Union Goons Archives - Page 42 of 47 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

March 30, 2011March 30, 2011Fullerton City Council

Some Numbers

It’s almost April. Our wise and courageous city council is already wading through wage negotiations with the city employee unions for the upcoming budget year. How did we get this far without adding up Fullerton’s total unfunded pension obligation? Oh well, here it goes…

Pension Plan	Total Liability	Market Value of Assets	Unfunded Liability
Fullerton Public Safety	$324,288,070	$197,444,920	$126,843,150
Fullerton Miscellaneous	$202,257,209	$136,167,010	$66,090,199

That’s a grand total of $192 million in what is essentially “pension debt” for which we have no foreseeable plan to pay, even when we include all of our future contributions and expected market gains.

The pension plans are already paying out $9 million more per year to retirees than they are taking in via contributions, so there’s no help there. But our required contributions are increasing significantly, starting this year.

With no perceivable way out of this hole, maybe it’s time to hit the road and put it all on black.

Las Vegas — I think I'm getting the fear.

All of these numbers came from the 2010 CalPERS reports for Fullerton’s Public Safety and Miscellaneous pension plans.

February 28, 2011February 28, 2011Orange County Government

911…Please Send Help Immediately!

by admin23 Comments

Here’s a bit of exciting news coming out of the County Health Care Agency that is the local entity that oversees Emergency Medical Service provision. A new trend may be emerging.

It’s about the idea contracting with private service providers for paramedic services. The model is pretty simple: the paramedic goes with the ambulance, not with one of a city’s fire engine companies, who necessarily escorts their paramedic to an accident scene then has to toodle on over to the hospital to pick up their boy who has meanwhile accompanied the private ambulance to the ER.

And never a fire in sight; a fire crew mostly just driving around in their big shiny engine, sight-seeing.

The present scenario is so dysfunctional it’s amazing that it has lasted as long as it has. And that’s a backwards tribute to the “firefighter” lobby who knew fires were decreasing a long time ago and got their foot in the paramedic door; and to the supine politicians who let them do it.

But, as they say, that was then. And this is now. Municipalities are being crushed under the burden of “public safety” salaries and pensions and the current way of doing things is apparently no longer deemed to be carved in stone.

Amen. Maybe we can all be Hero now!

February 12, 2011Local Media

Fire Heroes Strike Back at Steven Greenhut

by Travis69 Comments

Tonight’s Martha Montelongo radio show will feature author and editorialist Steven Greenhut, who was attacked this week by the International Association of Firefighters and painted as an evil front man in the battle to rein in ridiculous public employee pensions.

Here is the new IAFF commercial, which was also featured on a segment of some left wing thing called “The ED Show.” The ad replays truthful statements of Steven Greenhut along with John Stossel and Glen Beck interlaced with video of fire heroes falling down and putting people on stretchers.

The underlying theme of conflict between logic and emotion is believed to be intentional.

Tune in to KRLA AM 870 or KRLA870.com tonight at 11 pm to catch Greenhut and a few others on the Martha Montelongo Show.

February 10, 2011February 10, 2011Statewide Stuff

Boo Hoo: Chief Fire Hero Decries ‘Vicious Attacks’ Against Union Gluttony

by Travis57 Comments

Here’s a new message from Harold A. Schaitberger (yes that’s the head of the International Firefighter’s union’s real name) where he warns firefighters that “attacks on your pension plans are like a tsunami rolling across the country.”

A pension tsunami? Chief, I think you’re a little mixed up. Pension Tsunami is a famous little website that was cooked up right here in Fullerton, CA, and you probably don’t want to be spreading THAT message any further. Oh well, too late.

Our response?

I am hero and deserve.

February 9, 2011February 10, 2011Local Media

Myth Buster’s Myth Busted

by Travis20 Comments

Over the years we’ve learned that boldfaced spin and self-serving regurgitation of misinformation is a regular indulgence for those union mouthpieces over at the Liberal OC. Like most, we quickly grew tired trying to make sense of the noise emerging from the OCEA’s propaganda machine and so we’ve learned to ignore it. But every once in a while someone new comes along and gets sucked right into the blue vortex.

A few weeks ago, Chris Prevatt wrote this blurb supposedly “Busting the Myths” about how public employee pensions don’t cost us hardly anything and the real problem is… well something somewhere else. He backed that up with the audacious claim that public employee compensation only sucks up about 10% of California’s budget, a dubious statement which was then re-quoted by OCEA booster Nick Berardino in this letter to the OC Register.

Well somehow our perplexed new Friends over at UnionWatch.com stumbled upon Prevatt’s steaming pile and decided to break down this mythbuster’s logic. In a lengthy post based on conservative figures and some elementary math, the unnamed blogger discovered that the LiberalOC was off the mark by a factor of six. In fact, conservative calculations pinned public employee compensation at about 67% of California’s budget, far more than Prevatt’s 10%, putting public employees right back at the top of the lineup as a primary suspects in the case of California’s budget woes.

