We like what we read...

A little slow on the uptake but at least the battle lines are getting drawn. The danger to our society was/is not Al Qaeda all along. Its public employee unions. (and of course the politicians who feel the must pander to them over the small but more numerous voices of taxpayers) Hmmm who would have thought....

http://www.ocregister.com/column/cops-board-believe-1793174-deal-percent
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
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.

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.

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

The Emperor's new clothes (paycheck)

This is a joke. $250,000 a year for a city manager? In Indio? I dont think so. I say let these geniuses go work in the public sector. You know I dont mind when the private sector guys get sweet deals (not incentive based) as I dont need to pay for the boards overpaying a CEO by simply not buying their products or services. Government is different. I have to pay my taxes (and these fat cats; can you imagine the cost of this dudes pension?). So are these city managers smarter (and therefore better paid) than US Senators? No its just a bidding war with my tax dollars. Just say no. Do we really think that cities could not find "qualified" candidates for 100,000 a year? I know lets make it incentive based. Bring in new tax revenue and well give you 25% of what you catch.

I love this exchange from the article:

"I haven't cost the city of Indio anything, really. I've brought money in they didn't have," Southard said. Asked what major projects he had completed since coming to Indio, Southard didn't provide specifics. He said he had paved a significant amount of roads, helped the city become more financially stable, expanded the parks system and sought retail development.

So let me get this straight...no specifics on new revenue...just that he spent more tax dollars on paving roads and parks. I guess this guy is pretty smart to pass of that BS accounting and get the city council to but it. Like I said. Bring in real "new" tax revenue and get a bonus. None and you get no bonus. What's good for the private sector (big fat sallaries) is good for the public sector (incentive based pay)

By NAOMI KRESGE
The Press-Enterprise

Indio shocked cities throughout Inland Southern California two years ago when it raised the standard for city-manager pay by hiring Glenn Southard at $240,000 a year plus benefits.

Other cities quickly followed, and a salary of more than $200,000 a year is now common for Inland city managers.

In July, Southard broke another Inland pay ceiling when Indio's City Council agreed to pay him $300,000 a year, plus an immediate $30,000 bonus.

"Two years ago that would have been unheard of," said Bill Garrett, executive director for the California City Management Foundation, a professional association where Southard is a trustee. "The numbers are just going nuts."

A Press-Enterprise survey of 32 cities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties showed average pay has doubled in the past decade for city managers, far outpacing the raises given to other city employees. City managers are the behind-the-scenes leaders who supervise day-to-day city business and take orders from elected city councils.

Fifteen surveyed cities paid their managers more than $200,000 last year. Five years ago, none of them paid as much.

The average full-time Inland city manager made about $195,000 in 2006, federal W-2 forms show. The tax records included not just base salary but also end-of-year sick and executive leave and vacation payouts that could add tens of thousands of dollars to salaries.

Rapidly rising pay is tied to an expectation that city managers will bring in new development and revenue to offset their salaries, city officials said.

"I haven't cost the city of Indio anything, really. I've brought money in they didn't have," Southard said.

Asked what major projects he had completed since coming to Indio, Southard didn't provide specifics. He said he had paved a significant amount of roads, helped the city become more financially stable, expanded the parks system and sought retail development.

Union leaders say city workers know and care how much their city managers are paid, and it's difficult for employees to understand why they are asked to accept a 3 percent cost-of-living increase -- or no raise at all -- from a city manager who just got a double-digit raise, said Tom Ramsey, a supervising labor-relations representative with the San Bernardino Public Employees Association. The union represents more than 15,000 people throughout San Bernardino County.

"I don't want to diminish the responsibility and authority of city managers, but I represent the people who have to get out and work in 116-degree temperatures pouring blacktop," he said.

Unlike compensation for the civil servants they supervise, city managers' pay isn't negotiated by unions or set according to the cost of living. Instead, it's driven by market forces -- and the willingness of city councils to pay more is driving it up, said Steven Frates, a senior fellow at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College.

"The city-management business is pretty much straight-up supply and demand," Frates said.

Councils put a high premium on city managers who have proven they can attract the development dollars cities want, Frates said.

