Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proclaimed 2005 the “year of reform,” then watched as protests by public-employee unions sounded a death knell for an ambitious agenda of ballot initiatives on which he had staked his reputation.
Yesterday, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders began bracing for a similar battle – and counting on a different result – after asking the City Council to put his own plan for reforms on the Nov. 7 ballot.
One measure would require voters to approve employee pension-benefit increases. A second would let San Diego outsource city jobs ranging from trash pickup and landfill operations to custodial services and maintenance.
Local labor leaders vowed to fight the mayor just as their brethren statewide had battled Schwarzenegger, and Sanders said he won't back down.
“My job is to provide the best possible services for 1.3 million people, not the best possible jobs for 11,000 employees,” he said. “And what I want to make sure that we're doing is that we're always looking at a better way to do things.”
Sanders campaigned last year on promises to pitch three city charter amendments to the City Council. He still hopes to place a third on the November ballot, but that proposal – to close the city's pension system to new hires and create an “affordable” plan for them – would require buy-in from city labor unions later this year.
Sanders was elected in November on a pledge to restore San Diego's finances without raising taxes and to pay down a pension deficit caused by years of benefit increases and deliberate council decisions to underfund the system.
He said his two measures deserve council approval onto the ballot in a hurry, but he wouldn't characterize his proposals as rushed. A council committee is set to discuss them Wednesday, and the full council could consider them Feb. 27.
Carl DeMaio, president of The Performance Institute, a private business advocating government reforms, has pushed for these and other ballot measures for months. Yesterday, he called them “no-brainer initiatives” that would reduce city costs and give the public oversight of future pension deals.
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Mayor Jerry Sanders has asked the San Diego City Council to let the public vote on two changes to the city charter on the Nov. 7 ballot. A council committee is set to discuss the proposals Wednesday. Under Sanders' plan, voters would be asked to decide:
Shall the charter be amended to require voter approval for any increases in retirement benefits for public employees? Shall the charter be amended to allow the city to contract out services traditionally performed by city employees if determined to be more economical and efficient?
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Donald Cohen, a labor union consultant in San Diego and president of the Center for Policy Initiatives, which advocates for the working poor, said he received a call about Sanders' plans from a mayoral staff member yesterday.
Cohen called outsourcing a more bureaucratic and costly way for the city to conduct business. He called it “insane” and said there are no “assurances that this will not just be a gravy train for contractors and campaign contributors.”
Under Sanders' plan, the council would negotiate tentative agreements with labor unions that could include pension changes, but no pension increase would take effect unless approved by voters.
Sanders also wants to set up an independent review committee to evaluate job proposals from outside vendors and the relevant city department. The mayor could then forward the committee's recommendation or his own choice to the council for its ultimate approval or rejection.
Sanders called the process fair for everyone.
If the council chooses not to place the two measures on the November ballot, an overhaul of the charter through a petition drive would require more than 90,000 signatures be turned into the City Clerk's Office by late May.
Sanders said he would spearhead that signature drive, find volunteers for the effort and help raise money to hire signature gatherers if the council doesn't support him.
Councilwoman Donna Frye, who lost the mayoral race to Sanders in November, said she would “absolutely support” letting voters assume the council powers over increased pension benefits. But she said she was leaning against the outsourcing proposal even though she hadn't seen any details yet.
“Privatization was not a plank of my campaign. Never was, never will be,” she said.
In June, when Sanders first called for a charter change to permit “managed competition” for select city services, he promised “a comprehensive review of city operations” that would identify the best outsourcing opportunities.
Yesterday, he said the review has not been done and that it was secondary to a “need to figure out whether we can get this on the ballot right away.”
Local union leaders reacted explosively to Sanders' proposals and vowed to work together to defeat them.
Judie Italiano, president of the city's largest union, called them “horrible,” and Joan Raymond, president of the city union that represents blue-collar workers, said, “They all give me heartburn, frankly.”
“None of those proposals are going to solve the problem, which is basically the city needs to fund the pension system, and it needs a big infusion of money to jump start it,” Raymond said.
Sanders, who pledged during the campaign to negotiate new labor contracts to cut costs for San Diego, said he didn't think that union leaders would use his push for charter reform as an excuse not to meet at the bargaining table.
“Am I shooting myself in the foot?” he said. “I don't think so. I think I'm being really honest. This shouldn't have snuck up on anybody. I've been saying this for the last basically seven or eight months. . . . I think that everyone should have anticipated that this was coming.”
Matthew Hall: (619) 542-4599; matthew.hall@uniontrib.com
