By Ed Mendel
Monday, May 7, 2012

The mayors of San Jose and San Diego are backing local measures on the June ballot that aim to make the change critics of costly public pensions say is the key to major reform — cutting the cost of pensions earned by current workers in the future.

Using different methods, Measure B in San Jose and Proposition B in San Diego would allow current workers to keep pension amounts already earned, but pensions earned in the future could be cut or cost workers more.

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By Ed Mendel
Monday, February 13, 2012

A drive to place a statewide public pension reform initiative on the November ballot ended last week, lacking funding like previous attempts. But major local pension reforms are expected to be on the June ballot in San Diego and San Jose.

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Thursday, April 7, 2011
By Ed Mendel

As San Diego officials joined forces this week on an initiative to switch all new hires except police from pensions to 401(k)-style plans, Mayor Jerry Sanders said the city’s troubled pension system could become a “national model.”

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By Ed Mendel
March 7, 2011

Los Angeles leads off Tuesday with a modest ballot measure aimed at curbing pension costs, which are threatening to take a big bite out of the budgets of California’s three major coastal cities.

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The six say the city promised to cover their legal defense

By Kelly Thornton, Watchdog Institute

Friday, February 4, 2011 at 5:41 p.m.

The law

Governments can choose to cover legal fees for criminal prosecution of employees if the employee acted within the “scope of his employment,” “without malice,” in the “apparent interests of the public entity” and if “the public entity determines that such defense would be in the best interests of the public entity.”

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20 tons of pot seized, eight arrested in San Diego and Tijuana.

By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times
November 27, 2010

Reporting from San Diego —

Federal authorities have unearthed another cross-border tunnel in a San Diego warehouse district, the second major tunnel discovery and multi-ton seizure of marijuana believed to be from Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel in a month.

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Some have been demonized, but say retirement benefits weren’t their doing

By Danielle Cervantes, UNION-TRIBUNE
Lily Leung, STAFF WRITER
Jeff McDonald, UNION-TRIBUNE
Monday, August 23, 2010 at 12:06 a.m.

Download: Details on Top 20 San Diego city pensioners

Sales-tax hike’s roots lie in pension increases: Key votes in 1996 and 2002 boosted top 20 pensions for San Diego city workers by 176 percent

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By Joel Fox
Editor of Fox & Hounds and President of the Small Business Action Committee
Wed, July 7th, 2010

Despite Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s success in negotiating some concessions from state unions on the pension front, heated action in the battle for pension reform is happening in California’s cities.

Yesterday, initiative petition signatures were filed in San Francisco to require thousands of city employees to contribute 9% of their salaries towards their pensions and health care plans. Currently, many (but not all) contribute nothing. The initiative would also boost public safety workers contributions to 10% of salaries. Police and firefighters just saw their contributions increased to 9% by voters in the June election.

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