Orange County – Page 3

Should California Deputies at the Vegas Shooting Get Worker’s Comp?

October 29, 2017 By Steven Greenhut 5 Comments

The Orange County deputy sheriffs’ union president, in a recent interview with the Orange County Register, made a shockingly cynical statement about the men and women he represents. His words probably were meant as a rhetorical device to muscle county taxpayers into paying some controversial workers’ compensation claims, but I was nonetheless floored by what Tom Dominguez was quoted saying.

“The county has to be very cautious in these cases,” Dominguez told the newspaper. “If they deny the claims, then the message that they’re sending to their peace officers is not to take action when it is certainly warranted.”

Dominguez was referring to four unnamed county deputies who attended country singer Jason Aldean’s Oct. 1 concert in Las Vegas, where a gunman murdered 59 people and injured 527 others. The deputies were on their personal time and were in Clark County, Nevada, not Orange County, California, yet they argue that California residents should pay for their physical and psychological injuries.

Orange County this week rejected the request, but it’s likely to end up in court. Other counties and cities also are dealing with the same issue, according to the newspaper.

Like most government employees, Orange County deputy sheriffs receive extremely generous medical, sick leave, disability and vacation benefits. Their injuries should be covered given that they weren’t at the concert for work. But these deputies seek the extra benefit of workers’ compensation, which preserves their accumulated leave and allows longer periods of paid time off.

The newspaper didn’t have details of the particular claims, but noted that “several Orange County deputies at the Route 91 Harvest festival quickly assumed life-saving roles—protecting the perimeter of the area with a shotgun in one case and administering medical care in other instances.” When the shooting began, they used their skills to help out. They deserve to be applauded for their efforts in such a tense situation. Good for them.

The policy question, however, is whether deputies behaving as they are trained to behave opens a treasure-trove of work-related benefits—even if they were in a non-work situation in another county and neighboring state. Arguing that they are entitled to the benefits is a stretch, but let’s focus mainly on what the union president had to say. He seemed to suggest that if the county doesn’t agree to these extra benefits that other deputy sheriffs might not be willing to take action in a future, dangerous situation.

Am I the only one appalled by that suggestion?

Frankly, I don’t believe that’s so. It’s rather insulting to imply that California deputies and police officers would not protect and help their fellow citizens in an emergency situation if they weren’t able to later file a workers’ compensation claim. Sure, union bosses press the case for every conceivable benefit. Indeed, Dominguez said he went to Las Vegas and encouraged deputies to file claims. But his statement inadvertently maligns the motives of the people he is paid to represent. …

Click here to read the full article from the Orange County Register

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: Las Vegas, Orange County

CA GOP Has Fared Poorly in ‘Jungle Primary’ Era

October 19, 2017 By Jon Fleischman 4 Comments

Over the past few weeks, leading into the California Republican Party’s convention in Orange County this weekend, there have been mailings supporting the argument that the “top two” or “jungle primary” system created by Proposition 14 in 2010 is a good idea.

It is not a good idea – at least not for conservatives. In fact, as the California Republican Party itself predicted when it strongly opposed the passage of Prop 14, it has been a disaster.

Prop. 14 changed the way elections for partisan office are held in California. Prior to its passage, each qualified political party held a primary in June, and the winner of that primary would advance to a general election ballot featuring all of the nominees of each party, as well as independent candidates.

Under the new system all candidates run in June, and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election.

Since Prop. 14’s passage, not a single Republican has been elected to statewide office. Since the passage of Prop. 14, there are fewer Republicans in Congress from California. Since the passage of Prop. 14, there are fewer Republicans in the State Senate. Since the passage of Prop. 14 there are fewer Republicans in the State Assembly.

Now, is Prop. 14 totally responsible for flagging GOP numbers in partisan elected offices? Of course not. But it certainly is not helping the Grand Old Party pick up numbers, as proponents said it would do.

I think it is important for us all to remember how we ended up with Prop.14 in the first place. Back in 2009, a terrible budget deal was brokered by insiders. Then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with legislative leaders from both political parties, pushed through what was at the time the largest tax increase in the history of California. In order to get the deal done, three Republicans in each chamber had to vote for it. One of the three GOP votes in the Senate, Abel Maldonado, refused to vote for the deal unless the so-called “open primary” measure was placed on the ballot as part of the deal. So a terrible deal was made worse.

