Comments on POLITC$: Some City of SB employees get 83 paid days off a y...

The big difference between public and private comp...

2009-03-31T16:03:00.000-07:00

The big difference between public and private compensation is that we are not FORCED to pay the private sector compensation. If the company gets in trouble for being overly generous, they can't come back to us customers (and non-customers) and demand more money, and send the police over to collect it. Such corporations go out of business, as they should for making such bad business decisions. <

A couple of years ago, The City of Santa Barbara, ...

2009-03-31T08:22:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, The City of Santa Barbara, in order to save money in operations, elected to adopt a "flex" schedule for most employees. This flex schedule includes working 9 hours a day, 80 hours every two weeks with every other Friday off. Lanny is misrepresenting this as a free holiday. Many people in the private sector work 4/10s or 10 hours a day to help the company save money.

Yes, when times get tough the people in the privat...

2009-03-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, when times get tough the people in the private sector always cry and moan about how great it is to be a civil servant...Didn't see any of you lining up for the great pay, lucrative benefits and days off of the civil servant in the good times...not to mention civil servants pay into their retirement a percentage of their already lower salaries...MOST work shift work, holiday's, do double

She isn't clueless, I propose that she is flat out...

2009-03-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

She isn't clueless, I propose that she is flat out lying. Every single politician good or bad needs to be voted out of office so we can start over.

I think it's ineffective to imply that politicians...

2009-03-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

I think it's ineffective to imply that politicians give away the store to unions simply because those unions give them campaign funds.
While it's a factor, there's a simpler explanation.

Public officials have no motivation to be tough in contract negotiations. The bargaining starts from the presumption that the union will get SOMETHING...it's just a matter of how much. It's not

It is wrong to tax people (Private Sector workers)...

2009-03-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

It is wrong to tax people (Private Sector workers) who make market wages in order to subsidize people (Civil Servants) who, by virtue of their union clout, have been able to negotiate wages and benefits well above the prevailing market.

Civil Servants are the energizer bunny's of greed and the self-serving, vote-selling, contribution-soliciting, politicians are their enablers.

Mayor Blum is behind the times. Once government e...

2009-03-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

Mayor Blum is behind the times. Once government employment was a trade-off -- lower pay but good benefits and great job security. But that's changed in the last 20 years.

Today government pay usually is ABOVE private sector wages for equivalent work, the benefit are outlandishly generous, retirement is a decade earlier than private workers, and the job security is better than ever.