City of San Diego Finances?

[j]

Tic, tic, tic … I believe the bomb will go off soon, and city officials will be making comments like banking officials have made. How could we have seen this coming? I guess they can’t when they run every time the budget is mentioned.

They make dumb decisions far too often for the budget not to explode. Like giving the highest paid city employees a 6% raise and refusing to give lower paid employees a 4% raise. But the DROP program is the pinnacle of stupidity, encouraging employees to stop contributing to their pensions and offering them hundreds of thousands to do so? What actuary approved that idea?

[temeculaguy]

j, DROP programs in and of themsleves can save an organization money. The City of San Diego’s particular DROP was horribly engineered, but that doesn’t mean DROPs are bad, what is bad is guaranteeing high interest on deposits and not implementing any takaways that other drops have. A no interest, no raise DROP, works for any organization with a fixed benefit pension but needs to be used only for skill positions with lengthy training protocol, so it needs to be used selectively and be written in favor of the employer. I could bore the hell out of you with the specifics on how they work and how they should be designed but lets just say that the concept isn’t flawed, the city’s version of it is.

Fiscally, S.D. is not in good shape and as much as Auirre’s style is annoying, it would probably be in worse shape today if he wasn’t there.

[temeculaguy]

j, DROP programs in and of themsleves can save an organization money. The City of San Diego’s particular DROP was horribly engineered, but that doesn’t mean DROPs are bad, what is bad is guaranteeing high interest on deposits and not implementing any takaways that other drops have. A no interest, no raise DROP, works for any organization with a fixed benefit pension but needs to be used only for skill positions with lengthy training protocol, so it needs to be used selectively and be written in favor of the employer. I could bore the hell out of you with the specifics on how they work and how they should be designed but lets just say that the concept isn’t flawed, the city’s version of it is.

Fiscally, S.D. is not in good shape and as much as Auirre’s style is annoying, it would probably be in worse shape today if he wasn’t there.

[temeculaguy]

j, DROP programs in and of themsleves can save an organization money. The City of San Diego’s particular DROP was horribly engineered, but that doesn’t mean DROPs are bad, what is bad is guaranteeing high interest on deposits and not implementing any takaways that other drops have. A no interest, no raise DROP, works for any organization with a fixed benefit pension but needs to be used only for skill positions with lengthy training protocol, so it needs to be used selectively and be written in favor of the employer. I could bore the hell out of you with the specifics on how they work and how they should be designed but lets just say that the concept isn’t flawed, the city’s version of it is.

Fiscally, S.D. is not in good shape and as much as Auirre’s style is annoying, it would probably be in worse shape today if he wasn’t there.

[temeculaguy]

j, DROP programs in and of themsleves can save an organization money. The City of San Diego’s particular DROP was horribly engineered, but that doesn’t mean DROPs are bad, what is bad is guaranteeing high interest on deposits and not implementing any takaways that other drops have. A no interest, no raise DROP, works for any organization with a fixed benefit pension but needs to be used only for skill positions with lengthy training protocol, so it needs to be used selectively and be written in favor of the employer. I could bore the hell out of you with the specifics on how they work and how they should be designed but lets just say that the concept isn’t flawed, the city’s version of it is.

Fiscally, S.D. is not in good shape and as much as Auirre’s style is annoying, it would probably be in worse shape today if he wasn’t there.

[temeculaguy]

j, DROP programs in and of themsleves can save an organization money. The City of San Diego’s particular DROP was horribly engineered, but that doesn’t mean DROPs are bad, what is bad is guaranteeing high interest on deposits and not implementing any takaways that other drops have. A no interest, no raise DROP, works for any organization with a fixed benefit pension but needs to be used only for skill positions with lengthy training protocol, so it needs to be used selectively and be written in favor of the employer. I could bore the hell out of you with the specifics on how they work and how they should be designed but lets just say that the concept isn’t flawed, the city’s version of it is.

Fiscally, S.D. is not in good shape and as much as Auirre’s style is annoying, it would probably be in worse shape today if he wasn’t there.

[gandalf]

Excellent comments, econprof.

tg – Yeah, I agree. As annoying as Aguirre is, he’s serving a constructive purpose. Mayor, council and establishment crooks may view it otherwise, but he’s an important ‘pushback’ right now. Also, I don’t know that he’s been particularly effective from a legal standpoint, but politically, he’s a kick in the nuts to the foxes that have been raiding the henhouse. I laugh my ass off whenever my ultra-conservative Aguirre-hating friends complain to me about him. I’m like “You ran the bus into the ditch. What do you expect?” The fraud has been systematic and endemic.

Actually, I’m kind of TICKED we haven’t seen major indictments over what happened. My theory, I think they removed Lam because she was getting too close. Also, where does Scott Peters get off running for CA? He’s a documented fraudster. He deserves a jail cell and a criminal record.

On a more level note, and I don’t have any facts or insider insights to support this, but I think the revenue side is going to dip and when it does, there won’t be any way out of the mess but bankruptcy. The numbers are too big. The real estate / mortgage ‘boom’ almost bailed the city out but it turned out it was just a bubble. If the judicial establishment had given the pension issue a fair hearing, they might have been able to adjust the liabilities. All the nails in the coffin now.