One of the longest-serving city managers in the area, former Highland manager Sam Racadio, said salaries have risen so dramatically because some city councils have been willing to get into bidding wars. Racadio was the third highest-paid manager in The Press-Enterprise survey, with $250,533 in pay, including the value of his car allowance, deferred compensation and leave payouts from his June 2006 retirement.

"Once one or two get a salary increase, that raises the bar for others, and the salaries begin to rise as city councils compare their managers with others in the area," Racadio wrote in an e-mail last week.

Survey Results

California city-manager salaries are the highest in the West, according to a survey conducted last year by the International City/County Management Association. The association's survey found their counterparts in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington made an average of $128,883.

The association survey relies on cities to report how much they are paying, said Evelina Moulder, the director of survey research. Only 12 California cities reported paying their city managers more than $200,000 in the national survey.

The Press-Enterprise survey showed the actual pay of city managers was higher than the national survey reflected.

In addition to total pay for managers, the newspaper reviewed city managers' contracts, employee salary schedules, population data and budget summaries for the budget year that ended June 30. The results were compared with data from five and 10 years ago. The survey did not include deferred compensation, which could add additional tens of thousands of dollars in pay available upon retirement.

Desert Hot Springs did not provide survey data despite repeated requests for public records. The city's former city manager, Jerry Hanson, left his job in 2005 amid community anger that he had been paid almost $323,000 the previous year when the city gave him an advance on a promised severance payment.

The survey showed Indio's Southard was the top-paid city manager last year among surveyed cities, earning $298,949. City managers from Indian Wells, Highland, Riverside and Fontana rounded out the top five.

Riverside's manager, Brad Hudson, was hired at a base salary of $225,000 at about the same time as Southard. Hudson did not return three calls for comment.

City-manager pay has increased about 53 percent, on average, in the past five years, and has doubled on average in the past decade. By comparison, city maintenance workers saw their pay increase about 32 percent, on average, in the past five years while senior planners saw their pay increase about 26 percent in the same time period.

Small cities appeared just as likely as their larger neighbors to have dramatically increased their executives' pay.

Six of the 10 cities that paid their managers the most have fewer than 100,000 residents. Number two on the list, the wealthy golf-course community of Indian Wells -- where the average family makes more than $119,000 a year and is likely to live behind gates -- has only about 5,000 residents.

A Changing Job?

Some experts and top-paid city managers contend the dramatic increase in salaries is the product of a gradual change in a city manager's job responsibilities. City managers in the past spent their time planning for new roads or reviewing financial documents, they said, while today they've added other duties: negotiating with developers or bringing new-car dealerships or hotels to town. They aim to attract business, and with it, more revenue.

The shift began after Prop. 13 in 1978 limited how much municipalities could increase property taxes, Garrett said. Where city managers in the 1950s and 1960s were often engineers, almost every manager today comes from a social science background and has a master's degree in public or business administration, he said.

"I think they're all underpaid," said Fontana City Manager Ken Hunt, who made the fourth-largest salary last year with $246,390.

Hunt's Fontana City Council raised his base pay on June 20 to $240,000. But Hunt said that's a fraction of the money flowing to the brokers, bond underwriters and other consultants who work on the public-private partnership deals he helps oversee.

"As a CEO, you're the one truly responsible for making all of that stuff happen. There's a lot of people making a lot of money on the work you're doing," Hunt said.

Southard and Bernheimer made a similar argument, saying chief executives at a similar-size business would make more than city managers.

A Forbes Magazine national survey released in June found that chief executives -- of companies as well as in the public and private sector -- made an average wage of $144,600 last year.

Frates, the Rose Institute fellow, said how much a private-sector executive could make is irrelevant. Private-sector pay is based in a different market, with different skills and goals, he said, and many city managers wouldn't be good private-sector managers.

"It's a different art form. In a private sector, everybody agrees what the barometer for success is: it's the bottom line," Frates said.

Conversely, he said, many private-sector executives don't have the skills city managers need -- like an ability to reassure residents or to take the blame when city councils don't fulfill a promise.

