San Jose Workers Vow to Fight Pension Deception

by Jon Melegrito  |  March 09, 2012

At the San Jose city council hearing, workers and community supporters waved "False" signs at Mayor Chuck Reed and other city politicians who lied to the public about pensions by more than a quarter of a billion dollars (Photo by Carmen Berkley)

Calling a ballot measure targeting pensions “needlessly divisive and legally risky,” San Jose City workers and their supporters are bracing for battle now that the city council has decided to put the issue to a public vote. Pushed by Mayor Chuck Reed, the council wants current city workers – who have already taken 20 percent cuts to pay and benefits – to pay even more for their pensions.

This political attack on retirement security comes only a few weeks after an NBC Bay Area report uncovered that Reed had been using a made up figure inflating by more than $250 million to scare the public about pension costs.

“We’re dealing with human beings and their lives, not just raw numbers,” said Councilmember Kansen Chu, one of three members of the council who sided with middle-class families.” Instead of negotiating benefit changes with workers and coming together to find a solution, the majority of the San Jose city council voted to put pension changes on the a June 5th ballot.

“The city will end up spending more money defending its own questionable actions because this measure is a breach of contract and it will be challenged in court,” says LaVerne Washington, a legal analyst and president of Confidential Employees Organization (CEO), a chapter of Local 101. “We had offered a retirement solution in negotiations, but the city simply refuses to bargain with us fairly. That’s why we’re filing an unfair labor practice.”

Washington, who has lived in San Jose for 50 years, says she may not be able to afford her daughter’s college education if this measure passes. “It will have a deleterious effect on the incomes of thousands of tax payers,” she points out. “This could have been avoided if city leaders had worked with us in good faith to find a solution.”

Meanwhile, the state Joint Legislative Audit Committee decided to proceed with an audit of San Jose’s finances to determine if the city’s retirement boards followed state-mandated reporting standards. The bipartisan vote in Sacramento was prompted by concerns raised regarding the accuracy of figures used to project the city’s pension obligations.