Its A Start

First off, what Newport Beach City Councilman Keith Curry is trying to do with having the voters vote on City Employee Pensions is a very good idea and will help the City save some money, even if 3.5% of the 11% RAISE the City Employees will get over the next three years will go to their own pensions (so technically, they get a 7.5% over the next three years). Its a great start in reining in the overspending City Council's typically do on the Gravy Train mentality City Employees, and City Councils, typically have.

But...before the Lincoln Club of Orange County president Richard Wagner kisses Councilman Keith Curry's butt too much (in this OCRegister opinion piece), lets have him look at a few things the Newport Beach City Council is wrapped up in.

1. They are looking to BORROW millions and millions of dollars ($35-$60 million depending on who you speak with, paid off over 30 years at 4-6% interest) to build a new City Hall (which was originally designed for FUTURE EMPLOYEE GROWTH). This would increase the size of government and add debt for future generations to pay off.

2. Any way you look at it, any way you try to explain it, any way you try to justify it, and any way you compare it to our neighboring cities, WE HAVE MORE CITY EMPLOYEES PER RESIDENTS THAN ANY OTHER CITY. More than Democrat controlled Irvine, more than Democrat controlled Huntington Beach. And the numbers keep increasing.

3. In the past election, the two main City Employee UNIONS (they like to be called Associations) spent almost $50,000 (OUR Newport Beach Firefighters also contributed $1000 to Tom Umberg in 2007 for his failed Supervisorial, not even our Supervisor District, race) on getting their Slate of City Council candidates elected. Do you think keeping the size of Government down is in their best interest?

If you look on the Lincoln Club's website, the motto at the top is "California's leading advocate for smaller Government."

What Councilman Curry is trying to do is a step in the right direction, but in looking at Newport Beach, we can hardly be considered a model for smaller Government.

But it is a start.