Domino Effect

Every time a council reviews a city manager's salary, they look at what's competitive in the marketplace now, said Indian Wells Mayor Rob Bernheimer, whose city manager made $269,990 last year, the second-highest pay in the survey.

These days, Bernheimer said, it seems the norm is more than $200,000.

Murrieta expects to pay that much for its new leader, Mayor Doug McAllister said. In the midst of its second city-manager search in the past five years, the city is paying former Temecula city manager Ron Bradley $25,000 a month -- which would total $300,000 a year -- as an interim until a new full-time manager can be found.

"We are willing to pay what we need to get the right person," McAllister said.

Nowhere in recent years has the domino effect of rising city-manager pay been more clear than in the Coachella Valley, where salaries quickly rose after Indio hired Southard in 2005. Council members and observers said other cities felt they needed to keep up.

Southard was the first in the Coachella Valley to make more than $200,000 a year in base pay. Last year, six of seven cities surveyed in the valley - not including Desert Hot Springs, which didn't respond - paid their managers more than $200,000.

"Most of those managers that got raises thanked me," Southard said.

Bernheimer, the Indian Wells mayor, admitted that Southard's salary has had an effect. But he said Indian Wells also wanted to reward City Manager Greg Johnson for keeping the city financially healthy and for running the city like a business.

"At all levels of city compensation, we've gotten rid of the step system for pay and moved to a system based completely on performance, with incentives, reviews, compensation based on performance," Bernheimer said.

Bernheimer said pay wouldn't necessarily continue to rise with Southard's latest raise.

Indio Councilman Mike Wilson, who has clashed with Southard and voted against the raise on July 3, predicted the opposite.

"Quite frankly, our colleagues in other cities aren't happy because they know they'll have to pay more out because Indio has done what it's done again," Wilson said.

Staff writer Rocky Salmon contributed to this report.

Reach Naomi Kresge at 909-806-3060 or nkresge@PE.com

What's a city manager?

Who: The top executive of a city, responsible for overseeing budgets, negotiating with unions and pursuing development deals. Reports to the City Council.

Education: Usually a master's degree in public administration or business administration.

Benefits: A company car, executive leave, vacation and sick time, plus severance deals increasingly worth 12 months of pay and benefits.

Risks: Likely to be fired if things go wrong. Average city manager tenure nationwide is seven years, and California city managers reported an average term of 3½ years in a 2003 survey by the California City Management Foundation.

Source: California City Management Foundation, International City/County Management Association


Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™
>

Costa Mesa CA now in the sights of the fire and smoke peddlers?

I suspect once the firework companies set their sights on Costa Mesa, this ballot measure would go down in flames. Way too much money involved with the smoke and fire peddlers to let another city fall by the wayside. Plus pyromaniacs are big supporters. The fireworks companies like attacking this city by city as they can out spend everyone as their profit margin is incredible for selling a product once a year.

http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2007/08/03/politics/dpt-ballot03.prt
Published Thursday, August 2, 2007 10:06 PM PDT
Politics
Two measures requested for ballot
Costa Mesa Councilwoman Linda Dixon proposes having voters decide on fireworks, hotel bed tax issues in February.

By Alicia Robinson

After several election cycles without a local measure on the ballot, Costa Mesa council members next week will consider two requests — the second and third in the last month, after a proposal to ask voters if they want to directly elect their mayor failed to make the ballot on a split City Council vote in July.

Both of the upcoming proposals came from Councilwoman Linda Dixon, and one touches on a long-contentious issue in the city: fireworks.

Dixon asked the council to let city voters decide, possibly in February, whether to ban the "safe and sane" fireworks that are now allowed in Costa Mesa, as well as four other cities in Orange County. She also suggested boosting the hotel bed tax in Costa Mesa by 2%, which is now the lowest in Orange County. Voter approval is required to raise the hotel tax.

On the fireworks issue, Dixon said, "I'm neither for nor against it. I just feel that this is something that people need to voice their opinion on."

The bed tax hike is "not a tax that is placed on residents in Costa Mesa; it's a tax that's placed on visitors in our hotels," she said. The money would go into the city's general fund, but it could be used to put on a fireworks show for the city or to set up a grant program for sports groups that now raise money through fireworks sales, Dixon said.

