Posts Tagged Patrick McKinley
Dissecting McKinley’s Phony Pension Reform
Posted by Travis Kiger in Fullerton 2010, Fullerton City Council Candidates, Union Goons, Watch Your Wallet on September 1, 2010
The other day we challenged retired police chief and $215,000 public pensioner Pat McKinley to put some real meat behind his dubious claim that he will “work to reform public employee pensions.”
Over the weekend we discovered a letter posted to McKinley’s website purporting to declare his position on pension reform. Exciting… until we read it. The letter actually commits to nothing and woefully understates the changes necessary to even begin correcting this problem.
Just say anything
Let’s run through Pat’s suggestions one by one. It’s important to note that McKinley’s letter says pension reform must contain ONLY ONE of the following:
Increase the amount contributed to the plan by Employee Contributions – Necessary, but wholly insufficient. While giving taxpayers some breathing room, demanding employees pay a little bit more does nothing to address the core issue, which is the unsustainable nature of pension guarantees when combined with the power of public employee union lobby. By itself, this change only slightly delays the pain.
Increase the amount contributed to the plan by Employer Contributions – Unbelievable. Increasing employer contributions is another way of saying we should raising taxes to pay for pensions. So now it would be safe to say that Pat McKinley wants to raise your taxes, but it’s really hard to believe he would write anything this dumb. For now, we’ll just assume that he has no idea what he’s talking about.
Slow the accrual of pension benefits by returning the formula to its previous level - Legally a change like this change can only be made for new employees, which would do nothing to address the massive unfunded liability that we have already accrued. Furthermore, it leaves the door wide open for future abuse when the unions become more powerful.
Slow the accrual of pension benefits by increasing the normal retirement age to reflect the longer life expectancies of our City employees – Same problem as above. The commitments we’ve made to current employees cannot be changed without a bankruptcy. The only lever we really have left salary and to a lesser extent, contributions. Cut salaries, raise employee contributions… or go broke.
Slow the payout of retirement benefits by lowering the Cost of Living Adjustment in retirement – The cost of living adjustment is about 2% a year. Reducing that, if it’s even legal in California, is hardly enough to sustain hundreds of public safety employee’s earning 90% of their final year’s pay for the next 30 years. And once again, there’s nothing to prevent another band of RINO’s from reinstating this benefit the next time CalPERS overstates its assets.
So what have we learned? McKinley has thrown out a bunch of half baked ideas to fool you into thinking that he wants pension reform, but it really boils down to almost nothing useful. And of course, even after writing this letter, McKinley has not committed to any pension reform.
Woefully inadequate
We’ll say it again: Taxpayer-funded defined benefit plans must come to an end. The private sector learned long ago that they are completely unsustainable and also unnecessary. All new employees should be given defined contribution plans, while current employees should be made to pay as much as possible towards their own retirement, in order to mitigate the damage caused by their own unions and CalPERS through deception and poor planning.
The $215,000 Man Blurts Out “Pension Reform”
Posted by Travis Kiger in Fullerton 2010, Union Goons on August 24, 2010
The other day we had a look at Pat McKinley’s ballot statement and something surprising popped up. Well, not really. Squeezed into the middle of his I-riddled statement was the curt phrase “I will work to reform public employee pensions.”
That's what they told me to say.
That’s a vague assertion, and frankly it’s hard to believe when it’s coming out of the mouth of one of the pension system’s most noted abusers – a double-dipping bureaucrat who pulls down well over two hundred grand per year in retirement thanks to a ridiculous 3-at-50 pension system that’s now bringing the city to its’ knees.
So what does McKinley mean by “pension reform” anyway?
It’s hard to tell at this point. That’s good for Pat; bad for the rest of us. You see, as long as he can keep all this pension reform talk clouded in empty platitudes, he can pretend to be a reformer and maybe nobody will notice that he hasn’t promised to really change anything.
