SUITS AT CITY HALL VOLUNTEER TO PAY MORE OF THEIR OWN RETIREMENT
The top leaders for the City of Costa Mesa have volunteered to pay 39% of their pension costs—the highest rate possible—saying they need to set the example of contributing their full retirement share to help insure the city’s finances are sustainable. The employee contribution will be one of the highest in California for public workers.
The move to increase pension contributions will affect eight city executives, including Chief Executive Officer Tom Hatch, Assist. Chief Executive Officer Rick Francis, Economic Development Director Peter Naghavi, Police Chief Tom Gazsi, Finance Director Bobby Young, interim Public Services Director Ernesto Munoz, and interim Development Services Director Khanh Nguyen.
Interim Fire Chief Tom Arnold is not paying into the retirement system and will be unaffected, but his successor will pay his or her full pension share.
The estimated annual taxpayer savings from the increase contributions, including the fire chief’s share, is more than $50,000.
Non-public safety executives are currently paying 31.49% their pension costs. The contribution increase will go into effect as soon as it’s approved by the City Council, likely at its Feb. 7 meeting.
Police Chief Gazsi currently pays 11.61% of his pension costs (as do other Costa Mesa police officers), with the City picking up the remaining 88.39%. Police officers are allowed to pick up 48.633% of the cost of their pensions. Gazsi and CEO Hatch are currently working on a plan to move the police chief toward this maximum contribution level.
It is not known if the rank and file police officers will agree to pay their fair share of their pension costs as the Chief is apparently going to do or whether they'll demand that citizens continue to pay 88.9% towards their retirement.
When hired, the new fire chief will immediately begin paying 49.32% of the cost of his or her pension, if the City Council approves the increase in employee contributions. Currently, the fire chief would be paying 12.92% of his pension costs, with the City would be picking up the remaining 87.08%).
Recently, due to an expired clause of a labor agreement, Costa Mesa firefighters (excluding battalion chiefs) dropped from paying 12.92% of their pension costs to paying 2.15%. The City now pays 97.85%. In real terms, the firefighters now pay $103,000 annually to their pensions, and the city pays $4.7 million.
In recent negotiations, the City has asked the firefighters to pay the 29.92% of their pension costs.
A question that remains in the minds of many citizens is whether or not Costa Mesa will outsource its fire fighting to the County if Costa Mesa firefighters balk at paying their fair share toward their own pensions.
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NICE ARTICLE TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH ABOUT THE AMERICAN THIRD POSITION PARTY
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LAWMAKER WANTS NATIONAL GUARD BACK IN MURDER RAVAGED NEW ORLEANS
What's race got to do with it? Everything.
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The top leaders for the City of Costa Mesa have volunteered to pay 39% of their pension costs—the highest rate possible—saying they need to set the example of contributing their full retirement share to help insure the city’s finances are sustainable. The employee contribution will be one of the highest in California for public workers.
The move to increase pension contributions will affect eight city executives, including Chief Executive Officer Tom Hatch, Assist. Chief Executive Officer Rick Francis, Economic Development Director Peter Naghavi, Police Chief Tom Gazsi, Finance Director Bobby Young, interim Public Services Director Ernesto Munoz, and interim Development Services Director Khanh Nguyen.
Interim Fire Chief Tom Arnold is not paying into the retirement system and will be unaffected, but his successor will pay his or her full pension share.
The estimated annual taxpayer savings from the increase contributions, including the fire chief’s share, is more than $50,000.
Non-public safety executives are currently paying 31.49% their pension costs. The contribution increase will go into effect as soon as it’s approved by the City Council, likely at its Feb. 7 meeting.
Police Chief Gazsi currently pays 11.61% of his pension costs (as do other Costa Mesa police officers), with the City picking up the remaining 88.39%. Police officers are allowed to pick up 48.633% of the cost of their pensions. Gazsi and CEO Hatch are currently working on a plan to move the police chief toward this maximum contribution level.
It is not known if the rank and file police officers will agree to pay their fair share of their pension costs as the Chief is apparently going to do or whether they'll demand that citizens continue to pay 88.9% towards their retirement.
When hired, the new fire chief will immediately begin paying 49.32% of the cost of his or her pension, if the City Council approves the increase in employee contributions. Currently, the fire chief would be paying 12.92% of his pension costs, with the City would be picking up the remaining 87.08%).
Recently, due to an expired clause of a labor agreement, Costa Mesa firefighters (excluding battalion chiefs) dropped from paying 12.92% of their pension costs to paying 2.15%. The City now pays 97.85%. In real terms, the firefighters now pay $103,000 annually to their pensions, and the city pays $4.7 million.
In recent negotiations, the City has asked the firefighters to pay the 29.92% of their pension costs.
A question that remains in the minds of many citizens is whether or not Costa Mesa will outsource its fire fighting to the County if Costa Mesa firefighters balk at paying their fair share toward their own pensions.
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NICE ARTICLE TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH ABOUT THE AMERICAN THIRD POSITION PARTY
# # #
LAWMAKER WANTS NATIONAL GUARD BACK IN MURDER RAVAGED NEW ORLEANS
What's race got to do with it? Everything.
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But...all somethings are not the same and sometimes doing nothing is better than the wrong somethings.
That is, we like Crissy's use of the language about "doing something," instead of "doing nothing."
We explain: One of Crissy's somethings always seems to involve helping suspected illegal aliens feel comfortable on the Westside and another of her somethings seems to be to want to keep parts of the Westside as ethnic ghettos instead of letting them seek their own level--which, being close to Newport Beach and the ocean, is a higher something than Crissy's something.
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ERIN BROCKOVICH ON THE CASE OVER TOURETTE'S SYNDROME
Last week a researcher said that he thought it was just a case of mass hysteria. We thought that was nonsense and we're pleased to see that others think there's an actual physical cause for the problem.
Brockovich thinks it might be related to a chemical spill. Our guess is that it may be caused by a virus or prions or even a mold.
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LAGUNA HILLS OFFERS SOME TIPS FOR THE WESTSIDE OF COSTA MESA
The above linked story is probably boring to most folks, but anyone interested in how the real world works and how cities improve themselves, with public/private cooperation, might want to read the whole article.
A couple of things jumped out at us in the article as we think about improving the Westside: "[R]enovating existing shops in a California Coastal Style," and "upscale market."
For some reason, successive Costa Mesa Planning Commissions and City Councils have promoted the California Mission Style in our city. We think it's a mistake and we think it's dated and sleepy.
We think we need more modern California Coastal Style buildings with strong industrial elements--especially on the Westside, and we'd like to see this encouraged.
And as far as "upscale market" goes, that speaks for itself. But just in case it doesn't, think: "bees are attracted to honey."
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
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