“An Orange County judge Friday rejected a request by a county employees union to halt the layoffs of nearly 200 social service employees, many of whom were notified this week that they would lose their jobs,” according to the L.A. Times.
County CEO argued in a recent email newsletter that “As OCEA is well aware, the more we delay responsible action on budget reductions, the greater the number of layoffs there will be later in the fiscal year. That is because we have a shorter period of time in which to create the savings that are needed as a result of the lack of revenue from the State of California (i.e. a larger number of layoffs will be required in that shorter period of time).
So how did the budget crisis at the County of Orange get this bad?
One of our readers emailed me the thoughts below, which pose the question, “did the County administrators make things worse by crafting unrealistic budgets that over-estimating SSA state revenue?”
It just may be that the county – particularly the Executive Officer – has erred in building this year’s budget by unreasonably estimating state revenue too high for programs like those that SSA operates. Rather than a crisis of declining revenue, it could be a crisis of unreasonably high estimates of revenue colliding with reality. Mix in the economic problems of the last several months to make it even worse.
The question could be asked -are the layoffs the result of the bad economic times, or are they needed because the county was not realistic in its budget in the first place? Was this a classic “bet on the come” and the “come” did not happen? Or, is it 100% the lousy economy? Truth is, probably a mix of both in my estimation.
Mauk also stated, in his recent email newsletter, that “I believe OCEA needs to begin to pay attention to the real financial issues and difficulties of the County of Orange and support not only its members but the taxpayers of Orange County. If there was ever an example of OCEA’s total lack of regard for the overall budget situation, the taxpayers of Orange County and our employees, this is it!”
I think it is ridiculous for Mauk to entirely blame the OCEA. When you consider how much money the O.C. Supervisors have wasted this year on inflated car allowances, manager bonuses, expensive new furniture and unnecessary lobby remodeling, it is clear that the Supervisors and Mauk are themselves part of the problem – not part of the solution.
What does OCEA President Nick Berardino have to say about all this?
Here are a few excerpts from his latest posting on the OCEA’s website:
Although the Court denied OCEA’s request for the emergency stay, it did set a date later this month for hearing on a preliminary injunction. What this means is that OCEA will continue to move forward both in Court and through the grievance process to protect our members, their families and their economic well being.
Many of you may have seen the CEO’s latest scare tactic communication to the workforce about OCEA’s efforts to stop the layoffs. The CEO is being deliberately misleading when he accuses OCEA of proposing more layoffs. His statement is false and he knows it, and his motive for making that false statement is to keep you and your coworkers from pursuing your rights as employees.
We have also received information that the County will not engage in a more collaborative approach until we stop highlighting the remodel of the board’s lobby as well as the perks and salaries of executive management and the board to the press. OCEA is focused on saving jobs, minimizing negative impacts on all employees, and ensuring that the County’s actions are both fair and legal. Period. Tom Mauk’s characterization of the layoffs as a “responsible action on budget reductions” demonstrates the single-minded focus of the County, its CEO, and the Board of Supervisors to solve the County’s budget problems on the backs of workers. Period.
I am not a big fan of Berardino, but the County’s negotiation tactics appear to be heavy handed and counterproductive. I don’t know that Berardino’s tactics will have any sort of positive effect, but he is right about the County’s culture of waste. That is a point we will continue to revisit here at the Orange Juice as the County budget crisis continues to unfold.
I work at the Clerk-Recorder office and we are openning a satelite office in Fullerton which will cost the County thousands of dollars for the remodel and we also purchase a building for archives that cost over a Million dollars. Why dont we stop these project so we can save some money and jobs. We have an elected official Tom Daly that never comes to work and never talks to any of us at work. He should donate his salary and car allowance back. We all hope he leaves office and run for election somewhere else so we can have a real boss. I have been working here for over 8 years and he is the worst. He lets his stupid manager Renee Ramirez run the show. She is the worst manager in the county. They are both a waste of tax payers money.
