UT City aims to cut pension benefits
Hildabrand said the city's contribution to employee retirement benefits will increase this year by an amount to be determined in June.

Carlsbad participates in CalPERS – the California Public Employees'Retirement System – a state agency that pools investments of 2,500 public agencies and oversees pension benefits for 1.6 million public employees.

John Bartel, an actuary familiar with CalPERS, said some pension formulas encourage employees to retire at their most productive age.

ETA Note: Encinitas also participates in CalPERS.

CJ The Great GASB: A new provision discloses how much we really spend on public-sector employees.

...Confronting the reality of unfunded pension and benefit obligations is deepening the crisis of confidence already shaking municipal finances. Last week, the chairman of the budget and finance committee of Stockton, California’s city council said that the city should consider filing for bankruptcy protection in the face of an $18.5 million budget deficit. Two smaller towns north of San Francisco, Isleton and Rio Vista, also appear on the brink of bankruptcy.

The culprit, of course, isn’t GASB 45 itself but the ugly reality that it exposes. There are 22.5 million public-sector employees in the United States. The average state and local government employee now makes 46 percent more in combined salary and benefits than his private-sector counterpart does, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute—including 128 percent more on health care and 162 percent more on retirement benefits. Four out of five public-sector workers have lifetime pensions. Paying for such lavish treatment is difficult; in 2007, Credit Suisse estimated that state and local governments owed more than $1.5 trillion in unfunded health-care and non-pension benefits. Further, the market meltdown has erased $1 trillion from municipal pension funds, according to Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research.

UT E-mails about tree put City Council under fire

Coast Law Group attorney Marco Gonzalez believes the e-mails violated the state Ralph M. Brown Act, which bans a majority of an elected body from discussing business outside of a public meeting.

ETA NOTE: Dalager says City Attorney will keep the council from violating the law.

UT City attorney: Council is reminded of meeting law
Encinitas City Attorney Glenn Sabine has written a conciliatory letter to an attorney who contended that City Council members violated state law by conducting an e-mail debate about trees removed at Orpheus Park...

Sabine wrote, “In the future, I am confident Councilmembers' communications will be in strict compliance with the Brown Act, for purposes of avoiding any real or perceived violations.” ...

UT Recall Petitions Circulate in Oceanside

Proponents of an effort to recall Oceanside Councilman Jerry Kern have started circulating petitions, although Kern could have less than a year left in office by the time a special election could be held.

Kern said Friday that he thinks the recall movement could be an attempt to hamper a bid for re-election in 2010 rather than a serious effort to remove him from office this term.

The HJTA has posted a how to for recall campaigns.

SacBee Tax Increase Calculator
The Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are considering a budget package that includes tax increases. Use this calculator to see how the tax increases under consideration could affect your household. Click here for the calculator.

PSN El Monte cops protest cuts
City officials have warned the police department that 14 to 17 officers could be laid off in an effort to manage a ballooning budget deficit. POA officials said Tuesday they hoped President Barack Obama's signing of the stimulus bill and the possible pending resolution of the state budget could help resolve the need for such lay-offs.

CTU More companies turning to pay cuts to avoid more layoffs
The company, which supplies office products to such retailers as Office Depot Inc., told its U.S. employees Monday that it would impose a 47 percent pay cut for six weeks, beginning Feb. 23.

Encinitas city staff are getting 3.5% pay raises in each of the next 3 years.

VoSD County Losing Billions

But in 2002, the supervisors decided that they wanted to increase their own and their workers' pension benefits by 50 percent. Yes, 50 percent (for perspective: If you retired with a high salary of $70,000 after 25 years at the county, your expected pension went -- in one day -- from $35,000 a year to $52,500 a year).

...

Even if the market bounces back, the required contribution by the County is expected to triple over the next five years.

...

The hard reality is this: current benefits are not sustainable. Many governments are considering drastic changes.

Encinitas projects submitted for the stimulus include those routed through SANDAG. The railroad pedestrian crossings are on one of the lists (Item D).

