Shot Heard 'Round the County

Not it's not to the excitement level of Bobby Thomson's Home Run, nor is it like Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem, but County Supervisor John Moorlach's anticipated announcement overhauling the County of Orange's employees pension should truly start a war which will rattle the County of Orange and may trickle down into the County's cities. One of the things expected to be cut will be the infamous "3 percent at 50," a pension formula which also has begun to infect the City of Newport's public employee ranks. Supervisor Moorlach promised this action while the Treasurer/Tax Collector for the County and promised it during his Supervisorial campaign as part of his solution to get rid of the seemingly insurmountable County Employees Unfunded Pension Liability of over 2.3 billion bucks (in 2005). The County's Employee Union has been preparing for this battle for some time now, first funding a paper candidate against Moorlach during his campaign, then sending letters to then-Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Campbell, resulting in Moorlach calling the Union leaders thugs, which then started another battle of words.

This is very interesting in how it'll play out, whether the other County Supervisors will jump on board with Moorlach, or whether they will fear the Union enough to stay away. More interesting will be whether the "Republicans" on the Newport Beach City Council will take notice and start going after our own City Employee Unions and our own unfunded pension liabilities for our many, many City Employees

Update - Here's the OC Register's Total Buzz take on it with some more details.

Update #2 - Here's the OC Register's Total Buzz After-The-Press-Conference report.

Update #3 - And here's the OC Register's More-Comprehensive report...with pictures.