Blue Flu Coming Today

An article in the Daily Bulletin warned of a possible flu outbreak in Southern California. Don't worry, though, unless you're a state employee, you don't have much exposure risk.

The Bulletin article says that state employees may stage a sick out today to protest ongoing furloughs and future job cuts:

"The blue flu hits Monday," said Fernando Gandera, a Caltrans employee in San Bernardino. "We're not taking this sitting down anymore." [Well, yes, it sounds like you are. -ed.]

Gandera, a local steward for the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 95,000 California employees, said about 1,500 workers in Southern California plan to take today off.

He has said employees will be coming down with either "blue flu" - a nickname derived from sick-outs called by police officers - or "grizzly flu" - a reference to the grizzly bear on California's flag.

"WE want to show the governor we're angry," he said. "The union is fed up, employees are fed up."

Sounds to us as if the SEIU may be overestimating its clout, especially in the wake of some serious recent scandals. SEIU members aren't the only ones fed up. The people who've been paying their salaries may yet have a say if they continue to overreach.

Torres Fiddles, Sacramento Burns

Now that former Pomona mayor Norma Torres (pictured, left) is settled into her job as the representative for the state's 61st Assembly District, she seems to feel comfortable enough to speak to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce last Friday about the state's budget crisis.

Torres strongly opposes any cuts in state services. Her position comes as no surprise, given the fact that most of the money that backed Torres' campaign last year came from organized labor, particularly the Service Employees International Union and government workers' organizations.

According to the Daily Bulletin's coverage last Saturday, Torres believes that rather than the Draconian sort of cuts in state government proposed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, California needs to make structural changes in Sacramento's budget process to ensure the state's long-term viability:

"I began with, 'Why don't you start with the realization that probably none of you are going to be back here next year?' " after the November elections, Lockyer recalls.

"That's a very liberating thought, and with it you can get a lot done."

He acknowledges: "They didn't stand up and applaud."

Speaking to members of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce of Friday morning, Torres, D-Ontario, said elected officials should "address the root of the problem," rather than filling the hole.

"The changes we make for the long term can help our economy," Torres said. "We don't just want to balance the budget, we want to fix the root of the problem."

Torres she and a couple of "freshman" assemblymembers are looking to make these changes.

The goal is to look at the foundation of the state budget so that elected officials do not find themselves in the same predicament years from now, Torres said.

All well and good, but Torres, in the Bulletin piece at least, offered no details on what changes she would propose. She didn't mention tax hikes or borrowing, but those would have to be part of the answer if she isn't going to cut services. Torres had better speak up quickly. This is, after all, now a $24 billion (and rising) problem that must be settled in the next two weeks if California is to avoid running out of cash.

Apparently, Torres doesn't read the Los Angeles Times or attend her Democratic caucus meetings. The Times' George Skelton had a column last week in which he reported on some comments State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a Democrat, made to state Democratic legislators at the invitation of Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles). Skelton wrote:

Lockyer reminded the lawmakers that voters are very angry. "They want you to solve the problem. And if you don't solve the problem you're going to get kicked out of office, so you might as well solve the problem."

"Fair or not, people blame you" for 12 years of flowing red ink, Lockyer continued. "You're not going to get reelected. Just put the politics out of your brain."

Lockyer's lecture was confirmed by a caucus attendee, who didn't want to be identified because there's a gag order on such meetings. "He was very forceful."

That might be the best advice ever given to any group of politicians, though like a lot of good advice it will probably be ignored by politicos such as Torres who are more interested in acquiring and maintaining their fiefdoms than they are in actual governance. What meaningful thing could someone like Lockyer, who is a former state attorney general and former state Senate leader, have to tell Torres and the SEIU?

Really, even you or I could do a better job of budget balancing than Torres. If you don't believe it, try for yourself on on the LA Times' budget balancer.

