http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/it-all-comes-down-to-the-unions/Content?oid=2764610 Comments On: It All Comes Down to the Unions by Nate Seltenrich and Robert Gammon en-us Copyright 2013 East Bay Express. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, East Bay Express readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact East Bay Express. editor@eastbayexpress.com (East Bay Express Webmaster) Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by radorth]]> Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:13:37 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Lawngun]]> Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:07:25 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Lawngun]]> Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:03:23 -0700 East Bay Express No doubt that the cost of housing is much higher in the cities we compared Oakland to, but we didn't find any evidence that the increased housing costs in the Bay Area warranted police compensation packages that are at least twice as high as in the other cities.

Also, no one is suggesting that current OPD officers take massive pay cuts. Instead, the proposal is that new officers come in at signficantly lower salaries, so that eventually the city will be able to afford more cops.

As it is, the city simply doesn't have enough money -- because of huge loss of tax revenues in the past few years -- to afford to bring the force back up to 750-800 officers, unless it can hire cops at lower salaries.
Posted by Robert Gammon]]> Thu, 16 Jun 2011 09:04:19 -0700 East Bay Express Two things:
1. I think it's unrealistic to expect that Oakland city unions would be able to suddenly exert influence over how CalPERS is run simply because they would have to pay more into their pensions.
2.
Posted by Robert Gammon]]> Thu, 16 Jun 2011 08:57:41 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Donald Sandri]]> Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:31:04 -0700 East Bay Express Lame journalism. Where are the details about these supposed "sweetheart deals"?
Posted by eastbay_jose]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:17:40 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Big Foot]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:07:52 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Thomas M. DeBoni]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:28:00 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Lawngun]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:12:23 -0700 East Bay Express I agee that public employees should pay a greater share of their pensions, and a 50/50 split sounds much more fair than the status quo.

But I don't get how a 50/50 split will help public workers become better stewards of their retirement plans. All current Oakland workers will receive pensions from CalPERS when they reach retirement, and so whether they pay zero or 50/50 it won't affect how much money they receive in the end.


Posted by Robert Gammon]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:58:18 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Lawngun]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:33:57 -0700 East Bay Express
The reason to do a 50/50 split is precisely because it makes the pension plan a partnership. At 50/50, the employee has an equal stake in the plan being sustainable.
Posted by Max Allstadt]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:46:12 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Lawngun]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:10:48 -0700 East Bay Express
Charter amendments around pensions and contracts wouldn't be able to amend or alter existing contracts.

What I think we can do by charter is ban the council from signing future contracts which do not include a certain level of pension contributions.
Posted by Max Allstadt]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:50:19 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Lawngun]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:27:27 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Taxpayer]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:16:30 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Lawngun]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:28:12 -0700 East Bay Express
Regarding Make Oakland Better Now:

First of all I don't speak for them regarding the youth program mandates. MOBN disagrees with me about eliminating OO.

Second, we're a good governance group, we're not a special interest.
Posted by Max Allstadt]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:09:23 -0700 East Bay Express
I'm pushing for what's right and what will work, regardless of what the council is willing to do.

The council is also unwilling to create and enforce real reform in the way this city does it's accounting and presents it's budget.
Posted by Max Allstadt]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:55:41 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by yoyo_guru]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:30:30 -0700 East Bay Express Have to agree about the change Quan made on finance personnel, and I agree about Dellums mistake getting rid of some competent people. Also, if you read the Fitch ratings closely, it's clear that the downgrade was affected by the fact that employee unions have not yet agreed to adequate concessions.
Posted by Robert Gammon]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:13:44 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by yoyo_guru]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:05:03 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by oaktowncitizen]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:03:46 -0700 East Bay Express Posted by Lawngun]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 09:59:49 -0700 East Bay Express