Costa Mesa isn't alone in eyeing the February ballot. Around Orange County, a total of four jurisdictions — one is Newport Beach — are considering ballot issues for February, and two statewide issues already have qualified.

So why the fuss about February? For one thing, it's the first time the state has had a presidential primary that might have a real impact on whittling the field of Democratic and Republican nominees, UC Irvine political science professor Mark Petracca said.

"California's in play on both sides," he said. "I think that's going to bring people to the polls."

That's one reason why former Costa Mesa Mayor Gary Monahan pushed to get the elected mayor issue on the February ballot, he said. "I think February's going to be an incredible turnout, and the people that turn out are going to be pretty well-informed because they're turning out for a reason — to vote in the presidential primary."

Cost is another factor. It may cost a city roughly $100,000 to get an issue on the February ballot, while it's significantly more to have a separate special election and cheaper to get on the general election ballot in November.

The ballot issue in Newport Beach covers where to build city hall, so "it's good to get the issue settled sooner rather than later, but at the same time you balance it out against the costs of a stand-alone election," said Matt Cunningham, a consultant working on the Newport measure.

Dixon said she'd like to see her issues on the February ballot if they won't cost too much. Monahan said while council members are at it, they might as well throw the mayor issue on the ballot too. He doesn't plan to raise the issue again himself, but he'd like to see someone else bring it back. When Dixon's ballot proposals come up for discussion next week, "A politician that is interested in getting the [elected] mayor on [the ballot] could use that as a bargaining chip," he said.

# ALICIA ROBINSON may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at alicia.robinson@latimes.com.


Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

Lakewood CA and Bellflower CA FIOS '08 build out

click here to read the forum posts on FIOS in Lakewood CA

I just spoke to the Verizon person in charge of all the FIOS build outs in this area. Still no word on the Bellflower CA Central Office build schedule for 2008. Soon. But she did say that all the people that have contacted me from Bellflower and North Lakewood CA (north of Del Amo) that want FiOS are helping Bellflower's ranking to get on the list and built out earlier.

So keep those emails coming Lakewood CA and Bellflower CA FIOSless people! Updates@laag.us

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

click here to receive LAAG posts by email

Do we have your attention yet?

LAAG has been beating the pension drum for a while. Now that it has hit Long Beach and Orange County up along side their proverbial heads perhaps now things will start to change. You cant expect to fix crumbling bridges AND have "public safety" people retiring at 50 (for another 40 years) at $150,000 a year plus cost of living and the most generous medical on the planet. You cant give away social programs to everyone. Something has to go. Also people want more police but at what cost. No one looks at the "real" efficiency or effectiveness of police and fire employees due to public unions scuttling that examination. They consider themselves above cost cutting as they are "heroes". Is crime not down? How will 100 police stop a gang murder? Had a fire on your block lately? Local governments mission is to provide infrastructure, and yes "public safety" but not at a cost 3x what private sector employees cost. This reminds me once again of the French Revolution. Remember that? Or even the American Revolution (you know all that silly stuff you learned in high school). Party's over folks. Wake up, its time to pay up. Who wins? Government fat cats, slothful government employees, public unions and their lobbyists and politicians (the last 30 years worth) who got us into this or the taxpayers?


Budget reaches `tipping point'
Mayor says city's struggling despite growing revenue, cutbacks.
By Kristopher Hanson, Staff writer
Article Launched: 08/02/2007 10:43:05 PM PDT

LONG BEACH - Three years into an effort to balance the city's budget, Long Beach continues to struggle financially despite growing revenue streams, a new tax on oil production and cutbacks in most public departments, officials said Thursday.

The city's financial situation was outlined in the proposed Fiscal Year 2008 budget unveiled Thursday by Mayor Bob Foster and several department heads.

"This city now lives paycheck-to-paycheck," Foster said in a briefing at City Hall. "That's the situation we find ourselves in today, and frankly, we're at a tipping point."

Although city government is now forecast to end the next fiscal year with a slim surplus, deferred infrastructure projects, growing police and fire costs and other expenses could have Long Beach facing deficits again in the near future, Foster warned.

