In California: Collecting 20 million records on government pay, an agency at a time
An owl flies off into the world, recovered from injuries sustained in a Ventura County fire. And six months after deadly boat fire — what caused it? Plus, I talk with Robert Fellner, the executive director of Transparent California, a nonprofit that has gathered millions of records to shed light on what state and local government workers earn.
It's Arlene Martínez with your news for Thursday.
But first, let's talk bacon: Is Dunkin's “Snackin’ Bacon” the on-the-go breakfast we’ve been waiting for? Head on over to my Twitter poll to weigh in.
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An owl's recovery, a plan to save the lions and a veterinarian treating homeless animals
Nearly four months ago, Ventura County firefighter Caleb Amico wrapped an owl that couldn't fly in a yellow firefighter's jacket, its huge eyes nearly matching the color of its new shelter.
The male raptor had fractured the bone connecting his wings, probably during a collision in the 10,000-acre Maria Fire that started on Halloween in Ventura County.
Amico and other county firefighters saw the bird hopping on the ground as they cleared hazardous trees in the fire's aftermath. Read about the owl's months-long recovery and flight back to freedom.
Stop killing mountain lions: That's the message Ventura County elected officials sent in approving a resolution that encourages the state to stop issuing permits to off the cats if their crime is harming domesticated animals.
Meet the veterinarian walking around the streets of California and treating homeless peoples' animals for free.
State identifies 286 properties for homeless services
Gov. Gavin Newsom focused his State of the State speech on a problem California residents have identified as priority No. 1: homelessness. As part of that, he identified state properties that would be available immediately for local governments across California to use in an effort to address homelessness.
“Today, we are making available 286 state properties — vacant lots, fairgrounds, armories and other state buildings — to be used by local governments, for free, for homelessness solutions. We have lease templates ready to go — and we’re ready for partnership,” he said last week.
Find out more about the program and see all the state-identified sites here.
Six months after Conception boat fire, no answers on cause
One of the deadliest boat fires in modern history took the lives of 34 people off the coast of Ventura County. We may never know what started it or how to prevent it from happening again.
What else we're talking about
La Quinta soon could be home to “the largest, rideable open-barrel, human-made wave in the world,” created by surfing legend Kelly Slater. Find out more about his totally tubular plan (This story is for subscribers only).
Does SoCal's dry winter mean an early wildfire season? Possibly. And in the Bay Area, February has so far been the driest since 1864.
How the coronavirus might affect the Palm Springs area's Coachella fest, BNP Paribas Open and more.
DoorDash, an on-demand food delivery service, makes plans to go public.
He voted against expansion of immigration facilities. Now, he's out
The Adelanto Planning Commission member who called out behind-the-scenes negotiations between city officials and the GEO Group has been booted from his position. Last week, he cast the sole no vote against the private prison company’s proposal to expand one of the country’s largest immigration detention facilities.
The Adelanto City Council on Wednesday night removed JayShawn Johnson from his appointed role, one week after the city Planning Commission voted 4-1 to approve the private prison company’s plan to convert a 750-bed state prison into an annex for the 1,940-bed detention center.
In other immigration news:
ICE agents are being accused of arresting parents as they take their kids to school.
Stay or go? A Mexican woman who entered the country illegally two decades ago faces deportation, which could mean foster care for her Orange County kids.
A lucky peach tree + LAX travel tips
A “lucky” peach tree is as fruitful as ever, despite being twice the age of a typical productive California peach tree. What is its secret?
Stay in a hotel the night before your flight, and other tips for easy in and out adventures at LAX.
20 million records, taxes and the March 3 primary
Robert Fellner is executive director of Transparent California, a public database that tracks public pay and pensions of government workers in cities, counties, schools, community colleges and special districts (think air pollution control, sanitation, water). The state started maintaining a similar database after the Bell scandal, but Transparent California includes names.
Fellner and I talked by email about the organization and the upcoming election.
What motivated you to start your work?