It's All About the Benjamins

Pomona Mayor Norma Torres (right, in all her weedy splendor), has been awfully quiet since winning the June Democratic primary for the State Assembly's 61st District. Running in a safe Democratic district means that once Torres beat out the other Democrats in the race, she essentially won the November general election as well, so she probably doesn't need to spend much on her November campaign.

And it's a good thing Torres doesn't have to invest much money in beating out her Republican opponent, Wendy Maier. Torres raised $402,673.12 for her campaign between 1/1/2008 and 6/30/2008. But she also spent $393,602.10 winning her primary election. None of the other Democratic candidates who ran against Torres spent more than $20,000.

In contrast to Torres, Anthony Adams, the Republican incumbent in the 59th Assembly District (Claremont's district) raised and spent about $122,000 in the first six months of 2008. Adams, like Torres, is in seat that's safely gerrymandered in favor of Adams' party.

So why so much money for Torres, who hasn't done much other than to be anointed by the 61st District's soon-to-be-retired incumbent, Nell Soto? Well, Torres has worked her way up the local Democratic party chain and is a Democratic super-delegate pledged to Barack Obama. So, Torres' party ties must account for much of the money raised.

And where did that money come from? Well, as we noted previously, some came from the insurance industry, and some came from the waste management and recycling industries. The California Secretary of State's website also listed an interesting $1,000 contribution to the Torres campaign from the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA):

(Click to Enlarge)

CCA is a for-profit prison business based in Nashville, TN, and has come under a lot of criticism for the way it runs its prisons. CCA has been accused of cutting corners excessively to the possible detriment of its employees and prisoners alike. CCA disputes those accusations, but in 2004 a major riot at CCA's Crowley Correctional Facility in Colorado had to be quelled by outside law enforcement officers after CCA's guards were overwhelmed. The PBS show NOW ran a story about the business of private prisons and CCA, which you can see here.

The NOW piece noted that the for-profit prison industry lobbies state governments for harsher prison sentencing and parole guidelines in order to ensure a steady supply of bodies for its prisons. Not necessarily good public policy, that. And, irony of ironies, considering Torres' party affiliation and her (legal) immigrant background, the for-profit prison industry has apparently targeted illegal immigrants as its next great business opportunity.

But, really, $1,000 is probably chump change in the scheme of things in the California State Assembly. Where did the real money flowing into the Torres campaign come from? The largest group of donors were unions, which is hardly surprising since organized labor has long been a major force behind Democratic candidates. Here are the nearly $115,000 in union and union political action committee donations received by the Torres campaign from January through June this year:

• SERVICE EMPLOYEES INT'L UNION LOCAL 1000 CANDIDATE PAC - $7,200
• SERVICE EMPLOYEES INT'L UNION LOCAL 1000 CANDIDATE PAC - $7,200
• SEIU UHW PAC - $7,200
• SEIU UHW PAC - $7,200
• SEIU LONG TERM CARE WORKERS LOCAL 6434 STATE PAC - $3,600
• SEIU LOCAL 721, CTW, CLC STATE & LOCAL - $3,600
• SEIU LOCAL 721, CTW, CLC STATE & LOCAL - $3,600
• SEIU LOCAL 121 RN PAC - $3,600
• SEIU LOCAL 121 RN PAC - $3,600
• SAN BERNARDINO PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ASSN. PAC - $5,000
• SAN BERNARDINO PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ASSN. PAC - $5,000
• PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN CA GOVERNMENT - $1,000
• PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN CA GOVERNMENT - $2,000
• PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN CA GOVERNMENT - $1,000
• PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN CA GOVERNMENT - $2,000
• PACE OF CA SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION - $2,000
• PACE OF CA SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION - $2,000
• PACE OF CA SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION - $2,000
• LOS ANGELES POLICE PROTECTIVE LEAGUE PAC - $3,600
• LOS ANGELES POLICE PROTECTIVE LEAGUE PAC - $3,600
• LOCAL 770 UFCW PAC - $1,000
• CA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION/ ASSOCIATION FOR BETTER CITIZENSHIP - $7,200
• CA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION/ ASSOCIATION FOR BETTER CITIZENSHIP - $7,200
• CA STATEWIDE LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSN. (CSLEA) PAC - $3,600
• CA STATEWIDE LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSN. (CSLEA) PAC - $3,600
• CA STATE COUNCIL OF SERVICE EMPLOYEES - $7,200
• CA PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS PAC - $1,000
• CA PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS PAC - $1,000
• CA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS COPE - $3,600
• CA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS COPE - $3,600
• UNITED NURSES ASSOCIATIONS OF CA - $1,000.00
• UNITED NURSES ASSOCIATIONS OF CA MONETARY - $1,000.00
• UNITED NURSES ASSOCIATIONS OF CA - $1,000.00
• UNITED FIREFIGHTERS OF LOS ANGELES CITY LOCAL 112 - $500.00
• UNITED FIREFIGHTERS OF LOS ANGELES CITY LOCAL 112 - $500.00
• UFCW REGION 8 STATES COUNCIL PAC - $2,000.00
• UFCW REGION 8 STATES COUNCIL PAC -$2,000.00
  

