President's Notes……….up date on Richman Initiative
Richman Initiative Attacks Public Services and Public Employees

Keith Richman and his pension cutting cronies are at it again. In mid-August they began circulating another mean-spirited initiative designed to cut public employee pension benefits by as much as 60 percent.

The new initiative - which must collect more than 694,000 signatures by next January - is backed by the same people who proposed cutting pensions and eliminating survivor benefits for public employees killed in the line of duty.

But this time the anti-government and anti-public employee troops don't stop with pensions. The latest effort will deny retiree health benefits for many newly-hired teachers, nurses, firefighters, peace officers and other public employees.

"Not only does this latest proposal dramatically cut pensions for all new workers but it eliminates pensions and retiree health benefits for all new part-time employees," said local union leader. "And if you cannot work until the full retirement age it eliminates any health benefits you could have earned. The initiative punishes those who get sick or are injured before they can retire."

Among those behind the initiative are former state Assemblymember Keith Richman, Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach, and candidate for Board of Equalization Ted Costa who use every forum they can to attack public employees and undermine public services by cutting pensions and health benefits for the men and women who keep our communities safe and secure. They have created the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility to help them raise money to quality the initiative and to attack public employees and promote their anti-government ideas.

"This is a clear attempt to divide and conquer. We will fight these efforts just like we did two years ago and we will beat them again!" said local union leader. "We will not allow wrong-headed ideologues to create two classes of working families - those with fair adequate pensions and those who have no retirement security."

And the effects will not just be felt by those whose pensions and health care will be cut. The long term impacts of the cuts sought by this proposal are serious - for all of our communities and for our state. Reducing pensions and denying health care will make it harder to recruit and retain the very workers our communities need to keep us safe and healthy. A few examples make the problem clear:

Richman Initiative Continued...

"It would be impossible to recruit employees for our jobs under the Richman scheme and over time public service would deteriorate," said union leader. "This measure takes away retirement and health care security from working families while doing nothing to improve access to health care or stop the huge salaries of executives. At a time when we are working to provide affordable health care to all Californians, Richman's proposal is a vicious attack on the retirees who need health care the most."

So, if you see this initiative on the streets, in front of your grocery stores, at the local mall please do two very important things:

#1 Don't sign the petition - and tell your friends not to sign it
#2 Let your local union representative know right away.

The statewide coalition, Californians for Health Care and Retirement Security, is working to keep them from qualifying for the ballot next year. Working together we can track the efforts of pension cutters, see where they are attempting to gather signatures, and defeat Richman and his cronies once again. Together we will protect pensions and health care for California's hard working public employees.

Lodge 21 Honors Karen Lodrick

The best part of this experience by far has been this past Friday night. I was honored with a Meritorious Certificate from the FOP (Fraternal Order of Police), California Federal Lodge 21, in recognition of my meritorious service. It was a wonderful ceremony shared with an intimate group of friends and police officers from the San Francisco Mint; ironically near where the chase and capture began.

I listened to the amazing stories of the officers as they shared their life and experiences in the law enforcement. Some of them served in WWII and shared their stories from that experience too.

Karen continued...

They first presented me with a poster they created that displayed the map from the SF Chronicle paper of the chase I traveled, and then they presented to me the award which was a beautifully framed plaque with a gold seal. Plus, two gold coins. After pictures were taken I told the story of the capture to an attentive crowd. I was told later, everyone enjoyed the story as I related it to the map.

It seems so surreal to me that I would be honored for something I felt so compelled to do without any notion it would lead to such reward. But it was special and something I will never forget. I will reflect on it with great appreciation and thanks always.

Read the full story on how Karen chased down woman who had given her 6 months of hell, how victim snared ID thief. , This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle June 15, 2007, by staff writer, Mike Weiss.

First 6 Months of '07 Deadliest for Officers in Decades
KEVIN JOHNSON, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON -- A surge in fatal shootings has contributed to a dramatic increase in deaths of law enforcement officers during the first six months of this year, the highest midyear body count in nearly three decades, according to a report due out today.

Deadliest for Officers continued....

The annual count by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund found that 39 officers were killed in shootings, up from 27 during the first six months of last year.

In all of 2006, fatal shootings dropped to 52, from 59 in 2005.

The abrupt midyear increase in officer deaths comes less than a year after the organization reported that 145 officers were killed in the line of duty in all of 2006, the lowest annual number in eight years.

"These are the most alarming increases in officer fatalities I've ever seen for a midyear period,'' said Craig Floyd, the memorial fund's chairman and chief executive officer. "It's somewhat shocking. Is there something at work that nobody has gotten their arms around?'' he said.

The count, viewed as one of the most reliable sources about law enforcement deaths in the country, shows traffic-related fatalities remained the primary cause of officer deaths. That number was up 36% in the first half of this year. The traffic deaths included six officers who were struck while outside their vehicles, according to the report. In all, 101 officers have been killed in the line of duty from January through June.

Floyd and other law enforcement analysts said that recent spikes in violent crime across the country may be a factor in the rising shooting deaths this year.