Governor Schwarzenegger then championed the ballot measure, raising millions of dollars to pass it. And Maldonado, who campaigned for its passage, was rewarded with an appointment as Lieutenant Governor – but he was rejected by the voters when he ran for election as the appointed incumbent.

Just days after the tax-increase was passed, the state GOP gathered in Sacramento and passed a scathing resolution cutting off party funding to those Republicans who voted for the tax increase.

The delegates to the California Republican Party, when Prop. 14 was on the ballot, voted overwhelmingly to oppose the measure. And for good reason. First and foremost, eliminating the right of every political party to nominate a candidate in June, and have its nominee appear on the general election ballot, has meant that many races have no Republican on the ballot in the general election. The most glaring example was last year’s U.S. Senate race, where voters in November had to choose between then-Attorney General Kamala Harris (D) or then-U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez (D).

Prop. 14 has also created circumstances in which the general election is a food-fight between two Republicans, bringing an intra-party feud to the general election.

And, of course, the open primary has led to much higher costs to campaign (candidates now have to talk to every voter in June, and again in November). This higher cost for elections has worked out just fine for the Democrats, whose coalition includes very well-funded interests like the California Teachers Association.

In fact, at this weekend’s convention, there is a somewhat quixotic proposal to create a process for the State GOP delegates to have a vote – kind of a straw poll – to potentially endorse candidates in statewide races. But that endorsement would not be binding on anyone, and of course would not limit ballot access to the endorsed Republican candidate alone. It is doubtful as to whether a candidate endorsed by the California Republican Party would have an advantage unless the party spends party resources to help communicate its endorsement to Republican voters. No one thinks that will happen.

Proponents of Prop. 14 also said that its passage would lead to a more moderate California legislature. However, as impossible as it once seemed, the state legislature has become more liberal than ever before! In fact, if you have money, which the liberal interest groups in the state do, Prop. 14 gives you more power, not less.

California Democrats have moved to the left. But on the GOP side, there has not been an offsetting move to the right. On the contrary, it seems like there are more Republicans than ever before who are willing to vote with Democrats for bad public policy, including big tax increases.

There is no better example, of course, than the recent vote to extend the state’s “Cap and Tax” program – the result of which is a GOP patina on a draconian program and an estimated over $25 billion in higher taxes over a decade! Democrats control the legislature now with super-majorities in each chamber. If Prop. 14 was working out poorly for them, they could just vote to place a repeal of it onto the ballot.

The California Republican Party faces many challenges. But Prop. 14 has made the path forward more difficult, not less, for Republicans in the Golden State.

Jon Fleischman is the Politics Editor for Breitbart California. His columns appear regularly on this page. You can follow him on Twitter here.

This article was originally published by Breitbart.com/California

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: CA GOP, CRP Convention, Jon Fleischman, Jungle Primary, Orange County, Prop. 14

John Moorlach: Sacramento has no clue how to solve housing crisis

September 18, 2017 By John Moorlach 2 Comments

Sacramento just doesn’t get it. A housing crisis is not solved with new fees, bonds and local government process overrides.

Let’s talk about housing. KQED provides some of the gory details in a recent piece. But, allow me to elaborate. A quick tip, KQED provides the last act first.

For Senate Bill 3 (and 5), I provided the following abbreviated concerns on the Senate Floor:

Let’s review the housing market over the last 11 years. In Orange County, the median price for a home in 1996 was $221,800. Ten years later, after the subprime mortgage boom (for fun, watch “The Big Short”), the median rose to $739,000. With the Great Recession, the median went down to $498,200 in 2011. And, as of June 2017, it is back to $734,200.
Why the recent resurgence?
- A slow, but steady rise in job growth.
- Foreign investors. They came in at the market low as a safe haven.
- Explaining an increase of all-cash transactions; more than 50% in 2013.
- This has caused a decrease in home ownership and more renters.
- Difficulty for developers to obtain entitlements and to build.
- The other usual suspects, like NIMBYism, CEQA and open space demands.
- For those lucky enough, try working with the California Coastal Commission.

