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Five rules

Editor: The City was trying to save money once again, by having

There are stark, disturbing clouds darkening parts of every community and neighborhood in Sonoma County. Please be alerted that these clouds are increasing and will not go away without our intervention.

The news this week is good. Sonoma County was just rated the eighth healthiest county in California, based on findings in a national survey of 3,000 counties. Good health is always good news.

CALPERS is the pseudo government agency set up to manage the defined benefit retirement program for government employees.  Their charter is to collect retirement contributions, invest these contributions to maximize return and provide defined benefits to the actual retiree.  CALPERS is controlled by and largely for the benefit of the legislature and government employees.  

I am running for Healdsburg City Council and as such I am one of six people running for a total of three open positions.  There are two incumbents and four new people, such as myself.  I have no doubt that each of the candidates have the interests of Healdsburg at heart.  They have to, with a salary of $150.00 per month, with very limited medical coverage and no real retirement benefits; you sure don’t do it for the money.  You surely don’t do it for the vast prestige of the position either, as there are no corporate boards to join after your retire or speaking tours that are super lucrative.  In point of fact, you end up working something on the order of 20 hours a week for a basic salary of something less than $2.00 per hour.  This is less than minimum wage in California.  Even at that, some people feel that their representatives are overpaid.  SO WHY DO IT?????  I think you have to have some issues that you feel need to be addressed and the belief that you can materially contribute to the resolution of these issues.  In my case I am very concerned about the financial well-being of the city, given the current city government salary levels and the generous retirement benefits.  This is a CURRENT problem and not a future issue that can be addressed by simply changing the conditions for new hires only.  The work force is contracting and not expanding, so the impact of new hires on the retirement system is minimal.  The city employees are very dedicated and through salary give backs and related concessions they have materially lessened the financial impact on the city.  However, these steps may not be enough and additional difficult steps may be required to achieve financial well-being for the benefit of everyone.