These Initiatives Must Be Stopped!
This is a message from Brian Marvel, president of the San Diego Police Officers Association. He is hoping you and your members can help the San Diego POA and all of California’s law enforcement officers.
To my fellow police association leaders and members:
We need your help to defeat the proposals described below. If they are successful in California, this will spread across America. As we work toward defeating the DeMaio/Reed initiatives, you can be assured that we won’t be alone. Other law enforcement associations throughout the region and state are taking an “all hands on deck” mentality, as are all labor groups. This will be a sizeable coalition, and one with enough power to stop these efforts in their tracks – but only if we can garner national support. We anticipate that a few wealthy benefactors will step in with sizeable contributions to fund the DeMaio/Reed initiatives, which is why it is critical we are well-prepared and well-funded. If you can help, please donate to our SDPOA PAC.
Two time political loser and former San Diego councilman Carl DeMaio along with the former Mayor of San Jose, Chuck Reed, who decimated staffing at the San Jose Police Department have teamed up in an attempt to place a few initiatives on the November 2016 ballot. These initiatives if passed would require voter-approval for any increase in benefits or compensation for public employees.
They named the first measure, the “Voter Empowerment Act of 2016,” but fortunately, California Attorney General Kamala Harris sniffed through their bull*&!$$ and renamed it “Public Employees, Pension and Retiree Healthcare Benefits Initiative Constitutional Amendment,” with a title and summary that more accurately portrays what their initiative does. It would be one of the most dramatic and draconian assaults on public employees in California’s history, and would place permanent handcuffs on the abilities of associations and governments to negotiate labor agreements.
As you can imagine, the San Diego Police Officers Association is strongly opposed to it and will be doing all we can to defeat it.
It’s most critical provisions include:
- All new employees hired after January 1, 2019 will be placed in a 401(k) style defined contribution retirement plan
- Removes collective bargaining rights to negotiate over enhanced pension benefits relating to defined benefit plans
- Prohibit any government employer from paying for more than 50% of the total cost of retirement benefits for new employees, unless approved by voters in an election.
- By altering the constitution, the initiative would remove the concept of vested benefits, which have protected public employees.
- Doesn’t allow a retirement system to impose any fees, require accelerated debt payments or place other financial conditions on a public employer seeking to close a defined benefits plan. This will directly affect retirees if the system files for Bankruptcy under Chapter 9 of the USC.
- We are conducting a vote of our membership to create a special assessment and have asked our retirees to help out the best they can.
We have heard rumors Carl and Chuck were going to scratch their pension attack until 2018. Unfortunately, they are going to reword it and re-submit for title and summary for the November 2016 election. To hedge their bet, they are going to submit two additional proposals that will take a “totally different approach’ than the first measure.
We received word that DeMaio/Reed submitted two additional initiatives***
Government Pension Cap Act of 2016
Voter Empowerment Act of 2016 – This is a different measure than the first one submitted under this name.
We need your help to defeat these measures. If they are successful in California, this will spread across America. As we work toward defeating the DeMaio/Reed initiatives, you can be assured that we won’t be alone. Other law enforcement associations throughout the region and state are taking an “All hands on deck” mentality, as are all labor groups. This will be a sizeable coalition, and one with enough power to stop these efforts in their tracks – but only if we can garner national support. We anticipate that a few wealthy benefactors will step in with sizeable contributions to fund the DeMaio/Reed initiatives, which is why it is critical we are well-prepared and well-funded.
If you can help, please donate to our SDPOA PAC.
Thank you for all your support.
Very truly yours,
Brian R Marvel, President
San Diego POA
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