ETA Encinitas City Staff Quietly get Pay Raises in 2010
That is probably why there were audible, but restrained, cheers from staff when the council gave them 4 years of unconditional raises. It should be sobering to the taxpayer that staff actually cheered the council's unanimous decision.

UT SD Teachers to Looking at a Pay Cut
Teachers and other San Diego school employees could take pay cuts next year of up to 8 percent to help offset a projected $93 million deficit, under a proposal presented to labor groups this week.

UT Pay Raise OKed for SANDAG
The agency’s executive director, Gary Gallegos, makes $240,000 a year and will get $10,000 raises for the next five years under a deal approved 14-5 despite concerns among some board members about the timing.

Council Member Stocks voted for Gallegos' raise.

City Could Make Some 'Private' E-mails Public
OPEN GOVERNMENT -- "With iPhones and Blackberries becoming must-have accessories, San Jose is poised to approve a ground-breaking disclosure policy that would ensure elected leaders don't use those personal devices to skirt public-records laws," reports John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury News.

Pulled from Calpension Reform
Steven Greenhut’s appearance on C-SPAN’s BookTV is now available for viewing online — click here. He talked about his new book Plunder!: How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation on December 10, 2009 at a book signing event at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Orange, California.

He takes a critical look at government workers and the unions that represent them. He argues that public employees receive salaries, pensions, benefits, and a level of job security that far outpace workers in the private sector, and that they have become a huge drain on local, state and federal coffers.

A former member of the Orange County Register’s editorial board, Steve is the director of the Pacific Research Institute’s Investigative Journalism Center and News Bureau in Sacramento. He is also the author of Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain.

The streaming video runs approximately 50 minutes. During his talk Steve makes reference to CFFR’s president Marcia Fritz and the organization’s pension reform ballot initiatives, and CFFR vice president Jack Dean makes a brief cameo appearance near the end of the question and answer session.

ETA NOTE: So far the SEIU does not have a response on their website.

CSPAN Bernanke Speech
The Fed chief is talking about raising interest rates. Is local government ready?

SBEE CalPERS defies governor, OKs smaller hike in state funding
By approving a relatively modest increase, CalPERS forced the Republican governor to plead his case for a heftier increase before a skeptical Legislature controlled by Democrats. The CalPERS plan will raise the state's contribution by about $200 million next year.

Schwarzenegger wants the state's contribution to jump at least $1 billion to begin covering the pension fund's historic investment losses.

We are hearing that senior staff at city hall realize there are issues with the pension system. Most of them will retire prior to the chickens coming home to roost. This contrasts with some junior staff who are annoyed or dismayed as to why citizens bring up the pension system as an issue.

There is no evidence that the high end retirement benefits granted to city staff are necessary to recruit and retain good staff.

OCR Bad data, unfounded fears fueled pension crisis
It is widely considered one of the worst financial decisions in the state's history – a toxin spreading through the budget books of cities and counties across California.

Like lemmings jumping off a cliff, local governments copied the Legislature's 1999 decision to increase tax-guaranteed pensions for public safety workers and other public employees. And now those governments are straining under the weight of the liberal pensions, a problem made worse by the recessionary downturn in tax revenues....

See here for a look back on Encinitas pension increases.