In a Tuesday interview with SD Rostra, Ernie Dronenburg declared victory
over appointed Democrat David Butler in the race for San Diego County
Assessor/Recorder/Clerk. Dronenburg leads Butler by 16,380 votes with
just 2,000 more to process countywide.
He reaffirmed his campaign pledges to (1) Refuse any County Pension
and (2) Self-impose a limit of two 4-year terms on his service in the post.
[Voter-approved term limits adopted in the June primary apply only to
County Supervisors, not the four countywide offices of DA, Sheriff,
Assessor and Treasurer/Tax Collector].
…………………….. Dronenburg’s “Road Map”
SD Rostra asked about a frequent critic at this site who claims Ernie
will be a part-timer, working only at the North county center in Vista. The gadfly suggests the ARC office will then be left to drift like a rudderless ship.
Dronenburg laughed at this dire picture. “What that person does not
realize is that I commuted for 11 years to San Diego, from 1998 to 2009, in my job with Deloitte/Touche. Of course I will often be at the down-
town County Administration Center, which is the nerve center of county
government.” Dronenburg was an elected member of the State Board of
Equalization from 1978 to 1998, before accepting a job with the
prestigious Deloitte-Touche national accounting firm.
Dronenburg confirmed to SD Rostra that he does have a map from his
home in North County all the way to downtown San Diego, and will travel
that distance frequently!
Comments 4
SD City and County offices are in direct competition with all passport photo stores. I was born in SD went to Hilltop High School in Chula Vista and Southwestern College.
I worked in my fathers photography studios on Broadway downtown SD. I learned my trait at 9 years old.
When I was 28 in 1975 I opened my 1st store at Midway Dr @ Barnett Ave. In 1977 in Chula Vista on Third Ave. In 1986 in Escondido. Since the county went into competition with us our business has been hanging by a thread. The City and County Government has seen fit to take our businesses away from us. This is unfair competition. I’m not the only one that feels this way.
This may seem trivial to you but I would be forever gratefull if you would look into this injustice before we lose everything. I am a taxpayer and a customer. My State Board of Equalization has had a perfect record since 1975.
Thank You very much for your time. I hope this message gets to you. My phone number is 760-741-9663
Siny Joseph D Harris
“What that person does not realize is that I commuted for 11 years to San Diego, from 1998 to 2009 in my job with Deloitte/Touche.”
Well, according to Ernie’s biography, he left Deloitte in 5-2006, about the same time he moved to Fallbrook:
http://www.smartvoter.org/2010/06/08/ca/sd/vote/dronenburg_ej/bio.html
“Dronenburg confirmed to SD Rostra that he does have a map from his home in North County all the way to downtown San Diego, and will travel that distance frequently!”
Not exactly a ringing endorsement for showing up at work, but congratulations and good luck to Mr. Dronenburg anyway.
(A) ‘Gadfly’ has posted here before, but using another name, while criticizing Mr. Dronenburg. And Yes, we can tell. (B) Mr. Dronenburg did indeed retire from Deloitte in the last year.
(C) Fallbrook is a fine community in San Diego county, and perfectly appropriate base for a countywide candidate and (D) an earlier critic claimed on Oct. 18 that Mr. Dronenburg would only visit the Assessor’s office once-a-week! Thus, the point that he will be going there on a regular basis.
There’s an interesting side issue concerning the race that has nothing to do with Ernie, but says a lot about the common practice of appointing an “Assistant _____________” to the head job for a year or two until the next election. It’s an easy interim solution for our overworked politicians, but it has unintended(?) consequences.
As I understand it, David Butler is now retired with his pension figured on the full County Assessor salary, rather than on his previous pay which was probably about $30,000 less (I’m not going to do the research on this specific amount). Remember, most current government employees get their guaranteed pension based on the last (usually highest) 12 months pay.
Given the many years of “public service” Butler put in with the county, he will probably retire with about 90% of his highest pay. Hence for working a couple years as County Assessor (complete with, as I recall, a 5% pay increase in the teeth of this recession), he gets a lifetime pension increase of $27,000 a year — or more.
This is NOT to denigrate Butler! Any sane person would have taken this windfall (NOTE: I don’t consider myself sane on this issue). And maybe there was some special arrangement to this windfall didn’t happen.
But such is the case for these temporary appointments. We give taxpayer money away needlessly.
Supporters of these pensions make the specious claim that the employee “paid half” of the pension (at best). But when one has to pay an increased pension contribution at the higher salary level for a year or two, the employee has paid only a tiny fraction of the new pension obligation cost.
Assuming an annual $27,000 addition pension obligation of a $30,000 salary increase, the annual employee “half” is 8% of $30,000, or $2,400. Assuming this is paid for two years, that’s a total of $4,800 the employee has to pay into the pension fund.
For that $4,800 contribution, in this case our employee would then draw $27,000 a year for life — plus some COL increases. Of course, the $4,800 employee payment is paid out the first year after earning almost nothing in such a short time frame. After that, it’s all on the taxpayers’ backs.
It’s this sort of routine spiking and retroactive pension increases that dooms ALL government defined benefit pensions. Politicians LOVE to give away a benefit (or benefit promise) today that doesn’t have to be paid until “tomorrow.”
I commend Ernie for refusing to take the pension. He’s already drawing one or more government pensions, and would be “bad form” for him to add another pension to his take (most would).