It makes you wonder, what has Sacramento done to address foreign buyers and entitlement restrictions? And, I can see now why SB 714 (Newman) was removed from the calendar this last week, as it doubles down on taking entitled property for building new homes in the city of Brea and requiring total open space. Boy, this bill was so out of touch, the Democrats had to save the author from himself. But, I digress.

What is the current dilemma?
- Americans find the home buying process too overwhelming.
- They find it too difficult to come up with the down payment.
- More than other generations, millennials value experiences over ownership.
- Americans change jobs more often than in previous generations.

With SB 2, Sacramento will be adding to the burdens. Within minutes, the Democrats also voted for AB 166 (Salas), which provides exemptions from the new SB 2 fees. You can’t make this stuff up. And those who qualify are not those going through a foreclosure!

Then I warned them about issuing more debt by sharing the following disturbing data from Moody’s Investors Service. Among the 10 largest states in the nation, California joins Illinois and New York as the three worst in all of the following categories:

Debt to personal income – 4.70%, when the median for all states is 2.50%.
Debt per capita – $2,323, when the median is $1,025.
Debt as a percentage of state GDP – 3.94%, when the median is 2.21%

And the state’s own bond credit rating is a measly AA-, just above Illinois, at BBB+. This means that California will be paying higher interest rates than issuing states with top credit ratings.

If this wasn’t enough of a reason to vote against the bond measures, I also gave a lecture on future budget and balance sheet concerns – a “what’s up?” listing:

A $4 billion bond translates into $225 million per year in payments! Where will this come from? The Senate approved two such bond bills on Friday.
The annual contributions for CalPERS and CalSTRS are also rising.
The Proposition 98 school funding threshold into the General Fund is also rising.
The minimum wage is rising and will impact the budget by $4 billion per year.
The recent voter approved $9 billion bond for school improvements will impact the General Fund by $500 million per year (no wonder the Governor hasn’t released any tranches).

What does all this mean? In a few short years, the General Fund is screwed. But I put it more politely on the Senate floor, stating that “it will be dramatically impacted. Good luck with that.”

Sacramento so much wants California to be like other blue states that are heading for the fiscal precipice, such as Connecticut, Illinois and New York. And quickly. But, this is the wrong race to be in.

You can bet the governor will sign these bills and the monopoly party will pat themselves on the back for once again dealing with a problem with inappropriate solutions. Tragic.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: CEQA, John Moorlach, Orange County, Sacramento

Political fight continues over California recall rules

August 30, 2017 By Steven Greenhut 6 Comments

SACRAMENTO – Most recall elections are primarily about electoral politics, as both sides duke it out with the usual broadcast ads and ground campaigns. But the burgeoning Republican effort to recall Orange County’s Democratic Sen. Josh Newman has turned into an inside-the-Capitol political fight as well as a high-profile legal battle. It could be months before the matter is debated in the context of a traditional political campaign.

Newman was elected to the Fullerton-area Senate district last November, winning by fewer than 2,500 votes in a district with nearly even voter registration between the Democratic and Republican parties. Voters there have typically sent Republicans to the Legislature, so Newman’s win was viewed as an upset. It also helped Democrats gain supermajorities in the Legislature, which lets them approve tax increases without any GOP votes.

After Newman cast a deciding vote in favor of legislation that raises the gasoline tax by 12 cents a gallon and increases vehicle license fees, former San Diego councilman Carl DeMaio, a Republican, started a campaign to boot Newman from the Senate. State Democratic leaders claim that some recall backers misled voters into thinking the recall will repeal the transportation-tax hike, so they struck back with a measure they say is about upholding the integrity of the recall process.

They passed a bill earlier this summer that retroactively changes the state’s long-standing recall-election rules by adding months to the certification timeline. It primarily gives voters 30 days to rescind their recall-petition signatures. Republicans say the new law has nothing to do with recall integrity, but is a transparent attempt to delay the election until the June 2018 primary when Democrats are expected to fare better at the polls. They accuse the Democrats of rigging the election rules to help Newman.

The governor signed Senate Bill 96 in June, but the state’s Third District Court of Appeal put portions of it on hold earlier this month, ruling that it violates the single-subject rule requiring legislation to deal with only one topic. The court, however, didn’t halt the Democratic effort to slow the recall drive. After they returned from summer recess, legislators again used a trailer bill, which is supposedly reserved for budgetary clean-up language, to quickly pass a measure to again rewrite recall election law to help Newman survive a coming vote.

Signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, Senate Bill 117 seeks “to eliminate any issue as to whether the changes to recall petition procedures made by Senate Bill 96 are enacted in violation of the single subject rule” by expressing “the intent of the Legislature to repeal those provisions and reenact them in this act, which embraces only the subject of elections.”

After the bill became law, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and several voters again filed a lawsuit against Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla and the state Legislature to strike down the new law, which they say is unconstitutional.

The original lawsuit argues that “the attempted retroactive interference in a recall process that has already commenced for the express purpose of nullifying, through unreasonable delay, petitioners’ constitutionally-vested right, violates both due process and equal protection of the law.”

The new lawsuit says the new law “should not be permitted to prohibit (the secretary of state) from performing his ministerial duty, which at this point is the simple process of signing his name to a certificate to confirm what everyone knows, and indeed what the Respondent’s office has acknowledged: that the recall petition is sufficient to compel an immediate election.”

It also contends that the law should properly have been passed on a two-thirds vote rather than as majority-vote trailer bill. “While SB117 purported to address the single-subject problem of its predecessor,” the lawsuit argues, “the new bill does so in another unconstitutional vehicle – a ‘spot-bill’ designated as ‘related to the budget in the budget bill.’” But when the budget was adopted, “SB117 was not even identified as one of the budget-related trailer bills” and “had no substantive content.”

If the court rules in the group’s favor, Democrats could still appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court. Win or lose, the Democrats appear to be getting their way – using their fearsome political muscle to delay a recall of one of their senators. It’s the rare election case where the courts have as much influence as the voters.

Steven Greenhut is a Sacramento-based journalist. Write to him at stevengreenhut@gmail.com.

This article was originally published by CalWatchdog.com

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: Josh Newman, Orange County, Recall

Orange County fire captain rakes in over $500,000 thanks to soaring overtime pay

June 24, 2017 By Transparent California 8 Comments

A $245,350 overtime payout — the 13^th largest of the more than 1.3 million public workers surveyed statewide — boosted Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) captain Gregory Bradshaw’s total compensation to $508,495 last year, an amount more than four times greater than his $116,846 salary.

While Bradshaw was OCFA’s top earner, his fellow fire captains weren’t too far behind, with the average fire captain having received $301,791 in pay and benefits last year — according to an analysis of freshly released 2016 salary data published on TransparentCalifornia.com.

In 2014, an OCFA board member expressed frustration over “an accounting gimmick used to generate significant overtime costs,” according to an Orange County Register report.

While the Board’s concerns led to the implementation of an overtime cap effective April 1, 2015, overtime pay continued to rise nonetheless — with last year’s $47 million expenditure representing a more than 18 percent increase from the previous year.

The continued growth in overtime pay was also evident on an individual employee basis: The 44 OCFA employees who received overtime pay in excess of $100,000 last year represent a nearly threefold increase from the previous year, when there were only 15 employees who earned that much.

Transparent California’s research director Robert Fellner noted an alarming trend where a handful of employees who had received overtime in excess of their regular salary in the preceding years actually increased their overtime pay in 2016, after the cap was in place.

“Several employees who were already more than doubling their salary from overtime pay actually saw an increase after the cap took effect — which suggests that cap might need to be tightened a bit.”

To explore the full OCFA dataset as well as historical data dating back to 2011, please click here.

Orange County cities

Transparent California — the state’s largest and most accurate public pay database — recently added 2016 pay data for 411 California cities and 49 counties.

The site now features 2016 data from every Orange County city but Placentia — which has not yet replied to a public records request for this information.

“It is disheartening that Placentia has not yet responded to our records request, but we very much appreciate the professionalism of all the other Orange County governments who facilitated our request in a prompt manner.”

Overtime pay up 19% at Anaheim

The City of Anaheim was home to the 5 largest overtime payouts of any Orange County city surveyed:

Fire Engineer III Brian Pollema’s $204,458 OT pay boosted his total compensation to $403,528.
Fire Fighter III Daniel Lambert’s $186,228 OT pay boosted his total compensation to $357,184.
Fire Engineer III David Shimogawa’s $163,325 OT pay boosted his total compensation to $338,937.
Fire Captain Mark Dunn’s $157,673 OT pay boosted his total compensation to $372,496.
Senior Electrical Utility Inspector Kenneth Heffernan’s $155,356 OT pay boosted his total compensation to $300,917.