The city's fiscal year begins Oct. 1. The proposed budget, which is now available to the public for review and possible revisions, requires approval by the City Council.

Since fiscal year 2004, the city has erased a $60 million structural deficit by freezing vacant positions, consolidating work, increasing user fees and putting off capital improvement projects.

But deferred maintenance has left city streets and public facilities - including fire stations - in disrepair, and the city now estimates it will need $90 million to fix crumbling roadways and $585 million for building repairs and replacement within the next 10 to 20 years.

"We can't continue hobbling along for another decade," Foster said. "We have to change the way we look at things, and that goes for the mayor, the City Council and city staff."

Foster said no specific citywide bond measures or tax increases were being considered at this point, and instead urged more "public-private" partnerships and developments to help offset costs to the city.

Assistant City Manager Christine Shippey, who oversaw the budget's development, indicated the city is also willing to outsource services and sell unspecified assets to raise money.

"We have to consider everything," Shippey said.

The proposed $2.3 billion total budget for 2008 includes $1.94 billion in funds legally restricted for certain purposes, including beach maintenance and harbor development, with $392 million for the General Fund.

The General Fund pays for local government staples like police and fire service, libraries, street repairs and youth programs.

Of that $392 million, police and fire services will eat up 66 percent, with the rest split between community services, public works and general government costs.

The city's 5,853 employees, who include police officers and firefighters, are budgeted to collect nearly $770 million in the coming year in wages and benefits - a roughly 4 percent increase from the current fiscal year.

The proposed budget includes money for 14 additional police officers and 12 firefighters funded through fees collected by Proposition H, which voters approved in May.

The measure increased taxes on the nearly 40,000 barrels of oil pumped in the city daily and is expected to raise $3.6 million to $4 million annually.

Prop H money will also be used to buy a new fire ladder truck for Station 4 or Station 14.

While no dramatic cuts have been structured into the FY 2008 budget, the city will stop an extended day care program and continue not filling vacant positions.

In addition, authorities plan to lobby for more grants and revenues from county, state and federal governments for street work and infrastructure.

Long Beach Financial Director Mike Killebrew said the city is also studying financial practices in each department to determine where money can be saved.

Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske said that while the budget reflects the city's progress through tough financial times, it fails to address how Long Beach will put more cops on the street - a stated goal of the council.

"I am concerned ... by the lack of any reference in this budget as to how and when this city will add an additional 100 police officers on our streets - a goal many of us were committed to during our recent campaigns," Schipske said in a statement.

Schipske also urged city staff to eliminate duplicative functions at City Hall and increase the use of volunteers as ways to keep costs down.

The councilwoman is hosting a budget workshop for 5th District residents at 6 p.m. Aug. 13 in the El Dorado Park Senior Center, 2800 Studebaker Road.

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

Background on Tesco moving in to South and Woodruff location

From what we read below we are not too keen on Tesco's record outside of CA. However with grocery strikes constantly on the horizon it will be nice to see an alternative to Pavillions at South St. and Woodruff. We'll see how much of a good neighbor Tesco is based upon what they do to bring that old Petco store up to snuff with all the other stores at South and Woodruff that have updated/upgraded their facades. All with the exception of cheapskate Rite-Aid of course.

See the update on this story here as Rite Aid and Tesco Fresh and Easy upgrade their looks like the rest of the tenants.

As for the owner of Fresh & Easy (Tesco Plc, a UK based company) it looks like they are fighting a hard battle in the UK over animal rights issues. Read more here. It looks like they are trying to be socially and environmentally responsible in California (Read more here) and the US but China is another story. A number of companies struggle with the issue of socially unacceptable practices in one country that are acceptable in another. It will be interesting to to see who wins this battle; the PETA type folks or the global warming folks.


From the Los Angeles Times
Local and global reputation of British grocer Tesco at odds
It has created a socially responsible image in California, its newest market. But abroad, it is likened to Wal-Mart.

By Jerry Hirsch
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 2, 2007

In California, giant British retailer Tesco is carefully cultivating an image as a socially responsible grocer with good-paying jobs, fresh organic foods and the latest in environmentally friendly technology.