So nobody really knows if it was Prevatt or Berardino who initiated the transmission of this blatant error, but it doesn’t really matter. It served their purposes for a few moments and a couple of union adherents probably sucked it up and will continue to pass the falsehoods along. At least now the rest of us know better.

December 15, 2010December 15, 2010Fullerton School Board

Children of La Habra: Merry Christmas from FFFF!

by Travis16 Comments

The La Habra teachers’ union ended its strike early on Wednesday morning, just a few hours before some Fullerton Friends were set to launch an all out counter-attack on behalf of all La Habran children who have been victimized by union members for nearly a week.

Yes, it’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to strut our stuff for the crowd. But we did end up with a great Christmas card for our loyal FFFF readers! Enjoy:

And Friends, hang on to those signs. They may come in handy sooner than you think.

December 8, 2010December 8, 2010Fullerton School Board

Who’s Got the Huevos?

by Travis11 Comments

Maybe our La Habran neighbors to the north do. Their school board is now facing a strike by the La Habra Teachers’ Association, a body of both the CTA and the NEA unions. The issue? Their school board has given them a minuscule 2% pay cut and then refuses to call it “temporary.”

Negotiations had failed after several months and so the board was forced to impose increases in health care contributions as well as a reduction of 2 instructional days in order to deal with a 22% budget shortfall.

Amazing. A 22% budget hole and the teachers only had to take a 2% pay cut, and yet the union still plays the strike card.

Back in Fullerton, Superintendent Mitch Hovey has already articulated grave concern about pending negotiations, and Fullerton is in essentially the same financial straights as La Habra. It will be very interesting to see how our illustrious teachers’ union and our new school board deal with these issues.

December 3, 2010December 3, 2010Orange County Government

OCFA Lights A Match

by Travis19 Comments

As Fullerton is forced to face our own massive pension debt this year, it’s helpful to look around to see what others are doing. And then aim higher. Much higher.

Smokey-the-Bear — It all started in one careless moment.

The county firefighters’ union just conceded that new members will have to work 5 more years until they reach retirement age, allowing them to retire at 55 instead of 50. OK, so they still get a ridiculous 90% of pay and will retire at least 12 years earlier than the rest of us. But it’s a baby step in the right direction.

To begin addressing the deficit caused by current employees, union members will also pay their own portion of the retirement contributions, building up to the full 9% of pay as required by state law.

Both of these concepts could be applied to Fullerton police and fire contracts. Of course, they wouldn’t come close to solving our pension problems. But if the prima donnas at OCFA will volunteer these concessions, Fullerton should be able to do better. Much better.

Certainly this sets a new minimum for pension reform in Orange County. With soaring pension costs set to take escalating millions out of our budget next year, we must do something NOW.

Of course, we won’t let anyone forget that several of our council members have promised to tackle the issue.

mckinley-she-bear — Did I really say that?

November 24, 2010November 24, 2010Fullerton School Board

School Furloughs: Who’s Paying the Price?

by Travis46 Comments

Here’s what happens when your school board doesn’t stand up for kids:

There are now only 14 school days in November. Why? Because the school union demanded days off instead of pay cuts. Sadly, your elected trustees didn’t have the spine to go against them.

Here’s the funny part: the school closures were negotiated by our fainthearted board to prevent some sort of union strike.

So we traded days off due to a strike for… days off.

But rest assured, undereducated children… it was all done in the spirit of “working together,” and only in an effort to do “what’s best for the kids.”

November 22, 2010November 22, 2010Fullerton City Council

What Are They Doing Now?

by The Desert Rat9 Comments

biggest-hole — No. You can't dig your way out.

So who really is responsible for Fullerton’s out-of-control “public safety” pension vortex?

Here’s a handy list of everyone in the history of Fullerton who’s ever voted for the public safety 3 @ 50 pension scam, and their current whereabouts:

Don Bankhead (R) – Fullerton City Councilmember, and Mayor.

jones-gone-wild1 — Why not 4 @45? That's prit' near a hunnerd percent!

Dick Jones (R) – Fullerton City Councilmember.

Norbysleeve-500x333 — No, I don't mind dressing up like a goddam idiot...

Chris Norby (R) – State Assemblyman, 72nd District

snoopdog — The bathroom is over there, behind the wig shop.

Mike Clesceri (R) – is rumored to be working security at suburban Chicago mall.

Jan Flory (D) – tries to remain relevant by stirring up neighborhood resentment against kids riding bikes.

And there you have it. A 5-0 vote. Motion made by Flory and seconded by Norby, to go along with the most irresponsible vote in the history of Fullerton.