READER'S EDITORIAL: EAST COUNTY A NO-SHOW AT TAXPAYER SEMINAR ON PUBLIC AGENCY 401KS

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By David Smyle, La Mesa

 

February 11, 2011 (San Diego's East Count)--On Thursday February 10, the SD County Taxpayer Association held an informative breakfast on 401(k) plans for public employees. All County and City leaders were invited to attend for free--but only representatives from the City of San Diego, San Marcos, Oceanside, the Port Authority, SD County Water Authority and the SD Firefighters and Police Associations were present, besides the public.

 

Since no East County city or Other County officials or their representatives were in attendance, I guess they already had all the answers and had determined that this route was not for them. With Helix Water District currently under employee MOU negotiations and paying the most beneficial employee package of any public agency, it would have been nice to at least see one of the two negotiators in attendance for good PR even if they didn't plan to use the information.

 

Speaker Richard Hiller from TIAA-CREF representing many non-profit and public agencies who are under a Defined Contribution (401K type) plan in the billions spoke of how this plan has worked wonderfully for its employees while Michael Zucchet representing the SD Municipal Employee Association (Union) spoke of how public employees are really public servants and deserve what they are getting in some form or another. Actuary Bill Sheffler was also there to provide some general information on pension liabilities which we all know are unsustainable in the current format.

 

What I took away from the seminar is we cannot apparently change the past but we can change the future. With perspectives such as those coming from Zucchet, it is going to take strong minded and willed civic leaders to make the tough choices to switch to a less onerous retirement system for employees and swallow the short term increases to be able to survive long term.

 

To Mr. Zucchet: the only "public servants" are those who volunteer for the military to protect our country and those who supposedly represent us in government which is arguable. The rest of the so called public servants such as City and County workers including police and fire are "employees" of a non-profit company called public agencies and are paid to do a job like the rest of us in the private sector and don't deserve any special retirement benefits or treatment than any employee working outside the public domain. For fire and police, job risk should be handled with the level of pay.

 

In all cases, it is not the employers' "sole" responsibility to pay for the employees retirement wages and health benefits and employees must be as responsible as the white or blue collar worker not part of the excessive public agency benefit packages to contribute to their own retirement. In the case of pension reform, this means contributing to their retirement through a 401K or defined contribution plan where the employer, or in our case the taxpayer, is not responsible to guarantee a return on their retirement account and the employee takes some accountability in making their own investment choices.

 

With their extremely high costs and large unfunded liabilities, every East County city and agency desperately needs some fresh ideas - such as those that were discussed. Why weren't they represented?

 

The opinions in this editorial are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of East County Magazine. To submit an editorial for consideration, contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org.


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