But the firm's new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain, due to open here this fall, is a far cry from the Tesco flagship stores in Britain, where the vast supermarkets are more like Wal-Mart in size, selection and controversy.

To prove its green credentials, Fresh & Easy adopted a baby elephant in Kenya, it roofed its Disneyland-sized distribution center in Riverside with solar energy arrays and will use a polar bear as a corporate symbol to remind people of global warming. Workers will start at $10 an hour and get health insurance.

Internationally, however, Tesco has come under fire for the decapitation of live turtles at stores in China, alleged purchases of sweatshop goods from Bangladesh and unfettered expansion in England that is driving small shops out of business.

"Tesco has been especially adept at marketing itself as a socially responsible corporation," said Robert Gottlieb, an Occidental College urban policy professor. "Its track record has significant gaps between what it has promised and how it has achieved its current position as one of the top multinational operations."

Gottlieb's Urban and Environmental Policy Institute plans to issue a report today that will offer communities recommendations on how to deal with Tesco. He warns that the small Fresh & Easy stores are only a beachhead. He said Tesco was seeking to make it U.S. business "as massive" as the company's presence in England.

Tesco rejects the criticism and dismisses any comparison between its efforts in the United States and controversies around the world. It is "unfair to suggest our statements about our planned business in the U.S. are not genuine by picking a handful of isolated issues that have occurred around the world over the past few years," company spokesman Greg Sage said.

With about $80 billion in annual sales, Tesco is the world's third-largest food retailer. It is spending $2 billion to build what will probably be hundreds of small grocery stores in Southern California and the Southwest. The first Fresh & Easy markets will open in November.

Tesco's California marketing strategy is calculated to create a "touchy feely" image that "goes for the heartstrings," said Mohan Sodhi, a management professor at City University in London. In England, Tesco is about low prices, creating the type of negative publicity and images that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. faces in the United States, Sodhi said.

Company spokesman Sage said Tesco had addressed the treatment of turtles. He said the company has "carried out extensive research" over the last year and has changed the way it slaughters live soft-shell turtles. Tesco employees now crush the turtle's head after removal, to end any lingering suffering that might be felt by the animal.

"Finding a balance between the very important issue of animal welfare and the attitudes and traditions of other countries is not always easy, but nonetheless we have made some real improvements," Sage said.

But the turtle issue and other criticisms are likely to follow the company as it opens its Fresh & Easy stores here in Southern California, consumers say.

Arrissia Owen Turner, who was looking forward to shopping in Fresh & Easy stores near her home in Ontario, said how the company treated animals and workers in other nations would influence her shopping habits.

Just because something is acceptable in one culture or tradition doesn't make it right, Owen Turner said. "I don't go to Wal-Mart because it doesn't give a livable wage and good benefits to its employees."

Elsewhere, Tesco faces criticism for the working conditions at some of its suppliers.

ActionAid, a South Africa-based anti-poverty agency, has repeatedly urged Tesco to improve working conditions for South African fruit pickers that supply the retailer.

At the company's annual meeting in June, Gertruida Baartman said there had been little improvement in the working conditions for agricultural workers like herself.

"I am here again because things haven't changed in our lives. Our children still go to bed hungry, and we use pesticides with our bare hands," said Baartman, who earns about 75 cents an hour for the fruit that winds up on Tesco's shelves in Europe.

In response, the company said it planned to expand ethical audits of South African farms.

According to War on Want, another anti-poverty group, workers in Bangladesh are paid about 10 cents an hour to produce clothes for Tesco's British stores. The group said employees at one plant in Dhaka work "up to 20 hours a day in locked premises."

Sage defended the company's record in Bangladesh, saying it had done all it could "to ensure that high standards and good conditions are maintained by the most thorough independent audits carried out anywhere in the world."

Like Wal-Mart, Tesco often is blamed for driving out of business small independent companies in the towns where it sets up shop. It is a concern of residents in the village of Cuffley, north of London, where Tesco Chief Executive Terry Leahy lives.

Grass-roots group Keep Cuffley Rural organized an advisory poll it hoped would persuade planning authorities to block a store opening. Nearly two-thirds of the village's adults voted in the poll, said John Stredwick, chairman of the group, and 83% voted against the development.



