In what is billed as an Annual Campaign BBQ, Firefighters Local 1230 and Supervisor Bonilla will carve up fresh BBQ September 24 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Martinez Waterfront. Tickets are $50; $35 for Seniors and Students! RSVP by e-mail or call Mary Szczepanik, 415-816-3482.
Democrat Susan Bonilla is a Contra Costa County Supervisor (D-IV) and DeSaulnier-Torlakson-Miller gang backbencher who will run in 2010 for the District 11 Assembly seat currently held by Tom Torlakson who has been running the past two years for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2010.
In May 2009, firefighters won major concessions from County supervisors, including Bonilla, who are clearly impressed by the impact public-employee unions have on campaigns for higher office. Bonilla’s press release spun the contract as a win for taxpayers as it deferred a 2.5% pay increase. Yet this pyrrhic victory left intact deferred payments, plus even more expensive health and (unfunded) retirement benefits, as well as out of control overtime where, according to the Contra Costa County Auditor-Controller’s Office,
- 15 District employees earned over $100,000 in overtime
- 123 employees earned between $50,000 and $99,999 in overtime.
- 103 employees earned between $25,000 and $49,999 in overtime.report District employees
Have fun and don’t forget the special BBQ sauce on the roasted side of taxpayer that Bonilla and the Firefighters will be serving up.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Contra Costa firefighters are one of the best PACs the BOS have.
Rousing, I am not sure of what you said but there is a lot of it. Simply put: supervisors crowing about postponing a $2.5% increase is a red herring compared to costs of unchecked benefits and overtime.
When you bring in percentages as an argument without looking at the base real numbers you can add an element of enhanced excitement that may or may not be deserved. For example to raise the pay from say 100 a month to 160 a month is a 60% raise, but it does not address whether the pay should have been 100 a month to begin with and whether the subsequent 160 a month is the right number.
Or put in another words if you maintain an exceptionally low base pay unchanged for say 10 years and then adjusted it upwards to say make up for the changes just in cost of living it could look like a massive greed grab but all that is happening is to get back to where you started.
In both cases there was a staff report and a comparison of existing pay scales of comparable posts and in both cases the recommendation from the staff was for adjustment closer to the standard. So it was not as if this came out of the blue.
We can argue that the current level is too high, that we want our elected officials to make less than 40-50-70% of the people in their district. in fact you can argue that they should pay us for the honor of having a job at all and that they should work just for the health care and as part of their civic duty and whatever tips they can collect from developers and county contractors. But let us not stampede by the use of percentages without looking at what the base numbers mean in terms of actual pay.
As for eating cake… who bought that cake anyway?
“Let them eat cake” is what Marie Antoinette allegedly said to her starving peasants.
As mayor of Concord, Susan Bonilla, in 2006, gave the City Council — the mayor is a member of the City Council — a 72% raise.
As an incoming member of the Board of Supervisors of Contra Costa County, Bonilla, in 2006, supported the board’s plan to raise supervisor pay 60%.
Today, Concord and Contra Costa County are broke.
There is no need for a barbeque to raise money for Bonilla.
To all people planning to support Bonilla, here is my advice: “Let them eat cake.”
Richard S. Colman
Orinda, CA
Sept. 7, 2009