Did you happen to catch that fifth one down, a $3,600 donation from the Service Employees International Union Local 6434? That SEIU local has been on the front page of the Los Angeles Times recently for some highly questionable activities involving money spent by the local and its president, Tyrone Freeman:

The head of California's largest union local has stepped aside in the wake of Times reports that the organization and a related charity paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to firms owned by his wife and mother-in-law.

Tyrone Freeman, president of a Service Employees International Union chapter in Los Angeles, said in a written statement late Wednesday that he was taking a leave of absence and that the local would be placed in a temporary trusteeship.

"In order to ensure that any investigation of the allegations is fair and free from any question of interference or influence, I am taking a leave of absence effective immediately for the duration of the investigation," the statement said. "I believe these steps will allow our union to continue to serve the best interests of our membership during this time."

The statement was released by the Washington, D.C., office of SEIU President Andy Stern, who nurtured Freeman's career as the 160,000-member local grew dramatically in recent years, largely through consolidations.

"These allegations are of serious concern to all of us and we support Mr. Freeman's decision to put the best interests of the members first," Stern spokeswoman Michelle Ringuette said in an e-mail.

In addition to the payments to his relatives' firms, Freeman's local, the United Long-Term Care Workers, spent nearly $300,000 last year on a Four Seasons Resort golf tournament, restaurants such as a Morton's steakhouse, a Beverly Hills cigar club and the William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent firm, The Times reported earlier this month.

Altogether, the payments to Freeman and the home-based companies operated by his relatives, and to a former union employee totaled more than $1 million in 2006 and 2007, records and interviews show. That includes Freeman's salary and other union compensation. The workers whose dues fill the union's coffers make about $9 an hour caring for the infirm and disabled.

So, SEIU locals (not just Freeman's) representing janitors, healthcare workers, city-level employees, county and state employees, corrections employees, school employees, donated $43,800 to Norma Torres' campaign. Why? Could it have anything to do with maintaining the lifestyles of the rich and famous? A State Assembly vote, especially one from someone who is seen as controllable, might come in pretty handy. Someone's got to pay for those $10,000 bills at the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills. Those Cohibas don't come cheap, you know.

And, although we know this is an accepted practice, isn't there something wrong with public employee unions contributing to the campaigns of the very elected officials who appropriate money for those same employees? You can see how a state can get itself into a $15 billion hole pretty quickly that way.

Of course, the Republicans and their donors have the same thing going on. That's why the party of fiscal conservatism has overseen the largest federal budget deficits in our nation's history. That awful sound you hear is the machinery of governance grinding slowly to a halt through the accumulation of all that sand being thrown into the works by the patrons of both major parties.

We suspect that a lot of you might be reaching the same conclusion right about now: A pox on both their houses.