So Pat, here’s the gauntlet: You need to commit 100% to serious pension reform. That means two things:
- A mandatory 401(k)-style plan to replace the defined benefit for all new hires
- Current safety employees must pay the full 9% towards their own retirement, as required by state law.
Take a look at our city’s unfunded pension liability and do the math. Any lesser reform will amount to nothing more than a laughable gesture to taxpayers, ensuring that even more pain awaits us down the road.
The $215,000 Man
Posted by The Desert Rat in Fullerton 2010, Repuglicanism, Setting The Bar Low on July 5, 2010
What valuable piece of manpower is worth paying over $200,000 per annum not to do anything?
I'm your man...
If you guessed former Fullerton Police Chief Patrick McKinley you’d be right on the money. If there was ever a poster boy for out of control police pensions it would be Chief McKinley. See, the big guy pulls down a cool $96K a year from his old job at the LAPD that he’s been collecting since he left 17 years ago; then there’s the $118,000 he now rakes in from CalPERS, presumably from his time as Fullerton’s top cop.
Yipes! $215,000 a year in pension receipts; or about $18,000 a month; or $4100 every single week. More than he ever earned actually working. For the rest of his freaking life. If he lives another 20 years that’ll add up to $4,300,000 on top of what he’s already got, not counting cost of living increases.
Why is this important, apart from the obvious illustration of public safety pensions run amok? Because the word on Commonwealth Avenue is that Mr. McKinley is being promoted for City Council appointment to replace Shawn Nelson by Don Bankhead and Dick Jones – two other public pensioneers, one of whom is also a former cop.
In the RINO world of Bankhead and Jones this sort of thing is just hunky-dory. But for a lot of people – liberals and conservatives alike, the thought of this massive double dipper making pension decisions that affect Fullerton taxpayers is reminiscent of the fox guarding the hen house.
And of course we also remember McKinley as the police vest carney and vocal backer of the hideous Linda Ackerwoman creature.
Sorry guys. No sale.
Sordid Cop Tales: Former Police Chief McKinley Loves Sheriff; Climbs Into Bed
Posted by The Desert Rat in Dead heads, Orange County Government, Repuglicanism, Setting The Bar Low on January 8, 2010
10:50 Update: TDR forgot to add this little gem from the Register’s Jennifer Muir about Hutchens sending a helicopter to an LA cop chili “cook-out.” Wonder what Pat thinks about that use of public resources! – Admin
A recent Fullerton Observer article reported on some sort of “Women in Leadership” event and started out describing how Fullerton’s former Chief of Police introduced “surprise guest, ” appointed OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens in glowing terms and indicated his unreserved support for her election campaign.
Go ahead, punk. Make my day.
We’re not at all surprised by this enthusiasm since McKinley has been reported as having post-retirement political ambitions, and has already demonstrated his connection to the local Reguglican establishment by his endorsement of the fraudulent Ackerwoman campaign.
Apart from political ambition, though, something more sinister flits through the shadows of the McKinley endorsement of Hutchens, and that is McKinley’s apparent ingrained approval of high-handed and unaccountable police behavior. Despite McKinley’s contention that Hutchens has “turned things around” after the departure of the deplorable Mike Carona, there is precious little evidence that any institutional attitudes have changed at all. In fact, quite the contrary. From examples of in-house secrecy and stonewalling, mistreatment of citizens, to even spying on elected County Supervisors, the Sheriff’s Department has shown itself to be the same old operation as ever. The only difference is that now Hutchens is running cover instead of Carona.
Ba da bing! (wacky graphic swiped from Orange Juice Blog)
The latest example is provided by the OC Weekly’s Scott Moxley, here. It seems a couple of deputies were caught fabricating testimony about threatening a suspect during a Disneyland area drug bust at a preliminary hearing. The DA later dropped most of the charges against the guy who had been arrested; correspondence from the DAs office to the Sheriff about the problem were simply ignored. The deputies involved not only seem to have escaped disciplinary action, but have been awarded medals for valor for a Costa Mesa drug bust that supposedly occurred on the same day as the other arrest!
