December 2011

SEBA President
Laren Leichliter

Public Enemy Number One?

We have all heard that public employees and their pensions are the reason why California and the entire country are in debt and can’t pay their bills. Yet you never hear that these same public employees pay into the retirement system which is under attack and also pay for the medical benefits they receive throughout their career as public servants. We are the same employees that live in the cities and counties that we work in and help to support the same cities and counties with the property taxes and money we spend shopping. This money is put back into the city, county and state coffers. None of this information ever gets out to the public because politicians and big business do not want it to get out. They would have to try to find another scapegoat to blame their inflated budgets on, which could include their pay and profits and the ineffective decisions they make regarding their budgets.

Like our membership and all County employees, we are tired of hearing that we are the problem when, in fact, all bargaining groups have made some sort of concessions over the past few years and yet it is never enough. Another fact is some politicians seem to forget that public employees continue to be productive employees and support their communities and the county. Try to remember that the County along with the state are trying to use public employees as their political platform to get re-elected or to make them look good because that is the flavor of the time and they do not want the spotlight on them. SEBA will continue to attempt to remind the public and elected officials to stop blaming the public employees and to take a long, hard look in the mirror at other options they have in order to fix the problem without putting the burden on the employees that keep the entire city, county and state facilities running.

As always, remember to be safe.