Frustrating that no one ever listens to the “real” employees, those that show up everyday and know exactly what’s going on. Why does management in most public agencies seem to be so out of touch? Does anyone know where Tom Daly is?
Regarding Tom Daly, past posts on this blog have speculated that he will run for the Board of Supervisors when Supervisor Norby is termed-out. If true, be careful what you ask for. It is noteworthy that response No. 1 mentions a new office in Fullerton because that area is in Norby’s Supervisor District and this would seem to elevate Daly’s visibility (at least his photo on the wall)in that District. Connect the dots —-
One of the reasons I love this blog so much is that it is accessible to the “real” employees. I speak for most of us here when I say please, please tell us what’s going on. Tell us when the emperor has no clothes and doesn’t even show up for work. Tell us anonymously. Tell us rumors and suspicions, tell us the funny stuff you joke about in the lunchroom. Tell us when you need some support. Use this tool and it will become more effective.
The state gives the counties pots of money (called categorical funding) to operate state mandated human service and health programs, and to some extent also Probation programs. The county staffs up to what they think that pot will be. If it turns out the pot actually arrives with less state money than the budget assumes, the county must either cut back expenses, pump in county dollars to make up the shortfall, or a combination of both. The Orange County Board of supervisors has traditionally balked at putting county dollars into these state mandated programs on those occasions where the state funding proves inadequate. So, two questions seem to exist: (1) Does the county have the money to put into these programs to avoid the layoffs? and (2) if so, should the county subsidize these state programs in that manner and why? Question 1 is a financial question, question 2 is a policy question. Not rocket science but rather sticky public policy questions.
Here is an email alert sent out today by John Palacio, board member of SAUSD:
Friday, January 9, 2009
Sacramento stalemate could cut off funding soon
With the state running low on cash and facing a colossal deficit, the governor and lawmakers can’t agree on a fix.
By BRIAN JOSEPH
The Orange County Register
SACRAMENTO – The only thing moving at the State Capitol these days is the giant digital counter outside the governor’s office, tallying our way to ruin.
Every second, the counter adds $470 to the state’s growing deficit. The numbers spin frantically, manically, while the governor and a balkanized Legislature argue and pontificate but can’t agree on a solution.
The deficit will top $41 billion by July 2010, but the state will run out of cash sometime in February or March. California needs to fix its budget now or the wheels of government will begin grinding to a halt and the state will have to start handing out IOUs.
Already, the state has stopped $3.8 billion in financing for public works projects and there’s talk that tax refunds could be delayed this year.
The consequences of the cash crunch aren’t certain—this is uncharted territory–but elected officials and their staffs are expected to have their paychecks cut off as soon as February and college students could be cut off from grants from the Student Aid Commission. And that’s just where the problems start.
“This is the most challenging fiscal crisis California has ever faced,” finance director Mike Genest says. But elected leaders in Sacramento can’t agree on what to do and negotiations have faltered as all sides have drawn lines in the sand
.
No compromise
Republicans, led by Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines of Clovis and Senate Minority Leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto, have refused to support new taxes. The faltering economy has dramatically reduced state tax revenues, but Republicans have said spending cuts and redirected funds can cover the shortfall. The state needs to live within its means, they say.
Democrats, led by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass of Los Angeles and Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, refuse to accept a cuts-only solution. The poor and the elderly would be hurt, they say. But state law says that two-thirds of the Legislature must approve a tax increase and the GOP control a little more than a third of it. A majority of the Legislature can only raise fees.
Several proposals mixing cuts and tax increases floundered about until Democrats dusted off a legal opinion that says a majority of the Legislature may raise and lower taxes so long as the net impact is zero. Using that questionable theory, the Democrats raised some taxes, lowered some others and enacted new fees. They sent the governor a budget solution without a single Republican vote.
