ALPERN AT LARGE - For years, those of us who were concerned about the effects of unsustainable local, state and federal spending trends, or concerned about unsustainable public sector pension/benefit practices, or concerned about the Affordable Health Care Act were (and, to a large degree, still are) dismissed as conspiracy theorists, worry-warts, alarmists and wackos? Yep, WE’RE the ones with the problem, right?
1) Admit we’ve got fundamental problems with our fiduciary management in our cities and in our state, particularly when there are no grassroots/taxpayer ombudsmen to balance out political and public sector spending
2) Admit that our public sector union process and current leadership needs reform (without diverting attention to other problems and conflating this concern with hating unions and public sector workers)
Is it my imagination, or are city governments recognizing they can’t go along to get along anymore? Now that San Bernardino has joined Stockton and other cities in declaring bankruptcy, (link) and with pension reform measures passed in both conservative San Diego and liberal San Jose, when DO we declare that the emperor has no clothes?
And when do we ask whether the City and County of Los Angeles will fix their own problems (think of City budget deficits, and the daily scandals we see in the smaller cities of LA County)?
City employees are still making fiscally and morally inappropriate money grabs at the expense of city services and beleaguered taxpayers, the most recent example being police chiefs who normally should be examples of virtue and leadership. (Link)
ANSWER #1: With a legal answer similar to that of the Brown Act, which requires posting agendas of all public/governmental meetings at least 72 hours in advance, all public sector pension and union negotiations should be daylighted.
ANSWER #2: Public sector employees and union members should revolt and dethrone their leaders who’ve made younger and newer employees pay more and get less than those retiring with sweetheart deals that NO ONE should ever be allowed to get…and if Chapter 9 bankruptcy is inevitable, then find a way to work with cities and judges to get back the bonanzas from recent retirees back into city coffers and to the hard-working public sector workforce.
ANSWER #3: At least for the City of Los Angeles, charter reform should expand the role of neighborhood councils to provide taxpayer ombudsmen the ability to be present at all meetings in a manner that doesn’t expose these ombudsmen to either intimidation or retaliation.
This last concept is particularly timely, and recalls when City Controller (and current mayoral contender) Wendy Greuel spoke to the Mar Vista Community Council Board a few years ago. When inquiring about the concept of taxpayer ombudsmen at all public sector pension/benefit negotiations, she informed us that elected City Councilmembers and the Mayor were supposed to be our ombudsmen, and that including neighborhood council ombudsmen required charter reform.
With City officials elected in large part with the funding and largesse of public sector unions, it’s pretty obvious that a conflict of interest exists on the part of our current “taxpayer ombudsmen”, so some clarification is needed:
ANSWER #3 (Clarified): In this election, Wendy Greuel, Eric Garcetti, Jan Perry, and/or Kevin James must commit to the presence of volunteer taxpayer ombudsmen, elected by neighborhood councils (who are as much a part of city government as the City Council, Mayor, City Attorney, Controller, etc.) and at all public sector salary, pension and benefit negotiations as part of a future charter reform amendment.
Moving to health care, the “blame game” of blaming Republicans for not addressing the issue of exploding health care costs (which are the real culprits to our growing budgetary deficits) or blaming Democrats for overreaching with the rammed-through Affordable Health Care Act is a useless endeavor. They’re both to blame, and we need answers because at least now the problem can and must be addressed.
It’s not just the right wing that’s wondering if “Affordable Health Care” is just that, as liberal Times columnist George Skelton opines. (Link). Like it or not, Massachusetts (whose so-called “Romneycare” plan is the basis for “Obamacare”, both terms that are inaccurate and inappropriate) has its health care expenditures up to 43% of its state budget. (Link)
Many of us with private health insurance are on our way to becoming Medicaid/Medi-Cal recipients as our form of “comprehensive health insurance” and it’s no secret that private insurers now have an increased interest in Medicaid for both profitability and to stay afloat.
With waivers and exceptions galore to politically-connected entities, the Affordable Health Care Act is in need of reform (some claim it needs repeal) in the most dire of ways. How to do this?
ANSWER #4: Require all government employees and all Americans, including elected officials and their staffs, to have the same health care coverage rules and requirements that American citizens will be required to live with.
If it’s good enough for us, then it’s good enough for everybody—both for the politically-connected and for the ordinary American.
The problems are now everywhere, and those sounding the alarm cannot be dismissed as wackos and head cases.
Let’s just hope that it’s not too late to at least acknowledge we do have these problems, in the hope that these problems can actually be fixed.
(Ken Alpern is a former Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected]. He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line, which strives to get the Green Line to LAX, at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
-cw
Tags: Ken Alpern, health care, Los Angeles, California, LA County
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 56
Pub: July 13, 2012