An administrative judge from California’s Public Employment Relations Board struck down as “Illegal” San Diego’s pension reforms enacted in Proposition B because former mayor former Mayor Jerry Sanders “failed to first ‘negotiate’ the plan with employee unions”.
It was a ballot initiative inspired by the people, who should have ruled on the contracts in the first place.
The judge should have ruled that San Diego public workers’ pension obligations are “immoral” and “unenforceable” because previous city leaders had brokered those lavish contracts without the forethought of the city taxpayers capacity to pay, or the foreknowledge of the onerous obligations which these entitlements would impose.
Instead of “PERB”, the Public Employment Relations Board should be renamed “PERV “– Public Entitlements Ripping off Voters, since this one adjudicator has perverted the democratic process and the proper confines of justice, thus permitting the public sector unions to rip off the voters, not just by taking their tax dollars, which are needed for public services, but also frustrating their rights as citizens to ensure that the city of San Diego remains funded to provide essential services in the future.
I hope that city leaders, grassroots organizers, and enough angry taxpayers launch a vital challenge to this judicial arrogance. Not just in California, but states across the country are waging a necessary fight to reform public sector pension obligations, including Wisconsin, Michigan, and even Rhode Island, where pension obligations are about to bankrupt the state and are forcing thousands to flee, just like in California.