The county is facing a $40 million dollar deficit and the vast majority of it is due to personnel retirement and benefit costs. In the private world the fix would be easy: You pare back those benefits. The Board of Supervisors have now come to the long-feared day of reckoning and must stand up to these government employee unions and say no more.
Like everyone else, these outrageous benefit packages need to go in order to save the county. County employees should be happy they can keep a job, which is in great demand these days. They and their union bosses need to realize the fat contract days are over and their benefits need to be in line with what is seen in the private world.
I would also say to the board the priorities need to be public health/safety and infrastructure. Everything else is gravy.
I cannot fathom why you insist on keeping long range and “energy” planners but are willing to get rid of deputies. Why do you have multiple directors for one department, like you see in planning? Why do you provide free rides for migrant workers? The list is long. We need people of courage to be board members; from what I have seen so far, we have none. Do you see SEIU bosses in front of them saying we are here to help? Maybe it has come to the day a bankruptcy judge will be able to solve the fiscal mess in this county.
This article appears in Mar 4-11, 2010.