1. This woman works for the county, not the state. And, it's a rich county, San Francisco Bay Area. Median income is over $90,000.00 per year.
2. She is the County Administrator for a county with over 1,500,000 residents.
3. I missed any indication in the article that the county anticipated being in the position of being unable to pay her salary or her pension now, or in the future. Is there some reason to believe that is the case?
4. I agree it seems outrageous but it also seems that there are some conclusions/opinions being posted up that lack support and are based on outrage that some government employee has managed to cut herself a pretty good employment package. I doubt there would be much criticism if it were a private employment scenario.
Originally Posted by timpage
You're right, there wouldn't be much criticism in private employment. But there shouldn't be. If Office Depot overcompensates its senior sales managers, it doesn't affect me. I'll shop elsewhere if their prices are too high, and they will go broke if they don't fix the situation.
But taxpayers are fucked in her county. They are stuck with her compensation package for a long time to come. Even worse than the Mets were stuck with Bobby Bonilla's contact for half of forever.
Government jobs traditionally paid less than their counterparts in the private sector. The tradeoff was that you had better job security than you would have had in the private sector. When you work for the state or county, you don't have to worry about your "company" going broke or about being downsized after a merger.
That situation has been changing thanks to large public employee unions and compliant politicians looking for votes. Many public employees are compensated as well as or even better than their private sector counterparts and their jobs are STILL virtually guaranteed. This is a wort of both worlds approach.
Read Captain Midnight's post above. This has happened many times in California already. The state is going broke on compensation for its public employees. And they have been seeking bailouts from the federal government.
Fuck them. They broke it. They can fix it.
This isn't a natural disaster. it is man-made.
If an earthquake wrecked the SF Bay area, then the rest of the country should help with the bailout. If bad governance wrecks the SF Bay area, then the rest of the country should let them figure out how to fix their own mess.
Public employee pensions with defined benefits should be ENDED. They should have a 401(k) or the equivalent where they have a defined contribution. Their retirement should be based on what they save, not what they can vote themselves.