A few years ago, I led a broad coalition in San Jose in support of a Fiscal Reform Plan that was designed to bring skyrocketing costs under control and bring an end to a decade of cutting services to our residents. This plan included pension reform, which became known as Measure B and was approved at the ballot by the voters.
Thanks to the savings from Measure B and the Fiscal Reform Plan, we saved the city from service level insolvency and have placed the city on the road to fiscal recovery, restoring services instead of cutting services.
But it wasn’t perfect.
For years, we’ve fought legal battles over Measure B. The courts invalidated some of the pension reforms, and the savings we are getting from the other reforms remain at risk in the ongoing litigation. In addition, we’ve had difficulty retaining and recruiting officers, resulting in a police department that is short-staffed by hundreds of officers and struggling to maintain its most basic services.
Now, we have a reasonable settlement that will end the litigation, save as much money, and help us recruit and retain police officers. The settlement is known as Measure F and will appear on the ballot this November.
San Jose residents should vote yes on Measure F.
Why? Measure F is a sensible and reasonable modification to the Measure B reforms that will save us money and help us rebuild our police department.
In simple terms, Measure F secures more than $40 million per year. That is actually a little bit more than we are already receiving from Measure B and other related pension reforms. And it’s the amount of savings that remains at risk from litigation if we don’t approve this settlement.
The $40 million per year is real savings. It’s real money that’s already being spent on real services to our residents and taxpayers. It’s real money that we cannot afford to gamble in a legal case that would ultimately have to be decided by the California Supreme Court.
Measure F also secures these savings in a way that will help us to rebuild the San Jose Police Department. For example, Measure F restores previous disability benefits for police officers and firefighters, a key consideration for new recruits, while maintaining Measure B’s requirement that disability decisions are made by an independent medical panel.
Some pension reform advocates have criticized the terms of the settlement, the process of reaching a settlement, and the value of the settlement. Others say we should take the case to the Supreme Court and roll the dice.
I say look at the bottom line. Litigation is always risky, and in any settlement, compromises have to be made – but there are 40 million reasons to support the deal.
If we approve the Measure F settlement, we can keep and spend our $40 million per year to rebuild our police department and restore services to our residents – and we should.
That was the reason for pension reform in the first place. That’s what we can protect through Measure F. And that’s just one of the reasons why a remarkable coalition that includes police officers, firefighters, the Chamber of Commerce, five other former mayors and myself all agree – YES on Measure F this November.
Chuck Reed was mayor of San Jose when he authored pension reform Measure B in 2012. He wrote this for The Mercury News.
