Sen. La Malfa Backs Union Drill to Undermine San Jose Pension Reform Measure‏

Editor's Note: I received this email from a friend in San Jose today. I am reproducing it here in its entirety.  Off come the gloves....

Greetings from San Jose!

Being exiled to the Bay Area, I don't often have occasion to comment on votes cast by our Northern California representatives. However, yesterday an interesting twist of fate linked San Jose to Senator Doug La Malfa. Mr. La Malfa cast a horrible vote supporting a union effort to defeat San Jose's pension reform measure which the city council here placed on the ballot Tuesday afternoon. Overall this is a good measure, supported by the Republicans and "common sense" Democrats on the council, and will help reduce the crippling amount San Jose pays in pensions to public employees.

First, some background...

To give some context about the scope of the fiscal problems facing my city, this summer San Jose laid off a large amount of public safety officers and shut down its Vice department altogether. Here is a link to the story is here.

The number one fiscal impact in the city right now is its public employee pensions. Some public employees, collecting 90% of their "highest one-year" are receiving $120,000 in perpetuity. The city just can't afford it. So, a bipartisan coalition of moderate Democrats and Republicans proposed a pension reform measure. This measure is widely supported among Republicans and conservatives. Here's an editorial endorsing the measure. Tuesday afternoon the City Council approved putting the measure on the ballot.

Obviously, the unions don't like this. So, union-backed legislators, led by Assemblyman Beall (D-San Jose), came up with a scheme. They would force a "state audit" of San Jose to prove that, in fact, San Jose doesn't need pension reform and so the ballot measure ought be defeated. Yesterday was the vote on this "audit."

As is typical, the Democrats on the relevant committee supported the audit, and the Republicans opposed it -- and rightfully so, as this is not a good-faith audit but one born out of political retribution. However, Senators Anderson and La Malfa sided with the Democrats and voted to support the Unions' ploy. The full article is available here. (see page 2).

Reading about Senator La Malfa infuriated me. I may not have always supported the actions of his staff members and political operatives, but I have been a supporter of Senator La Malfa himself for many years. However, this vote is just too much for me to bear. I live in a decent neighborhood in San Jose, but less then a mile from a very bad part of San Jose known for its shootings and high crime rates. San Jose has been laying of police in droves, and this pension reform measure is needed. Senator La Malfa's vote could have a TANGIBLE effect on my family's safety.

I am not sure if Senator La Malfa is complicit or was just duped. It doesn't matter either way -- he should have known or learned about the context of his vote and the consequences. He is running in a contested election against a well-loved statesman in Sam Aanestad, and should have thought twice before siding with unions and Democrats.