Here’s Moxley’s curt summaton:
The sheriff, who has promised to restore deputy accountability in the wake of the Mike Carona corruption scandals, refused to be interviewed for this story. Her command staff and media-affairs team repeatedly blocked my attempts to reach Catalano for comment.
Anyhow, in case we needed any other evidence, we now know exactly what kind of police management our former Chief admires, and we ought to remember that when and if he decides to run for office.
In Fullerton It’s Only Over When Staff Says Its Over
Posted by Jan Florys Dog in Boohooism, Dead heads, Dick Jones, Don Bankhead, Fullerton City Council, Fullerton's Design Standards, Pam Keller, Redevelopment, Repuglicanism, Sharon Quirk, Shawn Nelson on December 24, 2009
I don't mind being led around just as long as I don't know where they're taking me!
A few items in 2009 have caused me to reflect on the way things go in Fullerton, the way things have always gone, in fact. My poodle friends have a saying: la plus ca change, la plus c’est la meme chose. Man, that’s Fullerton all over!
In Fullerton, no screw-up, no cluster f, no civic disaster ever goes away if the city staff doesn’t want it to. They’ll dig in their heels and start the ol’ push-back as soon as it looks like something they really want is about to get torpedoed.
Consider the absolutely horrible decision to relocate the McDonald’s outlet at a jaw-dropping cost of six million bucks. Not even the most compliant council could swallow that one, and ours pulled the plug on it (so we thought, foolish us!) last summer. But within a a few weeks, the Redevelopment staff cooked up a “new” plan for the brainless “Fox Block” scheme. And guess what? It too, involved relocating McDonald’s – just not all the way to the corner. Geez, wasn’t anybody paying attention? That episode was so bad that it really crossed the line of insubordination. But did anybody on the council say a word? ‘Course not. This is Fullerton!
Of course the real problem is is the sort of people that we keep electing to the City Council. The mentally lame, the incompetent, the inert; people who by political and personal inclination identify with the bureaucracy instead of the citizens and taxpayers of Fullerton; people who dodge responsibility. Of the current crop, only Shawn Nelson really seems to take offense at being lied to and led around by the nose like a prize bull. And speaking of bull, Sharon Quirk seems to have finally realized that her advisors have their own agendas that more likely than not are incongruous with the interests of the rest of us. Well, that’s some progress, anyway.
What will 2010 bring? More of the same, no doubt. This is Fullerton. If there’s any hope for us the brain-dead gerontocracy must go. And by gerontocracy I mean the ossified geriatric thinking displayed by councilmembers of all ages, and the interests they represent. Of course Bankhead must go. Jones, too. And Keller. But if they’re replaced with stooges like Marty Burbank or Pat McKinley what the hell’s the difference?
Well let’s throw out a few issues to track to see how bad, or good, things will be in 2010 as far as accountability goes:
Will the council finally once and for all end the Fox Block scam?
Will Keller, Quirk, and Nelson stick to their promise to put the issue of term limits on the June ballot?
Will the council quit wasting time and energy on the idiotic Transportation Center master plan?
Will the council give up on the bogus Redevelopment expansion?
Will the council ditch the moronic “at-large” members of commissions altogether?
Will the council demand accountability on the UP park scandal before they sink another dime into more Redevelopment of it? Will they tell the city manager to quit making unilateral policy decisions?
Will the council have the courage (very little required really) to forget the useless UP ROW “trail”?
Will the council quit subsidizing and encouraging illegal behavior by downtown bars and dance halls?
Well, really, the list is endless and the Friends could no doubt supply their own favorites. Bon chance!
With The Fringe On Top: Most Entertaining and/or Disturbing Image of 2009
Posted by Jan Florys Dog in About Us, Fringie Awards on December 16, 2009
We use a lot of graphics here at FFFF, and some of them are entertaining and some even a bit, well, disturbing. To recognize the more engaging pictures on our site we nominate the following in the category of Most Entertaining and/or Disturbing Image of 2009.
