OC REGISTER SPIKES BALL TOO SOON ON PENSION ISSUE

On Sunday the OC Register recognized Fullerton Councilman Shawn Nelson’s lone stand to protect the Fullerton taxpayer against a proposed employee pension spike plan that was being discussed behind closed doors last summer. Register Editorialist Steve Greenhut commended Nelson for saving Fullerton from an underfunded pension disaster of the sort that is bankrupting California cities like Vallejo. Click here to read article.

Poor Steve! He spoke too soon! This Tuesday the very council that chose behind closed doors to accede to union demands last summer will now conduct a hearing to approve the proposed pension increase.

The vote should be fairly predictable. Union water bearers Dcmocrats Sharon Quirk and Pam Keller plus quasi-Republican Don Bankhead are safe votes for the increase, which is all that is needed for passage. More entertaining will be the action of Mr. Dick Jones, another iffy Republican who previously supported the proposal, at least until the GOP Central Committee got wind of it. Then he changed his tune. Now that he has been re-elected it will be interesting to see if he will keep the promise made in order to keep the Republican endorsement, or if he will once again flip back to his natural inclination of giveaways to public employees at the taxpayers expense.

The issue is Item #14 & 15 on the meeting agenda. The Council will meet at 6:30 Tuesday night at City Hall. Public participation is strongly encouraged by Friends For Fullerton’s Future.

13 Replies to “OC REGISTER SPIKES BALL TOO SOON ON PENSION ISSUE”

  1. The foxes are guarding the henhouse.

    You are right about Doc Heehaw. He can vote no and still get what he wants: there will actually be some pressure on him from some of his die-hard supporters (the ones that pretended he was conservative during the campaign). But boy of boy it would sure hurt not being able to be a team player! So maybe he’ll go along for the ride.

  2. Now that I think of it, one of Joneses big supporters last fall was The Observer. And of course they won’t be happy until the public employees can get 3.0 at 40.

  3. follow the cronyism. some of F. Observer friend’s and supporters are city employees whose nebulous job titles makes me believe this position was spun from the air. shawn nelson could unravel the city council’s perplexing behavior by simply looking at the city’s job titles

  4. Shawn Nelson couldn’t unravel his own tangled shoe laces.

    One of these days real soon this blog will have to do an article on how come Shawn misses so many votes on downtown issues.

  5. Call a Spade a Spade. I’ve been wondering myself when FFFF will put the spot light on Nelson, I mean Casper? He should resign and let Ralph Baker take his seat.

  6. No Nelson should just get a competent reading on his so-called conflict of interest, and if necessary get rid of it.

    Then he should grow a pair of ‘nads and start voting in the public’s interest instead of his developer buddies’.

  7. May I spike the ball now, Tony? By the way, as Chris Norby pointed out in the Fullerton Observer, Sharon Kennedy’s endorsement of Jones helped defeat left-wing Democrat Karen Haluza. Jones took the right position on the pension spike — it’s the first time I’ve heard him sound like a conservative. Had Haluza been on the council, the dynamics would have been different. So it’s arguable that Sharon Kennedy’s strong support for a Republican helped us defeat this horrible pension increase. Maybe we should thank Sharon along with Shawn!

  8. Yeah, Puff ‘n me are so glad we may still be able to retire at 67. Too bad we didn’t get gummint jobs.

  9. Steve, now you can spike the ball. By the way, had it not been for you, Fullerton would be in a financial meltdown. I also agree that Sharon Kennedy was a key to this victory in a strange way. I will consider a new post thanking her for her contribution to Friends For Fullerton’s Future!

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