San Bernardino City Hall stands on July 12, 2012 in San Bernardino, California. The San Bernardino City Council voted this week to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, making San Bernardino the second largest municipality in the nation ever to file for bankruptcy and the third in California to opt for bankruptcy in the past two weeks. Stockton, California with a population of nearly 300,000, became the biggest when it filed for bankruptcy on July 3, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains ski town of Mammoth Lakes, California filed on the same day. The city is facing a $45.8 million budget shortfall and is in danger of not making payroll for the next three months. City officials are set to discuss the next steps in the bankruptcy process and may also declare a fiscal emergency at its meeting next Monday. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
SAN CLEMENTE, Jacqueline Cooper: Three California cities, Vallejo, Stockton and, now, San Bernardino, are in the process of bankruptcy [?City can?t pay its debts,? Front Page, July 12]. I am afraid it?s a sign of what is to come for the rest of the state. I would like to warn all those city, county and state employees that your jobs and pensions will not be untouched.
The ridiculous fairy tale that the unions told you about your jobs and retirement was a lie to buy votes. This fairy tale will soon turn into a nightmare because there is no money to pay for those outrageous salaries and pensions. The unions lied to you. The politicians lied to you. Now it?s time decide to throw the bums out, and join the real world. Many union employees have been insulated from the terrible recession that the rest of us in the state have endured.
Over the past four years the federal government has sent stimulus money to prop up the California state and local governments that, in one way or another, fund many union jobs. Many of those jobs were not threatened until now. The money has dried up from the federal government stimulus program, and California faces a crisis.
This mess was started by politicians buying votes from powerful unions. So I guess it is going to be left up to the union workers themselves to do something, since they hold all the power in the state government. Union workers, you need to stop being puppets manipulated by your masters, the union bosses. These union power brokers do not care about you. They care about your union dues and the power to manipulate you into voting for liars who make promises that cannot be kept. Get rid of those who have perpetrated this fraud.
O.C. contract negotiations ahead
MISSION VIEJO, Ray Estrada: What an opportunity our Orange County Board of Supervisors will soon have, negotiating new contracts with county employees, the sheriff?s deputies and county managers (a manager?s union?) [?County has plenty on its plate,? Editorial, July 8]. I hope they?ve grown a backbone and don?t play dead like they did with the Orange County Fire Authority.
They kind of threw the new hires under the bus on that one and didn?t take a thing from the rest. Employees can still retire early with potentially 150 percent of their base pay monthly, plus benefits, like most of our government workers.
You see, they get 3 percent for each year of service, fair enough. But, you factor in overtime during the past few years before retirement. Funny, the Register news articles never include that when writing about the bloated, underfunded pension liabilities that taxpayers pay. Did you know that the liability totals 80 percent of our annual budget?
I?ve had enough with my taxes being raised. Between President Barack Obama and Gov. Jerry Brown we?ll be paying enough in the next few years. O.C. Board, do the job we elected you to do. Don?t cater to unions.
Ever heard of supply and demand? Let any of them strike, you?ll have 10 applicants to one applying for these positions.
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ORANGE, John Moot: I have been a deputy juvenile correctional officer for the county for the past 14 years and have loved my job. All of this talk about the increases to the county budget because of raises I find a bit ridiculous since I have not seen a raise in the past four years and many of my co-workers have also not seen an increase in pay for even longer. Supervisors have been given raises but not the rank and file. How is this fair to the workers who work their tails off, hear all of the rhetoric and still continue to do the job?
O.C. Supervisor John Moorlach needs to give me a break about asking me to pay more into my retirement when I am already paying 20 percent of my salary to retirement. The supervisors and top executives have continuously benefited, not paid into their own retirements, while the everyday workers are left to fend for themselves. County workers pay into their retirements. This is not a free benefit.
I find talk from Moorlach to be frustrating, and I pretty much see the guy as a blowhard and in it for himself. He couldn?t care less about anyone else.
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HUNTINGTON BEACH, Dennis Berkley: Thank you for writing about the excessive pay and benefits for public-safety personnel. Without the Register and its articles Joe Public would not have a clue about what?s going on behind our backs. Please consider writing a piece about each city in Orange County. Tell us what the city budget is and what the dollar amount for public safety pay and benefits are so we can see clearly what percentage of that city budget goes to those special people. Choose just one year to compare, perhaps 2011.
Time for Correa to go
MISSION VIEJO, Dain Gingerelli: Talk about pie-in-the-sky politicking [?State Senate spends on rail,? July 7]. State Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, could have cast the deciding vote to prompt California?s legislators to re-evaluate the high-speed rail project, but instead he voted for it, offering his constituents only this: ?I have gotten assurances from the governor and others that, in fact, O.C. projects will be part of the projects that will be considered for funding.? Then, like a train wreck waiting to happen, he adds this:
?There aren?t any guarantees, but those projects will be ? considered for funding.? But it gets worse when he justifies this method of madness in chasing down those ever elusive funds: ?That?s kind of my job as a state senator, to find those pockets of money at the state level and hopefully at the federal level.?
If Correa is only ?kind of? knowledgeable about what his job is, then perhaps it?s time that he steps down from that position. In the meantime, he and the rest of California?s state legislators should know that those ?pockets of money? that Correa wistfully refers to are kind of empty.
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