Oakland Public Employee Unions Break The Bank (again)

The latest list of Oakland public employees earning more than $100k per year is making the rounds on the blogs today. Several folks have taken aim at City Administrator Deborah Edgerly, who took down a cool $255k. But that's not where the real action is. The real fiscal nightmare for Oakland and other California cities is the outrageous sums being paid to police, fire and EMS employees.

The highest-paid person in Oakland for 2007 wasn't Edgerly, it was Fire Battalion Chief Michael Miller, who made over $270k. But actually the list of top-100 earners is littered with rank-and-file public employees.

Unfortunately, the reported numbers tell only half the story.

For starters, every one of these employees receives an abundant benefits package, typically including the ability to retire after 30 years of service at 100% of final-year pay. This means a fire fighter who joins the force at age 25 might retire at 55 and receive 30 years of retirement pay at a $120k annual rate. That's $3.6M, a hefty sum.

And that's not even counting their medical benefits and cost of living increases. The true cost of these employees at retirement is probably $5M each, or higher.

"Sure," the unions say. "But these are risky jobs, and many police and fire employees are injured during their service."

That's actually the next trick they have up their sleeves. Each time a city employee experiences any kind of injury remotely related to their job -- a pulled back or leg muscle, or maybe a broken bone -- that employee immediately heads to the doctor to determine the amount of disability associated with that injury.

Now, disability is cumulative. So, maybe a broken bone would render the employee 2 or 3% disabled. But across a 30 year career, many employees wind up essentially 100% disabled. This means they get even more disability pay on retirement, and it also means they don't have to serve out the full 30 years in order to get their pay.

The bottom line is that public employees are now compensated at an entirely different stratum from regular employees in the workforce. They often can make 5 or even 10 times as much money as they would have had they entered work in the private sector.

What a bizarre decision by our society to provide such outrageous compensation to a set of people who are, in the main, poorly educated. These are not nuclear physicists or olympic athletes, for whom the difficulty of finding a replacement would be difficult. These are ordinary folks, provided with absurd benefits essentially due to the luck of the draw.

Don't believe me? Take a look at this article about a recent scandal in Oakland's fire department. Never mind the scandal itself. Just notice that 2,000 people applied for 23 spots. Why would so many people apply for these jobs? And, returning to the scandal itself, why would people use con games to get their buddies and relatives spots in the program?

Simple. These public employees are compensated at completely diseconomic levels.

So, what can we do? Little. Public employees constantly compare their compensation levels to those of employees in neighboring cities and counties. Unless everyone bites the bullet at once, each city is beholden to the argument that lowering its compensation will drive applicants elsewhere.

In addition, pretty much every public official in the state of California is bought and paid for by the unions representing these employees. No big surprise there. If my union had successfully provided me with 10x the salary I would receive in the private sector, I'd do pretty much whatever it took to defend that.

Finally, the general public is endlessly gullible when it comes to this issue. No matter how much money police and fire make, they return every two or four years with signs and protests suggesting their pay is being cut. They use patriotic symbols from a bygone era to ensure that the broad sweep of the public supports whatever they want.

It's a clever con, really. Wish I'd thought of it and gotten on board. Stupid me for going to college and getting a real job.

Jane Brunner Thinks Our Schools Are "Great"

I just received this email in one of my many fake Yahoo accounts dedicated to such drivel:

Jane Brunner's Community Advisory Meeting

Topic: What Makes a Great Urban Public School?

Speakers:
Vincent Matthews, State Administrator of the Oakland Unified School District
Stephen Wesley, Superintendent of the Emery Unified School District
Sheila Jordan, Superintendent Alameda County
Kerry Hamill, Oakland School Board District

When: Saturday, April 12th, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 Noon
Where: Peralta Elementary School, 460 63rd Street

I'm not sure why they've asked these people to come speak about this topic. It's kind of like asking George Bush to come give a speech about "How to end a war quickly and effectively."

As urban school districts go, Oakland is a complete joke. If Brunner really wanted to have a productive discussion about urban school districts, how about bringing in someone from LA Unified, which actually bothers to provide aptitude-based magnet schools? Or, even better, how about bringing in someone (by phone if necessary) from the New York public school system, with its renowned Bronx Science school?

The Bay Area is full of intelligent, ambitious people, and Oakland is no exception. Why must we be saddled with a school district whose highest hopes are to foster full political correctness and to ensure that no student, however bright, gets any advantages over any other.

I would love to see one of my readers attend this meeting and bring up points like this. I might even come and do it myself, though talking to Jane Brunner is sort of a monumental waste of time.

My prediction for the meeting is a long discussion and lots of questions about how the state takeover in Oakland somehow harmed the district. I must admit, I had some hopes that the takeover would institute a few policies to move the district away from being a free daycare service to a real educational system.