I like to understand the root cause of a problem. Employee compensation frequently accounts for over 70 percent of the entire general fund budget, so it made sense to start looking there when agencies starting to complain about an alleged budget crunch and the need for higher taxes despite already having one of the highest tax burdens in the state, especially when considering the regressive sales tax burden, which harms the working class the most.
Prop. 13, which would allow the state to borrow $15 billion, is the only statewide measure on the March 3 ballot. Can you talk about the role pensions play in district budgets? And whether you think this bond has any relationship to pension obligations?
Prop 13 is California’s education system in a nutshell: Follow up years of financial irresponsibility and waste by borrowing more money to try to stay afloat in the short term. Soaring pension and health costs are going to continue to strain school budgets, which is why unions are pushing for this bailout. California schools need competition and accountability; pouring more money into a broken system won’t work.
I understand many school districts, regardless of their financial situation, continue to offer lifetime health care for retirees. Do you have any sense how widespread this is and what impact it has?
LA Unified is one of the best examples of how incredibly expensive it is to pay the entire cost of health insurance for employees and their entire family, for life. $2,300 per student is now being spent just on these costs alone — imagine if that went instead towards improving student learning. Thankfully, this practice is being phased out statewide and is now the exception rather than the rule.
More: LAUSD is now diverting $2,300 per student to cover health insurance costs
Oakland, Long Beach, Anaheim, Los Angeles County: Those are just some of the places that have a parcel or sales tax increase on the March 3 ballot. You and others have argued they are, essentially, pension taxes. What’s the connection?
Pension costs are exploding, and in many cases, those added costs more than offset the alleged budget shortfall cities are pointing to as justification for their latest tax hike. Thus, these tax hikes are really pension taxes, regardless of marketing efforts designed to mislead the public into thinking otherwise.
In Los Angeles County, the fire union attributes overtime costs to more wildfires. But according to some of your data, and data I’ve looked at, overtime has been growing for years and it happens even in years when a department has had few major wildfires (in fact, 80% of calls in most suburban/urban departments are medical). What in your opinion is really driving the overtime?
Union rules that dictate three or more highly paid firefighters respond to every call, even though only 3 percent of service calls are fire-related, is a major driver of continually soaring overtime pay. Insiders have also identified incredibly lax workers' comp rules as a major driver of overtime pay. Data suggests wildfire-related costs account for less than 1 percent of the total budget, but even that is then reimbursed by the state.
Dig deeper: Fire services need revamping, Santa Clara County Grand Jury finds
What do you think of the CalPERS reform of 2012 (PEPRA)? Will that help or is it helping?
PEPRA helped a little bit, but because it only applies to those hired after 2012 and fails to address the structural governance issues associated with public pensions, the system is still completely vulnerable to a stock market downturn. In other words, public agencies must still gamble that the stock market will continue its record-long run in order to pay for the pensions and public services promised to retirees and taxpayers.
If I could change one thing about the current process, I’d forbid contract negotiations taking place between elected officials and unions that help fund their elections. It's such a conflict of interest. What would your top 3 changes be?
AFL-CIO founder George Meany and FDR were correct: mandatory collective bargaining in the public sector has a corrosive effect on democracy, such that the interests of government unions are prioritized at the expense of the general public. It should be outlawed.
Public officials who violate the Public Records Act should be penalized.
U.S. public-sector defined benefit plans must use a liability-based discount rate, like what is required in the rest of the world.
Anything I didn’t ask you about?
A law without penalties will rarely be followed, which is the California Legislature should treat the Public Records Act like every other law and include a penalty for those who violate it.
That's it from me for today. Wendy Leung will be handling newsletter duties until Tuesday, when I return and Californians vote (if they haven't already) in the presidential primary.
ICYMI, we asked candidates to weigh in on wildfires, housing, aging and emissions as they relate to California. Here's how they answered.
Happy reading and happy voting!
In California is a roundup of news from across USA TODAY Network newsrooms. Also contributing: Los Angeles Daily News, TechCrunch, San Jose Mercury News, Orange County Register, CNN, Outside Magazine.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Government pay, Dunkin', ICE, mountain lion, homelessness: Thurs news
