04-25-10, Response by Bruce Philpott to GNP Article and Molano's Commentary Regarding Glendale Pensions

The predictions of those concerned citizens who valiantly tried to warn the city years ago of the impending fiscal crisis and were vilified for their efforts by Jim Starbird, the city council, top managers and union bosses, may be vindicated sooner than later.

There are a few more “Big Lies” than Jim Starbird’s quote in the GNP article.

Here are a few more Big Lies coming out of the article:

1. Huge benefits were given to city employees many years ago by former city councils and as a result of the great recession this city council will have to make the drastic corrections.

Truth: The current city council – Friedman excepted – approved a 16 ½% pay raise for firemen over a recent four year period while giving the police an 11% raise, 6% this year with another 5% in July 1, 2010.

Truth: The glaring budget deficits started to appear in fiscal year 2002, not in 2008 as the article implies. The largesse didn’t stop with previous councils and the deficit spending wasn’t triggered by the recession.

2. Starbird has been victimized by the lies coming from the state and CalPERS.

Truth: Starbird has been on record for years justifying the huge pay and benefits packages given the unions, arguing as did the fire union president in the article, that the city has to pay employees enough to retain them. This position flies in the face of most studies that refute the claim.

Truth: Glendale has always had one of the lowest turnover rates recorded in municipalities, well below the rate that is consider healthy. Local citizens have been bringing this to Starbird’s attention for years during city council meetings.

Truth: contrary to fire union president Stavros’s claim that the city lost fire employees to other departments who offered better pay and benefits, Glendale actually hired more firemen from other fire departments to work for Glendale. Too bad the GNP refuses to vet these folks for their accuracy in quotes.

Truth: Starbird has always approved of the city taking out long term bond debt. He went on record last year at a HOACC meeting that the city pension funds were sound (in spite of city and CalPERS financial data that showed otherwise) and he thought long-term borrowing by the city’s Redevelopment Agency was a good idea and should continue.

3. Starbird quote, “My view is we should have stayed where we were”.

Truth: A hypocritical statement if I ever heard one. It might be fun to go back into the video archives of council meetings where Starbird argued how important it was to approve large pay and benefit packages to recruit and retain top people, and, of course, followed by a 5-0 vote by a willing council, each a benefactor of the unions’ largesse during the last election.

The naïve reporter wrote: “Under the proposed plan, a 55 year old police officer retiring at a salary of $90,000 after 30 years of service would receive a retirement of about $54,000 per year. Under the current plan, the same officer could retire at 50, after 25 years of service, and receive a $67,000 annual check.

The paragraph should have read: All current firemen and police officers, totaling more than 500, and including many retirees already, will retire at 90% of their highest annual pay if they work for 30 years. Half of them will retire before 30 years by claiming a disability and will receive a large cash payout and a portion of their retirement will be tax free. Very few public safety employees retire at the entry level rank. Most full service public safety employees retire at a higher rank and average well in excess of $100,000 per year. As of July 1, 2010, entry level police officers will receive over $100,000 in annual pay. Firefighters who have paramedic certificates receive $107,000 entry level top step pay.

The Glendale News Press has once again failed to provide a balanced article on a very important local issue which is replete with false data and Big Lies.