Sadly, I was wrong. Things are much the same as they have been for years. The only real option for non-abusive parents is private school.

At Mandela Foods Coop, The Cupboard Is Bare

Regular readers of the blog know my dislike for the latest socialist experiment being perpetrated on the people of West Oakland. As promised, I dropped by and took pictures both of the "Coop" and the 99 Cents Only store's produce section.



Mandela Foods Coop:



99c Only Stores:



Where would you rather shop? For those of us who are not termites or metal-eaters, the choice is clear.

Incidentally, while I was at 99c Only, I bought some great sweet bread and a drink. In front of me in line was a lady buying produce and some snacks for her daughter. She only had $6 but the bill was $8.20. Luckily, the store manager was there and offered her a discount so she could afford everything.

Thanks again to 99c Only for proving me right and the socialists wrong.

Deborah Edgerly, You Will Be Missed

According to news reports, Oakland City Administrator Deborah Edgerly is on her way out. I don't know a whole lot about Edgerly. I do know she recently disagreed with the auditing Measure Y expenditures. But generally, she seemed like your standard city bureaucrat.

My opinion changed when I read the article about her retirement. Allow me to provide you with the crucial quote:

"I'm just trying to get a few more things done," she said. "I've never made no bones about the fact that five years is a long time to be in this job."

Now, I realize I'm opening myself up for all sorts of criticism here, ranging from outrage over wasting a blog post over such a minor matter to irritation that I still haven't come to grips with Oakland's historic fascination with Ebonics.

Having worked at a newspaper, I can tell you that reporters generally check direct quotes with sources to verify their accuracy. It's also commonplace to fix minor grammatical errors using brackets or parentheses "[] or ()" where appropriate.

Evidently, neither the reporter nor Edgerly saw the need here. Apparently no one cares that "I've never made no bones" is an obliteration of the English language. They probably thought it was cute and charming.

I do not. These sorts of quotes represent the subtle ways in which our communities devalue themselves.

If our use of language is our greeting card to the world, then this quote says: "Welcome to Oakland! The people who live here are morons!"

So, I guess I now know two things about Deborah Edgerly.

Tribune Agrees: 99c Only Good for West Oakland

Glad to see the tribune bend to the truth in Monday's article. Also, for the record, I go by the West Oakland BART station pretty much every day, with nary a peep out of the Mandela Foods Collective. Good thing West Oakland residents already have a reasonably priced alternative for food and sundries.

America's Secret Racism, Courtesy of White Liberal Guilt

I was reading Sue Shellenbarger's article in the Wall Street Journal today about research demonstrating that some decidedly conservative principles can prevent marriages from ending in divorce.

The article's content was unsurprising, considering the Journal's conservative bent, until I encountered the following quote (my emphasis added):

"In the Army, blacks tend to be fairly paid and promoted -- and to divorce at the same rate as white civilians. Given the well-documented tendency of workaday emotions to spill over at home, it makes sense to avoid workplaces where the deck is stacked against you."

So, the implication is that every workplace in America except the US Military engages in anti-black discrimination.

This is exactly the kind of garbage rhetoric that perpetuates the race industry in America. In case the article's author didn't notice, workplace discrimination is against the law. If she is aware of a set of businesses engaging in the practice, I suggest she report it to her local authorities. I also suggest that she include a list of these businesses in her column.

Naturally, she won't do that, because she doesn't actually have any personal knowledge of which businesses, if any, engage in these practices. What she's really doing is repeating a well-worn mantra from the civil-rights era that everyone just assumes must still be true.

Only, in the vast majority of cases no such discrimination exists. Our government has done, and continues to do, an excellent job rooting out racism in employment. Violators are prosecuted, and rightly so. But these days, it's pretty rare to see a prosecution for racial discrimination. This is a consequnce of such vigorous enforcement.

Today, America's much bigger racial issue is a culture of low expectations and white liberal guilt which combine to make it difficult for members of certain ethnic groups to be taken seriously.

Unfortunately, many in the minority communities are unwilling to come forward and demand to be treated as full adult citizens of the country. I suspect this is because they want to protect benefits such as affirmative action, and because certain well-placed minority "leaders" make money hand over fist by crying racism at every opportunity.

Minorities should reject the bigoted attitude of white liberals that they cannot compete in a fair workplace. White liberals should leave their guilt behind and finally embrace minorities as fully equal human beings. Only then can all Americans make progress together.

Brief Sonatina in G

To do my part to make the East Bay more "funky," I've added an "Art" category to the blog. I hope to post enjoyable tidbits from time to time.

Attached to this post is audio and sheet music for a brief piano piece I composed a few afternoons ago.

Links:

Brief Sonatina In G - Listenable Midi File


Brief Sonatina In G - PDF Score