Can someone please open a window?
1. Matthew J. Cunningham, who actually posted this picture of himself on his own blog. We borrowed it often and mercilessly.
Suddenly I was on the floor looking up at Officer Rubio.
2. From the News Tribune’s ace reporting about Chief McKinley’s vest, we present Officer Rubio. Say, Rube, can you get a matching handbag for that?
Nothing says "screw you" like a beer bottle in the face.
3. This gem was mined from a youtube clip showing the confrontation of CBS/KCAL reporter Dave Lopez and our old pal Dick Ackerman. The gift that keeps giving!
Gut punch on the way...
4. 2006 Miss Fullerton & Don Bankhead. She would soon trade in her tiara for a set of brass knuckles.
Bon appetit!
5.This tasty little morsel was served up in the final post about the City Lights SRO debacle. It is now a staple in the Dick Jones pantry.
Friends Around the World...
6. Here’s a family portrait of Papuan Highlands Headman B’rni (Barney) Wewak, a foreign exchange student at Troy High School in 1974. We have been favored with several posts by Barney in 2009 and look forward to more in the year ahead.
It's a bird, it's a plane...
7. Finally, we round out our nominees with this image of Jan Flory, my former mistress. I wish she had always been in such a good mood. We gave her cooking sherry for Christmas.
More Fringe Recognition: Government Small Change Adds Up
Posted by Jan Florys Dog in About Us, Fringie Awards on December 16, 2009
Although the worst governmental bureaucratic bungles and miscreance often costs millions, some are relatively inexpensive and can be brushed off (by the perpetrators) as small change. But these small change expenditures have to be paid for by somebody, and that somebody is you and me. And it all adds up. Quickly. Anyhoo, here are the nominees for the 2009 Government Small Change Adds Up Fringie Award.
1. County Deployment of Certified Helment Fitters. We can’t even calculate the wasted time and resources, and it probably isn’t very great. Still the whole thing was such a wonderful example of a decent idea (giving poor bike riding kids safety helmets) that quickly metastasized into a typical farce. We did get to learn, however, that Pam Keller is a certified helmet fitter. Front. Back. Got it?
2. Roscoe’s Famous Nuisance “Sound Study.” This little gem cost the city (us) $16K, and was a part of a plan to let Jack Franklyn keep playing amplified outdoor music. The “study” was performed by BonTerra, a land use opinion for hire, and not a qualified acoustical engineer. It all came to naught when the council finally decided to stop a very long pattern of looking the other way to multiple Municipal Code violations.
3. Red light camera legal fees. As a subset of another category we include this one. over $14,000 to attorney’s Jones and Mayer who lost the red light camera lawsuits. Well, that’s not so very much, is it?
4. Chief McKinley’s Cop Vest. We hear it was developed on lots o’ company time, but the cost to the taxpayers came in another form, too. A $100,000 stimulus grant in Obama Bucks bought a bunch of these vests for McKinleys own cops. Loretta Sanchez took the credit for these vests that cost twice as much as their predecessors. Still, they do have pockets for your penlight and your house keys. Decoder ring accessory optional.
This episode did create a wonderful image that is being considered for a Special Fringie Award. No hints. Use the link!
The Ackerwoman for Assembly Hall of Shame
Posted by admin in 72nd Election, Chris Norby, Dead heads, Dick Jones, Don Bankhead, Fullerton School Board, Repuglicanism, Victory on November 22, 2009
On another thread Fullerton School Board member and seemingly clueless Ackerwoman supporter, Minard Duncan, popped up like a milk weed to question our apparent dislike of his fellow Ackerwoman cheerleader Mimi Walters.
This jump started an earlier idea to publish the names of all the lackeys, stooges and repuglicans who signed onto Ackerman Inc.’s Big Lie Tour of 2009.