"This is very consistent with the increasing crime in many American cities,'' said Joseph Carter, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "This should be a wake-up call for the whole country.''

Texas reported the highest number of overall officer deaths with 13. North Carolina was next with eight. Among them: two Charlotte-Mecklenburg officers fatally shot this year. "There certainly could be a relationship to the increases in violent crime,'' Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Darrel Stephens said. "A lot of communities are seeing more robberies and aggravated assaults involving guns.''

Stephens, who also serves as president of the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association, said officers Sean Clark and Jeff Shelton were killed in a conflict with a suspect after the officers had responded to a separate domestic disturbance call.

"Clearly, if you have more violent crime, there is a greater threat against law enforcement. One naturally follows the other,'' said Floyd, who called on local police agencies to provide additional resources, including upgraded weaponry and body armor.

This year, law enforcement authorities across the nation said they were arming officers with high-powered weapons in response to the increasing presence of military-style weapons on the street.

In Moncks Corner, S.C., where two officers were gunned down in March, police Capt. Mark Murray said: "People don't have a respect for life anymore.''

Cops' pay has been ripe for backlash

FRANK MICKADEIT
Register columnist
fmickadeit@ocregister.com

The Board of Supervisors says its decision yesterday to begin considering whether to roll back some sheriff's deputies' and D.A. investigators' retirement benefits is necessary because the supervisors must uphold the state Constitution.

And, yes, if the benefits are ultimately cut, it will be because a court rules the 2001 benefits deal violates the Constitution.

But don't make the mistake of believing that at its core this is about fealty to the Constitution. That's a means to an end. That end? Well, the noblest would be fiscal responsibility - not driving the county deeper into unfunded liability. That's undoubtedly amotive, and Supervisor John Moorlach says it is his.

But what I believe this really is about in the global sense - the reason there's support for this beyond one number-crunching supervisor - is because of growing backlash against what are perceived as overly generous contracts for law enforcement. And against police unions' ability to extract those contracts from politicians.

Three- or four-day work weeks. Liberal overtime and vacation policies. Retirement after 25 years at age 50 at 75 percent of their highest salary. (The so-called "3-percent-at-50" that is the subject of this debate.) Stress-related retirements that allow cops to retire with 100 percent of their salary at almost any age.

I'm not just talking about O.C. cops. I'm talking about cops statewide, perhaps best exemplified by a prison-guard union so powerful we're about to be put under total federal control. Politicians who try to rein in compensation find themselves facing election opponents funded by police unions.

The citizenry gives cops tremendous police powers to begin with. When it comes to believe cops are also so powerful they can write their own tickets financially? That breeds a sense the checks and balances are out of whack.

This perception - true or not - has been building now, for at least two decades, with a significant break after 9/11, when we realized just how much these brave men and women mean to us. It's no coincidence that the 3-at-50 deal was cut in December 2001. I'm not here to argue for either side; I'm just analyzing what I believe to be the real driving force, where the overall political will to do this comes from. Grocery clerks' bennies cut. Other hourly jobs go overseas. Cops get fat increases? Backlash city.

See, this has huge statewide implications. Other cities and counties are watching. They were just waiting for someone like Moorlach to come along and make the first move. Moorlach's chief of staff, Mario Mainero, estimates public agencies statewide have $13 billion in unfunded liability because of retroactive pensions.

Cops Pay Continued...

Here's a very telling indication of how big a deal this is: Mike Capaldi, Dale Dykema, Buck Johns, Tracy Price, Rich Wagner. You know who these guys are? They are leaders in the Lincoln Club, the high-rolling conservative Republican group founded here in 1962. Some are also members of the even more high-falutin' New Majority.

These guys don't play politics at this level. They're kingmakers. They sit back, give audiences to would-be politicians and write checks. They help put supervisors in office; they don't deign to attend their meetings, for God's sake. But there they were yesterday, sitting in a pack in the Board Chambers. I asked each when he last attended a Board meeting. This is, after all, the most powerful elected local body in Orange County. Capaldi: Can't remember the last time. Dykema: Never. Johns: 15 years ago. Price: Never. Wagner: Years ago.

Wagner, the president, got up and told the Board that hisboard had already voted on whether the county should challenge the 3-at-50. The vote: Yes, 24: No, 0.

It was interesting to see the two men the Lincoln Club helped breathe life into at their political infancies - Mike Carona and Tony Rackauckas- get up yesterday and more or less side with their employees. Both men were somewhat cautious - although Carona called cutting 3-at-50 now "go(ing) to guns" - and urged the supes to take time to study the matter.

T-Rack came off as about the most even-keeled speaker of the day, drawing on his staff lawyers' analysis (do I sense the hand of B. Gurwitz?) and his own experience as a judge to caution the five-member non-lawyer Board that if they go to court, it won't be the slam-dunk victory they might have been led to believe. Can't wait.

Contact the writer: Mickadeit writes Mon.-Fri.
Contact him at 714-796-4994 or fmickadeit@ocregister.com.