[gandalf]

Excellent comments, econprof.

tg – Yeah, I agree. As annoying as Aguirre is, he’s serving a constructive purpose. Mayor, council and establishment crooks may view it otherwise, but he’s an important ‘pushback’ right now. Also, I don’t know that he’s been particularly effective from a legal standpoint, but politically, he’s a kick in the nuts to the foxes that have been raiding the henhouse. I laugh my ass off whenever my ultra-conservative Aguirre-hating friends complain to me about him. I’m like “You ran the bus into the ditch. What do you expect?” The fraud has been systematic and endemic.

Actually, I’m kind of TICKED we haven’t seen major indictments over what happened. My theory, I think they removed Lam because she was getting too close. Also, where does Scott Peters get off running for CA? He’s a documented fraudster. He deserves a jail cell and a criminal record.

On a more level note, and I don’t have any facts or insider insights to support this, but I think the revenue side is going to dip and when it does, there won’t be any way out of the mess but bankruptcy. The numbers are too big. The real estate / mortgage ‘boom’ almost bailed the city out but it turned out it was just a bubble. If the judicial establishment had given the pension issue a fair hearing, they might have been able to adjust the liabilities. All the nails in the coffin now.

[gandalf]

Excellent comments, econprof.

tg – Yeah, I agree. As annoying as Aguirre is, he’s serving a constructive purpose. Mayor, council and establishment crooks may view it otherwise, but he’s an important ‘pushback’ right now. Also, I don’t know that he’s been particularly effective from a legal standpoint, but politically, he’s a kick in the nuts to the foxes that have been raiding the henhouse. I laugh my ass off whenever my ultra-conservative Aguirre-hating friends complain to me about him. I’m like “You ran the bus into the ditch. What do you expect?” The fraud has been systematic and endemic.

Actually, I’m kind of TICKED we haven’t seen major indictments over what happened. My theory, I think they removed Lam because she was getting too close. Also, where does Scott Peters get off running for CA? He’s a documented fraudster. He deserves a jail cell and a criminal record.

On a more level note, and I don’t have any facts or insider insights to support this, but I think the revenue side is going to dip and when it does, there won’t be any way out of the mess but bankruptcy. The numbers are too big. The real estate / mortgage ‘boom’ almost bailed the city out but it turned out it was just a bubble. If the judicial establishment had given the pension issue a fair hearing, they might have been able to adjust the liabilities. All the nails in the coffin now.

[gandalf]

Excellent comments, econprof.

tg – Yeah, I agree. As annoying as Aguirre is, he’s serving a constructive purpose. Mayor, council and establishment crooks may view it otherwise, but he’s an important ‘pushback’ right now. Also, I don’t know that he’s been particularly effective from a legal standpoint, but politically, he’s a kick in the nuts to the foxes that have been raiding the henhouse. I laugh my ass off whenever my ultra-conservative Aguirre-hating friends complain to me about him. I’m like “You ran the bus into the ditch. What do you expect?” The fraud has been systematic and endemic.

Actually, I’m kind of TICKED we haven’t seen major indictments over what happened. My theory, I think they removed Lam because she was getting too close. Also, where does Scott Peters get off running for CA? He’s a documented fraudster. He deserves a jail cell and a criminal record.

On a more level note, and I don’t have any facts or insider insights to support this, but I think the revenue side is going to dip and when it does, there won’t be any way out of the mess but bankruptcy. The numbers are too big. The real estate / mortgage ‘boom’ almost bailed the city out but it turned out it was just a bubble. If the judicial establishment had given the pension issue a fair hearing, they might have been able to adjust the liabilities. All the nails in the coffin now.

[gandalf]

Excellent comments, econprof.

tg – Yeah, I agree. As annoying as Aguirre is, he’s serving a constructive purpose. Mayor, council and establishment crooks may view it otherwise, but he’s an important ‘pushback’ right now. Also, I don’t know that he’s been particularly effective from a legal standpoint, but politically, he’s a kick in the nuts to the foxes that have been raiding the henhouse. I laugh my ass off whenever my ultra-conservative Aguirre-hating friends complain to me about him. I’m like “You ran the bus into the ditch. What do you expect?” The fraud has been systematic and endemic.

Actually, I’m kind of TICKED we haven’t seen major indictments over what happened. My theory, I think they removed Lam because she was getting too close. Also, where does Scott Peters get off running for CA? He’s a documented fraudster. He deserves a jail cell and a criminal record.

On a more level note, and I don’t have any facts or insider insights to support this, but I think the revenue side is going to dip and when it does, there won’t be any way out of the mess but bankruptcy. The numbers are too big. The real estate / mortgage ‘boom’ almost bailed the city out but it turned out it was just a bubble. If the judicial establishment had given the pension issue a fair hearing, they might have been able to adjust the liabilities. All the nails in the coffin now.

[Author]

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