Supervisor Josie Gonzales
BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com
Published: 24 January 2012 07:08 PM
San Bernardino County supervisors moved forward Tuesday with a proposal to require voter approval of future pension increases but face opposition from employee unions who quickly announced plans for a competing measure aimed at supervisors.
The board agreed to have county staff draft a ballot measure requiring voter approval before retirement benefits for county employees, legislative officers and elected officials could be increased. But final approval is not assured with supervisors split 3-2 on whether to consider the proposal.
Board Chairwoman Josie Gonzales, who cast the tie-breaking vote, expressed serious misgivings but said she would wait until seeing the ballot measure language before making a final decision.
Supervisor Janice Rutherford said the measure allows voters a say in long-term costly financial decisions. For every dollar the county spends on salaries, 27 cents is paid for pension costs for general employees and 47 cents for public safety employees, she said.
“This is simply insurance for the taxpayers who will be footing the bill long after politicians and union leaders are out of the picture,” Rutherford said.
She said she hoped to have the ballot measure ready for the June election. She noted that other counties, including Riverside and Orange, have enacted similar measures.
But leaders for the two largest unions representing county employees said it could hurt the county’s ability to work with the groups in the future.
“Do you not trust your own ability to make decisions you were elected to make?” Bob Blough, general manager of the San Bernardino Public Employees Association, representing about 11,000 county employees, asked them.
Laren Leichliter, president of the Safety Employees Benefit Association, representing about 3,100 public safety employees, echoed those sentiments. He said unions would not be able to trust negotiations with the county, knowing that it could ultimately hinge on an election campaign.
Rutherford said the proposal does not take away employees’ benefits but merely requires them to make the case for any increases to voters. However, only Supervisor Gary Ovitt, who co-sponsored the measure, expressed support.
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C’MON! what is this sittin’-on-the-fence vote by Chairwoman Josie to implement the Devil’s plans to divide his Pussycats on the BOS even further? Now the employee’s groups will literally make you pay with the “part-time” BOS measure. Finally, the employees’ groups have taken a stand, no Chicken suit this time for Bloug!
Sorry Josie, there will be nothing in the final measure language that will help to clarify this supposed “pension reform” more than the obvious, this is a further way for the BOS to abdicate more of their responsibilities to be policy makers. Instead of doing their job, the job they have been entrusted to do by their constituents, they again want to shirk their responsibilities as our elected officials (at least 3 out of 5 do), But this time, instead of placing all of their authority in the hands of the Devil of a CEO, as they have done in the past, they are trying to make the public, the voters, responsible for this diversionary tactic of proposed voter approved “pension reform”!
Guess this means that even Chairwoman Josie and the BOS Pussycats know that they are IN WAY OVER THEIR HEADS as far as the County’s financial situation is concerned (especially after Governator Moonbeam killed RDA). Don’t forget, RDA is how the Devil got his name, he was the KING of RDA in CA with the CA RDA Assoc./ CA League of Thieves. As the Pres. of the CA RDA Assoc. he even passed his evil ways on to other bureaucrats and politicians statewide. Sorry to see how Stupidvisor Janice “The Reformer” has joined Gary “Oh, not me” Ovitt on the SIDE OF THE DEVIL.
It looks like the employee’s groups SEBA and SBPEA have finally figured it out, it’s not in the best interest of a majority of the County employees represented to let the Devil of a CEO “kick this can” further down the road! They have realized that any further delay in the County addressing these over-burdensome costs to the taxpayers, especially in the form of over-lucrative pensions, will not be to their benefit. The only one(s) benefitting from this delay are CEO Devilreaux and those BOS Pussycats that fit into his political agenda (and also his “unclaSSified service” consultants).
Now that the PART-TIME BOS measure will end-up hitting the BOS in the pocketbook, what kind of deal has the Devil made here, if the BOS are really just employees too? How does it feel Chairwoman Josie and the BOS Pussycats, to be facing off with the Devil of a CEO @ the crossroads… which way to go… towards evil or towards good (for the majority)?
This pictu looks like a jack in the box.
OMG! What a picture.