This is a list of the elected officials that decided their best interests lay in the endorsement of Linda Ackerman for the 72nd Assembly District. Enjoy the asinine quotations at the bottom of the page and be sure to pick out your favorites on the list for special attention. We have helpfully highlighted in red the names of politicians in whose elections Fullerton voters will get to participate.
- Congressman Ed Royce
- Congressman Dana Rohrabacher
- Former Congressman Bill Dannemeyer
Statewide Elected Officials
- BOE Member Bill Leonard
- Former State Secretary of Education and Mayor of Los Angeles Richard Riordan
State Senators
- Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth
- Former Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte
- Former Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman
- Former Senator Marian Bergeson
- Senator Mark Wyland
- Senator Mimi Walters
- Senator Bob Huff
- Senator Bob Dutton
- Senator George Runner
- Senator Sam Aanestad
- Senator John Benoit
- Senator Abel Maldonado
- Senator Dave Cox
State Assemblymembers
- Former Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines
- Assemblyman Jim Silva
- Assemblyman Joel Anderson
- Assemblyman Ted Gaines
- Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher
- Assemblywoman Diane Harkey
- Former Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher
- Former Assemblywoman Sharon Runner
- Former Assemblyman Tom Bordonaro
- Former Assemblyman Openmike Duval
- Former Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer
Orange County
- Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens
- Orange County Supervisor Pat Bates
- Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell
- Orange County Supervisor Janet Ngyuen
- Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas
- Former Orange County Supervisor Cynthia Coad
Anaheim
- Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle
Fullerton
- Fullerton Mayor Don Bankhead
- Fullerton Councilmember Dick Jones
- Former Mayor of Fullerton Buck Catlin
- Former Mayor Leland Wilson
- Former Mayor Peter Godfry
- Former Mayor of Fullerton Jerry Christie
- Former Mayor of Fullerton Linda LeQuire
- Former Fullerton Police Chief Pat McKinley
Placentia
- Former Placentia Mayor Scott Brady
- Placentia Councilmember Jeremy Yamaguchi
Orange
- City of Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche
- City of Orange Councilmember Mark Murphy
- City of Orange Councilmember Jon Dumitru
Yorba Linda
- Yorba Linda Mayor Mark Schwing
- Yorba Linda Councilmember Jim Winder
Villa Park
- Villa Park Mayor Pro Tem Bill Mac Aloney
Brea
- Brea Mayor John Beauman
- Brea Councilmember Roy Moore
La Habra
- La Habra Councilmember James Gomez
- La Habra Councilmember Steve Simonian
- Former La Habra Mayor Juan Garcia
- Former La Habra City Councilmember John Holmberg
Elected Leaders
- Tustin Mayor Doug Davert
- Tustin Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Amante
- Laguna Hills Mayor Joel Lautenschleger
- City of Covina Mayor Walt Allen
- Newport Beach City Councilmember Steven Rosansky
- Capistrano Unified School District Trustee, Anna Bryson
- Fullerton School District Trustees Maynard Duncan, Ellan Ballard, Hilda Sugarman, Lynn Thornly.
“Having called North Orange County her home for over 30 years, Linda is by far the most experienced and effective candidate for Assembly. She is a respected leader who will restore dignity to the office while fighting for Orange County values.”- Former Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher
“Linda has been a steadfast conservative leader in Orange County for many years. She will be ready to lead on the important budget issues facing the region and the state on day one.”- Assemblywoman Diane Harkey
“I am proud to stand by Linda in her campaign to promote conservative leadership and higher standards to the California State Assembly.”
- State Senator Mimi Walters.
