SAN DIEGO >> It’s a good idea to occasionally venture to other parts of California to learn how other communities are tackling problems similar to our own. I’m in San Diego on a political fact-finding trip including a sit-down with Mayor Kevin Faulconer.
Of America’s 10 largest cities, booming and ethnically diverse San Diego is the only one with a Republican at the top. Faulconer is the last of a breed of Bill Bagley-like GOP moderates — a good-government type who runs America’s eighth-largest city in a pragmatic, nonpartisan manner.
His explanation of San Diego’s approach to public employee retirement reform was revealing. Due to disastrous decisions which Marin fortuitously escaped, San Diego’s pension problem was so dysfunctional that the city was known as “Enron on the Sea.”
Angry voters reacted decisively. In 2012, Mayor Jerry Sanders, backed by then-Councilman Faulkner, passed Measure B by a 66 percent margin. The initiative abolished defined-benefit pensions for all new city employees except police. It was replaced by a private-sector-style fixed contribution 401(k) plan.
Unions and CalPERS fought it tooth and nail, fearing 401(k) plans would be the template for the rest of the Golden State. So far, Measure B remains in effect.
The good news is that San Diego, with an increasingly diverse economy, is financially stable again.
Unfortunately, there is little the city can do to pay prior retirement commitments. It’s finally obvious pension investment returns were previously assumed at unrealistically high rates. Auditors are commencing the painful process of making them realistic.
When San Diego’s pension assumptions were recently adjusted, the city got hit with a $52 million bill. Funds budgeted for roads, housing and transit are being diverted to fill the pension hole.
The lesson is that even prudently managed California cities face a fiscal dilemma due to a time when voters rewarded elected officials who blithely traded votes for a generation of public debt.
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Our soon-to-be-released “IJ Forums” television program features Marin Municipal Water District general manager Krishna Kumar and Kentfield’s Mimi Willard, leader of the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers. Kumar surprised us by indicating the water board may reconsider plans to change the district’s billing cycle from every two months to monthly.
The switch is an aspect of MMWD’s proposed water rate increase. It will initially cost $338,000 for new software to support the program and $650,000 annually to maintain the doubling of annual transactions.
The optics are poor, since on the surface the move seems like bait-and-switch. Homeowner perceptions will be that rates went down because the monthly bill will be one-half of the current every-two-month bill and will mask rate increases.
MMWD directors would be wise to acknowledge that while some rates hikes are inevitable, transparency must remain a core concept. Keep the current billing cycle even if residents experience sticker shock when bills come due.
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Supervisor Damon Connolly is becoming a sporting man. He’s honorably paying off an old election bet by running the grueling 7.4-mile Dipsea foot race. The San Rafael-based county supervisor is all in. He’s made three local runs and has been hitting the YMCA gym on mornings before work as well.
The 107th running of the Mill Valley-to-Stinson Beach up-and-down race is set for June 11.
The Civic Center contingent will include Connolly, Supervisor Dennis Rodoni’s aide Lorenzo Cordova and Max Perrey, aide to Supervisor Katie Rice.
I’ve never run the race, but I have walked the Dipsea and when I got to Stinson it felt like a real accomplishment.
Columnist Dick Spotswood writes about local issues on Wednesdays and Sundays in the IJ. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.
