Steve Cushman
The 12th Annual State of the City Breakfast hailed as "best ever." More than 500 business people gathered at the Fess Parker Double Tree Resort to listen to Mayor Helene Schneider and City Administrator Jim Armstrong describe plans and programs for the City of Santa Barbara. Business First Bank, MarBorg and Allied Waste Services sponsored the event.
Table sponsors were:
Allied Waste Services · American Red Cross · Antioch Graduate University · Armstrong Associates· The Bank of Santa Barbara · Bartlett Pringle & Wolf · Ben-E-Lect · Brownstein Hyatt Farber & Schreck· Business First Bank · Canary Hotel · Channel Islands YMCA · Children's Museum of Santa Barbara · City College · Community West Bank · Cottage Health System · Cox Communications· Santa Barbara Conference & Visitors Bureau · Daily Sound · Davies Public Affairs · Peikert Group Architects · Jordano's· KBZ Architects · Marborg · J.M.Holliday Architects · Montecito Bank and Trust · MTD · Rabobank · Sansum Clinic · SB Fire Fighters Association · Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce · Santa Barbara Bank & Trust · Schipper Construction · Southern California Edison · Southern California Gas · The Towbes Group · UCP/Work Inc. · US Bank· Venoco· Village Properties · Wells Fargo Bank · Santa Barbara Zoo ·
Michael Holliday, chamber board chair, served as master of ceremonies. Michael emphasized the need for all of us to work together as a Region. He described the efforts of the South Coast Business Forum and Regional Alliance to work cooperatively to make this a better place to grow a business.
The Mayor described the city's work on major issues and projects. Youth and gang violence, homelessness and panhandling and funding for city services were highlighted. The most surprising statement of the day came from City Administrator Jim Armstrong when he told the group that he was going to enter into negotiations with labor unions to attempt to modify the City retirement program to create a new system for newly hired city employees that could move away from the existing guaranteed benefit program. I think every level of government in the United States is realizing that their pension systems are poised to bankrupt them all.
Speaking of public employee retirement systems, the March Government Affairs Council invited speakers and representatives from local labor unions, from UCSB and from the city firefighters association to discuss the need for public employee unions in Santa Barbara. Attending were: Dr. Lanny Ebenstein, an economics lecturer at UCSB, Dr. Nelson Lichtenstein, history professor at UCSB and Tony Pighetti, President of the Firefighters Association. The press also covered this meeting.
Professor Lichtenstein outlined the history of public employee labor unions in the United States. He noted that the unions derived from the women's movement and civil rights movements in the US. Public employee unions are the only unions growing in size in the United States. Although the unions were once primarily Republican, they were abandoned by the conservative party and are now predominantly Democratic. Public employee unions are serious investors in political campaigns at every level of elected office.
Dr. Ebenstein agreed with Dr. Lichtenstein that there is a place for public employee unions. He feels that the unions should not have the right to engage in wage and benefit collective bargaining. Since public employee unions make significant financial contributions to elected officials campaigns and those elected officials then vote on the employee's salaries and benefits it seems to be a patent conflict of interest. Dr. Ebenstein believes that the unions have negotiated such lucrative retirement programs that City, County and State governments cannot sustain the demands on their tax collections and will have to seriously reduce public services or go bankrupt. Dr. Ebenstein believes all public employee retirement programs should be defined contribution rather than defined benefit plans.
On the other hand, Tony Pighetti, and who can't love the driver of a hook and ladder truck, argued that public safety retirement systems are set up to allow 50 year old fire fighters to retire as their physical stamina and strength begin to decline. You could liken it to a professional athlete. You can't imagine a 50-year-old lineman trying to block a 24-year-old charging tackle. He emphasized that police and fire personnel put their life on the line, every day, for the good of the public. Hard to argue with that. Tony indicated that the primary objectives of the association were to lobby for the policies and tools that firefighters need to provide superior service. He felt that public employees were not paid equivalent salaries to private sector employees.
This was a spirited and interesting meeting. Questions from the audience ranged from impassioned statements to simple requests for facts. In the end, I think everyone agreed that action must be taken soon to prevent a financial disaster when the baby boomer generation is in complete retirement.