The city is asking for $30 million. In the last budget the city was estimating the crossings would cost $22.7 million.

The total cost of all the projects submitted directly by Encinitas is $5,400,000. Here is that list:

Description
Jobs Cost Program Type

Encinitas Bl, Leucadia Bl, Piraeus St & San Elijo Bl overlays
30 $3,000,000 Streets/Roads

Encinitas/North County Transit District transit
parking lot (located on South Vulcan Av & E St
35 $1,000,000 Streets/Roads

Citywide sidewalk, curb & gutter, cross gutter,
and pedestrian ramp replacement
10 $400,000 Streets/Roads

Fourth St storm drain
15 $900,000 Water

Corrosion protection for ten underground utility vaults
5 $100,000 Water

Stimulus projects can be reviewed and monitored at Stimuluswatch.org.

See Also: Stimulus Proposal

UT Ailing mayor notes city's 'sucessful year'
Her speech focused on the city's accomplishments, such as opening the $20 million Encinitas Community Library last February. It's already the third most visited library in the county's 33-library system...

She also shared good news about the city's efforts to control storm-drain runoff that can pollute its surfer-friendly beaches with harmful bacteria. Houlihan said that in 2000, runoff led to nearly 100 days of beach closures. Last year, the beach was closed for one day, she said.

The city, led by Houlihan and Dalager, campaigned for a "clean water" tax in 2006-2007. They attempted to convince the public that the tax was necessary to keep the water clean. The measure lost and now the Mayor is touting the water quality.

NCT Council revises city spending plan
The revised general fund spending plan now calls for the city to collect $51.6 million in revenue this fiscal year, which ends June 30. That's down from $53.45 million, or about $1.8 million, from the amount the city initially budgeted just before it began the fiscal year in July.

The Sheriff's Department is reporting 25 vehicle break-ins last week in Leucadia. The city has also been experiencing residential burglaries, including hot prowls. Below are two crime maps for the dates 10/2/08-2/2/09.

Blue triangles are residential burglaries, green circles are auto break-ins, magenta squares are auto thefts.

The city has posted this notice.

Crime maps can be monitored at argis.

The Washington Post has done a nice job of breaking down the national stimulus proposal. To see the enlarged image go to the Washington Post. It is worth two minutes of your time to review. Most people will be surprised by the contents.

UT Escondido mulls over cuts to pension benefits
The cash-strapped city is considering cutting pension benefits and reducing overtime pay to close a budget gap that is projected to widen as the economy worsens.

UT Encinitas protester remains up a tree
While Councilwoman Teresa Barth wants to save the tree that Watkins is nestled in, Houlihan is taking a hands-off attitude, saying, “I'm not in the middle of it.”

The three other council members, Jerome Stocks, James Bond and Dan Dalager, say the project needs to go forward.

On Monday, Houlihan said that city staff members are researching documents from when the park was built to see whether there's a written record of the promise about views.

[Houlihan had met with the homeowners weeks ago and trees were already cut down. Why are they looking at the documentation only after the fact?]

KPBS San Diego Cities' Reserves - Money in the Bank
On the other hand, there are cities that have been planning ahead and built up much healthier reserves. Cities like Encinitas. Jennifer Smith, the Finance Director, says her city council had premonitions well before the financial world breathed a word in public of its problems.

Smith : About this time last year, the Council directed staff to develop a recession scenario for this year’s budget, based on some of the early economic indicators that we were seeing.

Smith says Encinitas now has 3 reserve funds that add up to nearly 30% of their annual operating expenses.

[KPBS did not ask how Encinitas was able to have a large reserve. At the end of the previous fiscal year Smith said the city was unprepared for an economic downturn. KPBS didn't ask if the large reserves were made possible by the recent $20 million dollar loan. KPBS was also unaware that residents concerns about the looming recession were dismissed when staff were given a 15% raise over four years. Until recently, key staff believed Encinitas would be immune from a real estate price decline and the council (minus Barth) had discussions indicating they believed real estate prices only go up.]