By Luke Thomas
October 5, 2011
Those firefighter and cop unions sure do love their cushy pay packages and lucrative pension benefits, so much so they are spending their excess disposable incomes to trash Public Defender Jeff Adachi over Proposition D.
Their latest high-school creation in a string of ill-conceived attacks, is a poorly produced attack ad that attempts to tie Adachi to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a right-wing politician who fits the bill of being a true union buster.
A “bold reformer” Adachi may be, a union buster he is not.
But if Adachi is a union buster, so is interim Mayor Ed Lee, Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, billionaire Warren Hellman, Prop C spokesperson Nathan Ballard, Fire Fighters Local 798 president Thomas P. O’Connor, SFPOA president Gary Delagnes and everyone else that supports pension reform.
The fact is, only the highest paid public employees – cops, firefighters, nurses, and those who can afford silk-lined suits (including Adachi) – have anything to really quibble about with Prop D. Why? Because Adachi’s pension reform measure is a progressive solution to a financial math problem no sane taxpayer, city employee, mayor, Board of Supervisors, Civil Grand Jury or union boss no longer denies exists.
Sure, Adachi’s Prop B last year deserved to be crushed at the ballot and, yes, we need progressive taxation to rebalance the nation’s escalating debt caused by expensive and unwinnable wars, slimy moneygrubbers on Wall Street that got us into this morass, and a corrupt political system dominated by corporate and big money interests. But let’s not kid ourselves into believing the nation’s financial problems will be solved by progressive taxation or public employee pension reforms alone. We all have to pitch in starting with those who make the most and can afford the most.
Whether Prop C defeats Prop D, or vice-versa, or both measures pass, history will credit Adachi with having the courage to do what no other San Francisco politician was previously willing to do: to take on the highest paid unions to save San Francisco from inevitable insolvency.
As for the bullying firefighter and cop unions and their juvenile attacks on Adachi to save their lucrative interests at the expense of taxpayers and social services, history will be unkind and remember them as helping to erode public support for unions.
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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October 9, 2011 at 11:16 pm
A County News blog that I read recommended a great article in the November 2011 Vanity Fair titled “California and Bust” which highlights why Republicans, Democrats, and their financial / volunteer supporters (corporations, labor unions) just can’t seem to Do the Right Thing for California. Read it here: http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/11/michael-lewis-201111
October 8, 2011 at 10:43 pm
@H
Unfortunately you are correct.
I spoke vociferously against the Adachi endorsement and no one listened. (Since that vote however, many Greens have expressed strong concerns about the Adachi decision.)
Most importantly, the SF Greens are -resolutely- against Props C and D, and Prop D had -nothing- to do with the Adachi endorsement, which was essentially entirely based on his record as Public Defender.
October 8, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Give me a break Tim. Prop C is a total capitulation to elite power because you are panicking about Prop D, Adachi, and his funders, and you don’t have the -guts- to draw a line in the sand and threaten a general strike as you ought to be doing to -truly- protect your rank and file.
Prop C is a joke.
October 8, 2011 at 2:27 pm
Eric,
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the Green Party and the League of Young (Pissed-off) Voters both make Jeff one of their 3 IRV choices? What was the Green party vote? You were there and voted, right?
Do some s’plain’in
Go Niners!
h.
October 8, 2011 at 2:10 pm
All city workers earn and deserve their salaries and health care and retirement security. The public sector workers and all their unions crafted Measure C which will save city services because of the Wall Street attacks. Those same workers who clean our streets, run our clinics, maintain our parks, etc. resent Measure D which was funded by the same people who support Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and other Tea Party Republicans who attack workers.
It’s that simple.
Occupy Wall Streeet! Occupy SF!
Yes on C; NO on D.
October 8, 2011 at 12:39 pm
@Luke – I in fact attack prop C & D equally.
But I spend far -more- energy attacking Adachi as corporate and elite funded the ring leader who brought -all- of these pension cutting ballot measures to San Francisco.
There would be no Prop C without Adachi.
I’m also an SF Green and the SF Green Party is likewise opposing both Prop C & D.
October 7, 2011 at 3:47 pm
P.S. That video’s trash. Regardless of the C vs. D, or No on C and D argument’s, the video’s trash. Adachi said the word “broke and Walker said the word “broke.” Adachi said the word “progressive” and Walker said the word “progressive.” They both said the word “taxpayer.” Therefore Adachi = Walker? This video = trash.
October 7, 2011 at 8:55 am
It’s hard for me to imagine that their alternative, Proposition C, is going to pass because I keep trying to find a website with a campaign office address and phone #, so I can call them for KPFA or whomever else, and all I find on the Web are labor activists writing against it – C.
But then I imagine that a campaign without much Web presence isn’t much of a campaign, and maybe I’m wrong. Maybe C can win just with its Ed Lee/SF Gate/Supes’ endorsements.
Proposition D at least has a website and an e-mail address, but last time I checked the phone was still ringing in Jeff Adachi’s campaign office, where his volunteers said it wasn’t their job or expertise to speak on D.
