Today the San Diego POA announced its support for Nathan Fletcher in the San Diego mayoral contest.
Considering the assumption by many that D.A. Bonnie Dumanis would rake in the bulk of the big law enforcement endorsements, that’s a nugget for Fletcher.
The obvious foremost reason this is a surprise — Fletcher is in disagreement with the POA on a key issue by supporting Comprehensive Pension Reform. That the organization is still backing him shows his candidacy is bigger than one issue. Yes, this is of course a union, but one that comes with some name clout and probable financial backing for Fletcher. Despite it being labor, some organizations and groups still care enough about the future direction of our city to make a tough call, even when faced with a dilemma. Is it also a testament to how quickly Demaio and Filner can alienate people and the uninspiring level of the Dumanis campaign? You be the judge.
This endorsement undercuts a major rationale for Dumanis’ candidacy, since the law enforcement community of which she’s a part now stands with her opponent. It’s evident she decided not to seek the endorsement after it was clear she would be unable to get the POA support, but then asked the organization to stay neutral. Dumanis has accepted the endorsement of smaller law enforcement organizations like the Code Enforcement Officers and her own employees — the District Attorneys Association. But she lost the big ones, SDPOA and PORAC to Fletcher. He can now legitimately lay claim to being law enforcement’s choice.
The support of the law enforcement community is a big deal and seems to add momentum to the Fletcher campaign, especially given he doesn’t have a stellar record with labor. He has an 11 percent pro-labor rating during his time in the Assembly, clearly no tool of organized labor, making the POA support even more significant. SDPOA may be acknowledging the City is ready for change, with insiders saying Fletcher’s willingness to look at both sides of an issue and thoughtfully make a decision helped carry the day.
Demaio will likely try to attack the endorsement. Dumanis will downplay it. Yet, this is a big one.
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UPDATE 2:52 pm: At least partially in response to this blog entry, questions were posed on Twitter today about whether Dumanis “asked the organization to stay neutral,” as I wrote above and whether she had ever sought the POA endorsement. The Voice’s Liam Dillon tweeted that the Dumanis campaign at one point stated she “will not be seeking the endorsements of any of the organizations that represent City employees, including public safety,” and further mentioned that POA President Brian Marvel confirmed a neutral position was requested by Dumanis. Former Dumanis Campaign Manager Tommy Mitchell also responded with tweets, saying “During my short lived time on the campaign the endorsement was never on the table,” and “Yes, request for neutrality. Campaign reason was she was prosecuting police, would be conflict of interest.”
Comments 3
I will not vote for any candidate who is supported by public employee unions. They have looted the City and brought it close to bankruptcy.
To the SDROSTRA faithful,
Last night, I had the opportunity to watch Richard Rider explain why he thinks the SDPOA endorsed Nathan Flethcer. He mentioned AB 2510, which was a bill that the SDPOA and Mayor Sanders office worked with Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher to sponsor. The bill is now a law and known as GC 22894. Rider either is unaware of what the bill does or he purposely misled viewers on 10 News about it for political reasons. I would like to think that Rider simply does not understand the law, because I have typically respected his knowledge on policy matters.
Two years ago, the SDPOA looked at the compensation offered to retired officers and wondered if the retiree healthcare benefits in effect when they retired, and certainly vested per Jan Goldsmith, could be modified to allow a wider choice of health plans at almost a 50% reduced cost. The SDPOA looked at CalPERS Health, the second largest provider of healthcare in the United States, as a possible solution; however one huge hurdle existed. CalPERS required employers to offer retiree healthcare benefits to employees as soon as they vested in service, which typically happened after five years. Since the City of San Diego had already eliminated this benefit for its new employees, it would never consider entering CalPERS Health if it had to make contributions to employees who were not eligible for the benefit.
The SDPOA and Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher focused on answering a single question: How could the Public Employees Medical Health and Care act (PEMHCA) be changed so that employers could reduce the costs and fund the promises that were already made and vested to retired employees, while keeping retiree healthcare liabilities from growing by eliminating the mandate for the City of San Diego to fund benefits for new employees entering the CalPERS Health System?
The answer was AB 2510, which for the first time allows a non school public agency to enter the CalPERS Health System under terms that do not require a mandatory retiree health contribution for every employee. This has the potential to save the City of San Diego millions of dollars, further reduce its retiree health liability and has flooded the SDPOA with calls from other agencies seeking to enact similar legislation. If public agencies utilizing the CalPERS Health network had this legislation at their disposal it could potentially save taxpayers billions of dollars.
I invite Richard Rider, the SDCTA and any other taxpayer advocate to meet with the SDPOA and listen to their ideas and proposals before misstating them publicly. This legislation also demonstrated to the SDPOA that a politician and organized labor could work together to create legislation that benefits employees, as well as taxpayers, and it certainly opened the SDPOA’s eyes to the type of mayor we want for the City of San Diego. Unlike other candidates, Nathan Fletcher had the will to explore possibilities and solutions, while others continue to demonize and manipulate data to further their own mayoral aspirations.
Respectfully,
Jeff Jordon
Dear Jeff,
We, at SDCTA, have always appreciated the open dialogue with SDPOA. I enjoyed meeting with you last week, and we continue to be interested in both new and old ideas presented by SDPOA to reform benefits which will result in taxpayer savings.
I invite you to provide a presentation on AB 2510 to SDCTA’s Issues Committee in November or some future date that works well for you.
Thanks, too, for your suggestions on improving our retiree health reform recommendations for CalPERS-contracted agencies. We will be releasing our updated recommendations in the very near future.
Regards,
Lani Lutar
President & CEO
San Diego County Taxpayers Association