“Linda Ackerman is an experienced leader who has proven her dedication to the community time and time again, I am proud to support her campaign for State Assembly because I know she will be ready to lead on the issues our state faces on day one after being elected.”- Senator Bob Huff
“Linda Ackerman has always done what is right for the sake of the community, not political gain. She is a proven leader who will help solve California’s budget crisis and bring Orange County values to the State Assembly.”- City of Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche
“Linda Ackerman is an experienced businesswoman and community leader who I trust to help balance the budget and rein in out of control spending in Sacramento. North Orange County needs Linda in the Assembly fighting for real budget reform.” – Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle
“We need an experienced leader who will fight for North Orange County. That’s why I’m supporting Linda Ackerman for State Assembly,” Fullerton Mayor Don Bankhead
“When it comes to the safety of our children, Linda Ackerman will never back down.”- Former Fullerton Police Chief Pat McKinley
“I wholeheartedly endorse Linda in her campaign for Assembly. As a businesswoman and community philanthropist she has been an active leader in North Orange County and is by far the best person to represent us in the Assembly” -Yorba Linda Mayor Mark Schwing
Paid For by Ackerman for Assembly 2009, FPPC ID #1321372
Ex-Chief McKinley Unleashed Bad Cop
Posted by Travis Kiger in Behind Closed Doors, Big Brother on October 7, 2009
Officer misconduct cases are usually handled behind closed doors, hidden away from the public who are ultimately the victims when cops go bad. Recently a document slipped out from underneath the curtain and gave us some insight into Chief McKinley’s department, which had a habit responding to officer misconduct by looking the other way and pressuring victims to stay silent — demonstrating brazen contempt for the rule of law.
Officers John Cross and Gregg Nowling were caught on tape in the 2005 beating of a young man who was pulled over for playing his music too loud. Fearing outrage, the department refused to release the recording to the public. Nowling resigned, but John Cross was the president of the Fullerton Police Officers Association (the union), so he decided to take his chances and ride out the punishment that was sure to be nothing more than a token admonishment from his friendly boss, Chief Patrick McKinley.
I'll just pretend I didn't see that.
John Cross should have been fired and sued, but a deal was allegedly struck with the victim in which charges would be dropped if the young man kept quiet. This allowed the department head to give Cross a mere slap on the wrist – a two step demotion in pay for the next two years.
When nobody was paying attention, Chief McKinley eliminated John Cross’ punishment one year early:
The record shows that almost immediately, John Cross began another series of disturbing actions that ultimately forced the department to fire him. The Council found one example most frightening – Officer Cross had covered up an incident involving a drunk off-duty sheriff who was brandishing his weapon in public. He also failed to follow up on a potential suicide when it was only a few doors down from his location. At least six of these events involved Cross’ turning off his audio recorder in violation of department policy.
There are plenty of other allegations of McKinley’s department looking the other way when incidents were perpetrated by those the department favored, and this is only one of the most severe. As one of our commenters said, McKinley’s game was played at the the expense of our community’s safety, peace, and tax dollars.
800 Pound Gorilla For Council in 2010?
Posted by The Fullerton Harpoon in Fullerton 2010 on October 6, 2009
A while back Congressman and purveyor of lousy RINO city council candidates, Ed Royce, was overheard bragging about the 800 pound gorilla he was going to be unleashing on Fullerton political scene. Who was this electoral juggernaut? None other than now former Police Chief Pat McKinley.
He's big. He's bad. He's baaaaack!
With McKinley’s endorsement of Mrs. Ackerman to replace her disgraced pal Mike Duvall, the pieces all seem to fit. It looks like McKinley has indeed decided to run for City Council next year and has worked out an endorsement swap with the Repuglican elite.
The choice of McKinley on the part of the Repugs would in no way be surprising. As an ex-cop he could be counted on to secure the law ‘n order vote as well as charm the bluehairs. He’s getting up there age-wise, and in poses zero political threat to the Repug machine. Who cares if he is an ex-city government employee and likely to go along with every staff proposal and boondoggle? He would be following in the proud footsteps of Don Bankhead, Dick Jones, Leland Wilson, Mike Clesceri, Julie Sa, Peter Godfrey, Buck Catlin, and even Dick Ackerman himself. Who knows? Maybe even the Yellowing Observers might go along for the ride. After all they went with Dick Jones, right?
Best of all, he’s not a female Democrat, the hideous monster that inhabits Ed Royce’s closet at night.
Oops! Ed's left the closet door open again...
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