But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t like the plan. He criticized the tax increases as hurting Californians and said the package didn’t do enough to stimulate the economy. Schwarzenegger said he wasn’t concerned about cutting his fellow Republicans out of the process, but he demanded that Democrats give him deeper cuts plus environmental and labor reforms to make new construction easier.
Democrats refused to give him exactly what he wanted. So he vetoed it.
Pressure on all sides
“We could not reach a deal because Democrats could not stand up to special interests” on the reforms he wanted, the governor said this week.
But Democrats countered that the Republican governor likewise was pressured to reject the plan because it cut Republican lawmakers out of the process.
And on the sidelines are the Republicans, who know that they’ll be blacklisted from their own party if they ever support a tax increase.
Whichever side you take, it’s been more than two months since state leaders realized the budget was bleeding red ink and they have next to nothing to show for it.
The governor used this void to push for the Legislature to consider his newest budget proposal, which his administration released on Dec. 31. But his new plan includes an unpopular proposal to cut the school year by a week and as well as a proposal to reduce tax credits for dependent children. It’s already drawn the same criticism leveled at previous plans.
Negotiations began anew Thursday, but the lawmakers had little to say. “It was a very good, cordial conversation,” Steinberg said.
Meanwhile, Republicans are pushing for immediate action on areas of consensus, such as spending cuts, but they’ve been pushing for that for some time and it’s gone nowhere. The governor wants a comprehensive plan, saying if you cut services and raise taxes you must also offer a good economic stimulus package.
As a stop gap, the governor has ordered the state Department of Personnel to adopt a plan to furlough state employees for two days a month without pay and to begin layoffs of state workers. State employees, however, are trying to block the order.
‘The worst’ ever
“I’ve never seen it this bad,” said State Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, who was first elected to the Legislature in 1998, the earliest in the Orange County delegation. “Is this the worst? Yeah, this is the worst.”
There’s a sense on the Capitol that this budget calamity is historic not only for its numbers, but for the intractability of the factions. After years of piecemeal compromising on the budget, the only thing left is major reform – cutting the size government, changing the tax structure. Politically, major reform hurts.
“My perspective is that the Legislature, for far too many years, we’ve used band aids, short-term solutions to get us through every budget year that we’ve had, probably for the last six to eight years. And because of that, the crisis we always keep talking about has never really materialized as has been predicted,” Correa said.
“Today, we’ve reached the point where, again, we’re talking about a crisis and you hope that this point we do take this clear and present danger to put together some real reforms and real solutions.”
Like everyone else, he’s waiting to see if they do.
Contact the writer: 916-449-6046 or bjoseph@ocregister.com
I worked for the County from 3/78 to 1/89. There were ‘rumblings’ of the County bankruptcy long before it ever happened. I remember countless meetings happening in former CEO’s Larry Parrish office regarding possible ‘improprieties’ happening in Citron’s office.
I see that the department administrators are still not performing their respective jobs and having all the department ‘supervisors’ do it for them. It’s disgusting to see that not much has changed over the years. When is all of these ‘smart voters’ going to stop re-electing all of these inept people to these offices?
No. 7 – very interesting. Mr. Parrish went on to become Riverside County CEO and was apaprently highly regarded out there – he retired in the last year or so. As to inept folks getting elected, few who run with significant $$ and political backing are the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. At least that is my observation. There is now a next generation Nestande elected to the Assembly from Riverside County – stay tuned.
The reason that the crisis is this bad is simple. Tom Mauk failed to do his job, and now he wants to lay off the people who did theirs. It really is that simple.
Mauk’s job was to take the past experience of the bankruptcy, and apply it proactively to the county, preparing for a worst case scenario. This state meltdown isn’t some surprise, people! We knew this was coming back when Gray Davis was recalled and we got “Arnold the Incompetent” at the helm. While others were preparing, Tommy Mauk and the Board were rearranging new luxury deck chairs on the Titanic, sipping champagne and spending, spending, spending.
Mauk’s arrogance is despicable. Mauk must go, and any BoS member who supports him must be recalled.