He is not the Sharpest Tool in the Shed, and is Tool of the Mayor
Response to post #1: Don't hold your breath. Goldsmith has already stated he has the the jurisdiction to bring and drop cases WITHOUT asking permission from the council, and has already said he would do so in at least one case. From Will Carless of the VofSD: "Jan Goldsmith just told me that he decided to drop Mike Aguirre's foreclosure lawsuits without first consulting the City Council because, under state law, he has jurisdiction to either bring, or drop, such lawsuits without the blessing of city government. ... "It's at my discretion, I have direct authority under state legislation for consumer remedy litigation," Goldsmith said.— November 8, 2008 9:37 p.m.
Good News: SDCERS Discussing Lowering Interest Rate on DROP Account
JF, I have heard reference to a huge health care liability hanging over the city's head, but I really know nothing of what the city's responsibility is for providing health care to retirees. Do you know how the system is set up? For instance, in the discussion of a firefighter getting cancer, is there a difference in what the city health care system would pay for depending on whether it was work related or not?— October 23, 2008 10:42 a.m.
Good News: SDCERS Discussing Lowering Interest Rate on DROP Account
JF, I will also say that asking public employee unions to make concessions for the good of the city is a lot like Sanders asking San Diego to conserve water for the good of the city. People are indignant at being asked to conserve water while at the same time the city is issuing development permits left and right, and is not even hooking new developments and city properties up to the gray water purple pipe system. The attitude among many residents is why should I sacrifice to conserve if all the benefit goes to developers? Likewise, I have found an attitude among city workers of "everybody else is getting theirs so I am going to get mine". There is no guarantee in San Diego that reducing the pension problem would do anything other than allow the politicians to hand out even more to their cronies. I understand the attitude, but instead of backing fiscally responsible candidates to reign in the problem, the unions back irresponsible candidates so they can get their cut, which just exacerbates and perpetuates the problem. Somebody has to make the first move, and it is not going to be the self-interested developers. I think the only hope for San Diego is for either the public unions to develop a social conscious and act for the greater good of its members and the community, or for the democratic party to completely divorce itself from the public unions. If we don't elect fiscally responsible politicians that the unions trust and will work with to reduce the pension and health care cost to the city, then San Diego will go bankrupt and the unions and their members ultimately will lose.— October 23, 2008 8:44 a.m.
Good News: SDCERS Discussing Lowering Interest Rate on DROP Account
Response to #46: JF, I realize that not all police officers with an AA degree retire with a full pension based on a chiefs salary before they even turn fifty, then get jobs at more than their final salary leading local charities while simultaneously pulling their full pensions. That said, the shorter the window between retirement and death the more DROP costs the system, so if police officers retire later it just makes the DROP program even more expensive If firefighters do not in fact have a shorter life span, then the argument for letting them retire early goes away, as does the argument for a higher multiplier. In fact, since both fire and police are well paid in the first place (especially their last years), their pensions are already relatively high and don't require a higher multiplier. I believe the healthcare issue is actuarially moot, since almost everybody will have expensive health issues before they die of one kind or another. Canada did a study years ago that showed smoking actually saves the government money, because smokers die much closer to retirement (saving pension dollars) and die relatively quickly after getting sick (saving health care dollars). That study didn't get much play here where the claims of increased health care costs have led to draconian cigarette taxes. (full disclosure: I have never smoked and can't stand to be near somebody smoking.)— October 23, 2008 8:12 a.m.