Is Wisconsin Battle Headed for California?
Pension reform was already on the table here in California
before the Wisconsin public employee union protests, but now in the glare of
the national spotlight pension reform could become a major focus of the budget
debate. Governor Jerry Brown said he wants to look at public pension reform, but
he does not want to tie it to the tax extensions and weigh down the ballot. He
may no longer have a choice.
The Wisconsin standoff – with minority Democratic
legislators refusing to step inside state borders and create a quorum so that
the majority Republicans can pass the reform bill – represents a budget battle over
public employee benefits that will occur in many states across the country.
State budgets are being squeezed, unemployment is steady, services provided by
government are being slashed, and reductions in government employee benefits
will have to be part of the solution.
Is Walker a Wimp?
Unions are portraying Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker as some
sort of dictator for his proposals to demand more pension contributions from
public workers and to roll back collective bargaining. Conservatives are
hailing him as brave.
But, judging
by the details of his proposal, Walker may be a wimp.
Walker’s
pension rollback is particularly hollow because it exempts the group most
responsible for the mounting pension obligations in his state and around the
country: law enforcement. Cops and firefighters are specifically exempt.
If that
sounds familiar to Californians, it should. Meg Whitman talked tough on
pensions, but also didn’t apply her proposals for pension reforms to law
enforcement. The difference: her opponent and the media called her on it.
Walker has gotten a free pass, at least on this point.
Reapportionment commission looks to be fiasco in the making
Winston Churchill is famous for commenting that democracy is
the worst system of government, except for all the others. Well, for those critics of reapportionment by
legislation, we may have stumbled on something worse-reapportionment by the
clueless.
Let me stipulate that I am not a cheerleader for leaving
reapportionment solely in the hands of legislators. I think that the last
incumbents-only reapportionment was a big mistake. That said, this cure may be worse than the
disease.
Reapportionment is complex and tricky stuff. It’s easy to draw compact districts with
equal population, but those districts are likely to result in the
disenfranchisement of some constituencies and wholesale disregard for Voting
Rights Act standards. Following
municipal and county boundaries sounds good but may end up leaving some
socio-economic groups stranded in districts where they have no voice.
Union Targeting City Management
With Wisconsin’s Governor and Republican legislators trying to repeal the state’s collective bargaining law for public-employee unions, as well as requiring state workers to pay some of their pension costs, Sacramento’s former head of labor relations, Dee Contreras, is now trying to organize a labor union of city managers and other highly-compensated administrative workers.
The practice of former city managers and upper management city executives crossing over to the other side of the negotiating table appears to be growing, despite the strong push back by voters and private sector.
Contreras retired in December right before her department was consolidated into the city’s human resources department.
Targeting upper management, assistant city managers, investigators, administrative analysts and staff aides, as well as the city attorney, a list of the jobs that Contreras plans on including in the new union are available here.