October 7, 2011 at 12:52 am
Luke-
Why not not call out “thetruth” on his complete and utter bs that the “most city employees retire with a $42,000 pension.” Most City retirees are career employees who retire with an average pension of $76,981 as reported in the Chron. Funny thing is – even $42,000 for 30 years is a ton of money, not to mention that non-public safety workers ALSO collect SS. You only need the facts with these union mouthpieces…will we ever fill a pothole again??
October 6, 2011 at 7:26 pm
Adachi’s a gem,
20 years (half in charge officially, more than that unofficially) representing 25,000 people a year. What’s that, a half million cases?
I’m kinda doubting that Jeff’s intimidated by the same lying cops he’s been exposing since Bill Clinton was in the White House.
But, he might not have met a bigger liar than Eric Brooks. I certainly haven’t and I have a masters degree in working with the severely emotionally disturbed. Eric is a pathological liar and a high school dropout who has about as much impact in this town as a beer fart in wind storm.
Adachi for Mayor!!
Avalos for Mayor!
Baum for Mayor!
Hall for Mayor!
Miyamoto for Sheriff!
Gascon for DA!
NIners for return to Super Bowl?
h.
October 6, 2011 at 2:09 pm
@Eric, since you don’t support pension reform, why aren’t you attacking Prop C?
October 6, 2011 at 1:47 pm
@thetruth, like Prop C, all City employees except those making less than $50,000 are impacted by Prop D. The main differences between Prop C and D are twofold: A pension cap in Prop D and a higher percentage contribution increase for the top city employee earners.
And before I continue this helpful debate with you, kindly reveal who you are. If you’re not willing to reveal your name, at least tell us if you’re a city employee or not and what your position and salary is. This would be helpful in understanding where you’re coming from.
October 6, 2011 at 1:21 pm
So the fact that Adachi uses the same talking points as Scott Walker, gets funded by the same people who support Scott Walker and his campaign lied to voters to get D on the ballot doesn’t mean he is supporting the same right wing agenda as Scott Walker? Luke get your head out of the sand. I was no Hellman supporter when he originally supported B last year. Of course the big difference is that he publicly pulled his endorsement of B after understanding the problems with that measure.
Also if the fire fighters and police are the problem then why is Adachi also going after the vast majority of City workers who don’t get the same benefits? You talk about a $140,000 pension cap but the fact is that most city workers retire with a $42,000 pension.
BTW “Taxpayers and social services” that’s a Scott Walker talking point to used to justify blaming public workers for the budget crisis. Divide and conquer of the left designed by Grover Norquist-who would be proud that you are supporting his agenda.
October 6, 2011 at 12:29 pm
@thetruth, neither did Adachi. But Hellman is supporting pension reform and yet you’re not going after him? Why? Because he’s supporting and helping to finance the Prop C campaign, the same pension reform measure police and firefighter unions are supporting because Prop C does not cap annual pensions at $140 thousand.
I understand why you oppose Prop D. It all comes down to self-interest. Taxpayers and social services be damned.
Also, here’s the best side-by-side analysis of Prop C and Prop D that I’ve read:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/san-francisco-pension-reform-explained_n_985697.html
October 6, 2011 at 11:24 am
Who says all of us opposing Adachi support prop C?
We don’t.
This video is actually extremely well done and powerfully hits the truth spot on. Adachi is part of a rising global attack on workers, plain and simple; and is spouting the very same cynical and deceptive talking points that Walker is spewing in Wisconsin.
Thankfully, the Occupy Wall Street movement is starting to turn the tables on turncoats like Adachi, and the corporations and billionaires who are filling his campaign coffers.
October 6, 2011 at 10:42 am
Luke, last time I checked Warren Hellman didn’t donate money to Scott Walker . . .
October 6, 2011 at 9:09 am
@thetruth, you’re conveniently ignoring billionaire Warren Hellman’s financial contributions to Prop C, also reported by the San Francisco Chronicle in the same article you’re citing.
October 6, 2011 at 6:35 am
Ok Luke, so you trash the “slimy moneygrubbers on Wall Street that got us into this morass, and a corrupt political system dominated by corporate and big money interests” that go us in this financial crisis.
However, you ignore the fact that Adachi is being entirely funded by those “slimy money grubbers” (as reported by the Chronicle earlier this week the same big donors that support Adachi also have supported the anti-union efforts by right wing governers in Ohio and Wisconsin). And Adachi’s campaign was caught red handed lying to voters to get his measure D on the ballot (talk about a corrupt political system).
Yet, you still proclaim he is a “progresive” and all around good guy. Give me a break. Adachi is a self serving scumbag politician and he is using public servants as a scapegoat to push his “big money interests” agenda.
October 5, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Hey,
Nice piece of writing. The unions and Hellman are about to make Adachi mayor. Last year they spent a million and a half dollars trying to discredit him and it only made him stronger. Hopefully they’ll spend that much this year too.
Adachi for Mayor!
Go Niners!
h.
October 5, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Mr. Thomas-
Instead of generically referring to the “cushy pay packages and lucrative pay packages,” why not let the public know actual figures:
2011-12 Budget: Average (including rookies) wages and benefits of a sworn police and fire officers:
Police: $160,885
Fire: $ 185,005
Simply extraordinary – and these are the foks who ostensibly cant contributre more than 13.5% to a pension fund that is billions underfunded.