Of the 148 California cities with at least $1 million in overtime pay surveyed, the average year over year increase in overtime pay was 5 percent.

Anaheim’s 19 percent increase in overtime pay was the most of any Orange County city and the 13^th largest statewide.

The next four cities with the largest overtime pay increases in Orange County were:

Buena Park: 18.5 percent, 14^th largest statewide.
Irvine: 17 percent, 17^th largest statewide.
Costa Mesa: 17 percent, 21^st largest statewide.
Fullerton: 14 percent, 30^th largest statewide.

Orange County pay data

In 2015, the only Orange County worker to make over $400,000 in pay and benefits was Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, who received total compensation of $400,214.

The 2016 county payroll data reveals 11 workers making over $400,000 — with two county psychiatrists topping $500,000 apiece.

Total compensation at the county experienced a much milder increase, however, rising only 3 percent to just under $2 billion last year.

To view the complete datasets in a searchable and downloadable format, please visit www.TransparentCalifornia.com.

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: Orange County, Transparent California

Jerry Brown Leveraging Payroll in Scheme that Bankrupted Orange County

June 5, 2017 By Chriss W. Street 2 Comments

Gov. Jerry Brown and State Treasurer John Chiang plan to tap California’s government payroll accounts to make long-term subsidized loans to the state’s public pension plan in a scheme that hasn’t been tried since it bankrupted Orange County in 1994.

Breitbart News recently reported that although Gov. Brown’s 2017-2018 May Budget Revision trumpeted that California will collect an extra $2.5 billion in capital gains taxes, the same data revealed that sales taxes, which are considered the best measure of the health of the state’s economy, “were revised down by $1.2 billion, reflecting weak cash receipts.”

Deep in the 91-page budget report, Brown also revealed that last year’s 22 percent jump to $279 billion for the retiree pension and lifetime healthcare liabilities will force the state’s annual pension plan contributions to almost double from $5.8 billion this year to $9.2 billion by FY 2023-24.

Brown warned that deteriorating tax trends and mushrooming pension payments put California at risk of suffering a catastrophic $20 billion deficit in a “moderate recession.”

But according to the Los Angeles Times, Brown apparently has convinced State Treasurer and fellow Democrat John Chiang to bail out a big piece of the state’s rising pension costs for the next 12 years by making a $6 billion loan at a highly-subsidized interest rate from the Treasury’s $76.5 Billion “Pooled Money Investment Account” (PMIA).

The PMIA has traditionally served as a money-market fund for the state’s general fund, agencies, counties, and cities to invest short-term cash, including payroll accounts. According to the PMIA’s September 2016 audit, the fund earns only a 0.88 percent current yield, because it provides overnight cash liquidity to depositors by investing in U.S. Treasurys and agencies, plus high-quality repurchase agreements, certificates of deposit, and commercial paper with an average maturity of 185 days (about 6 months).

The last time a state or local treasurer running a government money market fund participated in this type of “borrowing short and lending long” scheme was Orange County’s Bob Citron.

The OC Treasurer was celebrated as a genius by local political leaders for making almost $1.3 billion in excess profits over an 9-year period by investing $7 billion of county and local government short term and payroll cash in longer term 5-year U.S. Treasury Bonds. Unfortunately, Citron’s fund suffered a $2.3 billion loss in 1994 and “the OC” filed the largest Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy in history.

The resulting scandal and huge loss of taxpayers’ funds caused the Securities & Exchange Commission to adopt Rule 33-7320, which severely restricts money-market mutual funds from leveraging principal risk by “borrowing short and lending long.”

But under U.S. constitutional state sovereignty, the SEC has no jurisdiction over any funds managed by the Treasurer of the State of California.

Treasurer Chiang claims he supports the pension loan, because the CalPERS pension plan will pay his PMIA the more favorable yield of a 2-year Treasury Note, currently yielding 1.21 percent. But that means the PMIA is being asked to make a highly subsidized loan, since the current yield on an equivalent 12-year California General Obligation bond is 2.23 percent, or about 85 percent higher.

This piece was originally published by Breitbart.com/California

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: CalPERS, Jerry Brown, John Chiang, Orange County