The problem with county civil service benefits (“Mind the gap,” April 8) is that they are way beyond what the private sector gets and can afford, yet it is the private sector that pays the taxes for the county benefits.
The basic problem is due to two factors: the civil service unions who support and back the supervisors and the supervisors themselves who are recipients of the county benefits that they negotiate with the unions. The supervisors are civil servants and are looking out for their well being.
There is a gross conflict of interest here, and the process proceeds without any limits, because unlike companies, when there is no money, no one gets benefits or raises, but under the government system they just ask for more taxes. After the supervisors are vested in five to 10 years, they can quit and be paid benefits for the rest of their lives. Both retirement salaries and medical are their rewards for giving the union benefits that they negotiate.
We taxpayers have been complaining about this for many years and predicting the present outcome—but to no avail because of the self interest of the supervisors.
The unions support the supervisors for election, and the supervisors reward them with big benefits. This is why Supervisor Doreen Farr and Janet Wolf are supporting the present union position of 30 years—because both received union donations during their last elections and Wolf is running again this year.
The only solution for us taxpayers is to have some independent commission decide the benefits for all of these civil servants, not the civil servants themselves.
This article appears in Apr 15-22, 2010.