ONE BILLION HERE ONE BILLION THERE

I have spent a lot of time reading the goings on at city hall and have come to the conclusion the idiots are running the asylum. The City of San Diego is full of want to be politicians who have not a clue what the hell they are doing. The city has a mayor who is more concerned with HIS image than he is doing what is right. His every move is about him; how it makes him look; calculated with thoughts of "What will people think?" The mayor's every move is political, short sighted and made for the moment. His sham of a five year plan is a joke. The numbers do not pencil out and as the little rube points out is sorely outdated and meaningless today. The current hot topic centers round the expansion of the Convention Center to the tune of ONE BILLION DOLLARS. The mayor stacked a "Community Task Force" to ensure the outcome he got. He went on record BEFORE the task force had their first meeting as being the "Champion" for the expansion. He needed the blessing of a sham committee to bolster his desire and position to begin the sales job to the taxpayer. The poor ignorant taxpayer.

While the mayor is plotting and planning his fleecing of the taxpayer to help his political cronies, he is seeking an actuary to justify his plan to change the ARC to the Retirement System so the City will be required to pay less today than they should. Now let us not forget the mayor ran on a platform of change and fixing the underfunding that put us in the position we find ourselves and now he is attempting to do the same thing past administrations did and cut the ARC to save money and UNDERFUND the retirement system. If this is not criminal I am simply a security guard for a nickel and dime business. The sad part of all this is the increased contribution put on the back of the employee during the last contract negotiations; in the long run, had NO EFFECT on the unfunded liability and simply shifted the contribution responsibility to the employee and saving the City NOTHING relative to their required contribution. The dolts who came up with the plan to shift the employee contribution back to the employee have yet to figure out this will in the long run COST the city more money in the coming years. This because the institutional knowledge and understanding of the pay structures of employees is long gone and short minded people responsible for the changes simply see a smaller payout today. (I am not going to explain it here because the dolts will figure it out and screw us even more next year)

If all of this is not bad enough, the mayor is scheming and plotting to build a Taj Mahal - City Hall to the tune of yet another ONE BILLION DOLLARS. I laugh every time I think about this pompous ass and how he has snowed the taxpayers of this city. He was, in many people's eyes, one of the worst chiefs the San Diego Police Department ever had. His smoke and mirrors, committee driven joke of an administration has been replicated at city hall. Smoke and mirrors, committee after committee, task force after task force have made getting real work completed a joke. Case in point is Managed Competition. The director who was tasked with making this voter mandated program reality just quit out of frustration because the mayor has created an environment where NOTHING ever gets done. So the mayor is planning and plotting and scheming to spend TWO BILLION DOLLARS this city does not have, on two projects that benefit who?

The mayor cuts wages of city employees; refuses to honor years old promises of retirement medical for employees hired before 1986 who opted out of Medi Care at the city's request; forces upon employees increased retirement contributions after the city decides it is too political to honor past agreements; reduces employee medical insurance and increases the burden upon employees by providing less money for this benefit; demands employees take furlough days, further reducing wages of employees; eliminates hundreds of positions from EVERY department within the city and demands MORE work be taken on and completed and at the same time expects customer service to remain high. All of this because the city DOES NOT HAVE THE MONEY to pay for wages and benefits promised. The city is also facing a 100 million dollar deficit next year if projections are accurate and the mayor still has the unmitigated gall to campaign for these TWO BILLION DOLLAR expenditures and at the same time continue the assault on employee wages and benefits.

When will people begin to see the true picture of what is going on in San Diego? When will the press start pressing the numbers and pointing out the smoke and mirror games the mayor is playing? When will the press start looking at the actual numbers of crimes, police officers, calls for service, TRUE STAFFING numbers of police officers IN THE STREET during EVERY shift? When will the press stop with the saint hood anointing of this phony politician and call BS on his shams? The press seems to give him a free pass on his failure to implement Managed Competition; reduce the UAAL for the Retirement Plan; provide adequate public safety; adequately maintain and implement deferred maintenance plans; seek increased revenue; all the while his office has grown by leaps and bounds with new hires to help cover his backside and provide political cover for his glaring incompetence.

If you have not figured it out by now, you need to get a clue. This year's imposed contract for police officers resulted in 270+ senior officers leaving in the largest exodus of officers ever seen. Next year, when the 9% contribution kicks in for the "new" retiree medical trust the mayor has proposed, you will see more officers heading for the door. This time you will see the officer with 5-15 years service leaving for departments providing adequate family medical, retirement benefits far exceeding what is presently available here in San Diego and a City that respects their contributions to the public's safety and is willing to pay for it. The ability of the San Diego Police Department to hire and retain officers is at best a struggle today. It is going to get worse in short order. The mayor says it's not a problem; there will be hundreds of applicants and with the job market as it is there will be no problems hiring new recruits. NEWS FLASH mayor; YOU ARE DEAD WRONG!!

Who will pay for this failure? A police officer with his/her life? A citizen with his/her life? How many will pay for the mayors idiocy and failed politics? When it happens I am going to be the first to say I told you so. I am surely not going to sit back and give him a free pass. I will do my level best to make sure the information is put out for the taxpayer to read. It is time to put a blanket on the smoke, break the mirrors and shine a light on the office of the mayor!!