"We are happy to drive the three miles to the huge supermarket they already have near here, but when they want to drop into a small village with a plan to wipe out all the local jobs, it is a different story," Stredwick said.

While Cuffley residents are fighting Tesco, residents of the Glassell Park section of Los Angeles are looking forward to the Fresh & Easy market.

Both Albertsons and Ralphs have closed supermarkets in the neighborhood, leaving the community with one independent grocer and a smattering of small convenience stores.

Laura Gutierrez, president of the Glassell Park Improvement Assn., said, "Our community has gone through tremendous changes and needs grocery stores."

jerry.hirsch@latimes.com

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

wildfire costs go wild

This story is a real gem. 47.00 a day for lunch? 400.00 for a sink (excuse me "handwashing station")? I have to agree. You build a home out in the sticks taxpayers should not be bailing you out. Better hope you have good fire insurance. Firefighters I know just refer to "wildfires" as way to pay for their new boat. And of course there is no upside for taxpayers. Fires end up doing what they do while firefighters stand by on triple overtime.


latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-zacafire29jul29,1,4309374.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Officials seek to contain wildfire costs
After a sharply critical federal report on efforts to hold down expenses, managers begin to alter long-used strategies and front-line practices.
By Steve Chawkins
Times Staff Writer

July 29, 2007

SANTA YNEZ, CALIF. — For a tense couple of weeks, the 31,000-acre Zaca fire threatened to scorch more than 1,000 square miles of wilderness and reach the outskirts of communities as far-flung as Santa Barbara and Ojai.

Now, the smoke is clearing but the long, dark shadow of the auditor looms over a massive operation that has cost an average of more than $1 million a day for nearly a month.

Eye-popping wildfire expenditures aren't all that unusual — this month's inferno at Lake Tahoe ran up daily bills of $1.8 million — but increasingly they have drawn stern warnings from Congress and repeated promises from fire officials to hold the line on spending.

Such cost consciousness could bring changes welcomed by environmentalists — such as firefighters simply keeping an eye on certain remote wilderness fires rather than stomping them out in what foresters a century ago likened to the moral equivalent of war. As bone-dry California plunges into another severe wildfire season, fire officials say their new frugality could also alter other long-used firefighting strategies and front-line practices.

With the Zaca fire just 51% contained early last week, hundreds of firefighters from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies already had been released to go home or battle fires elsewhere. At base camp eight miles from the bucolic Santa Ynez Valley, giant bulldozers were being loaded onto flatbed trucks, one of two mobile showers was hauled away and workers were dismantling a huge tent where managers had been meeting to discuss daily strategy.

The shifts reflected greater attention to the bottom line, officials said.

"In the past, some incident commanders have been overly cautious," keeping manpower and equipment on hand past the time they were really necessary, said Mike Ferris, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman at base camp. "Now, we're challenging that way of thinking."

Whether such measures will satisfy the Forest Service's critics is an open question.

In a scathing report last month, the congressional General Accountability Office contended that the Forest Service and allied agencies "have neither clearly defined their cost-containment goals and objectives nor developed a strategy for achieving them."

The GAO acknowledged some Forest Service attempts to trim costs but said they were inadequate, allowing wildfire expenses to nearly triple in a decade. Forest Service officials, who have heard similar complaints before, said they took the criticism to heart.

"After the billion-and-a-half dollars that we spent last year, we did a lot of soul-searching about things we can do better," said Tom Harbour, the agency's director of fire and aviation management, in a telephone interview from a wildfire in Idaho. One result: Top-level Forest Service management teams are rushed in to eyeball expenses and strategy on fires, such as Zaca, where costs surpass $10 million.

Last year set a wildfire record, with flames blackening more than 13,500 square miles — the equivalent of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. The Day fire north of Los Angeles swept through more than 250 square miles, at a cost topping $70 million.

Harbour said officials have renewed their vow to let fires in some areas long untouched by flame burn for the well-being of the forest. And he suggested that firefighters would steer clear of heroic measures to save remote, wood-shingled forest hideaways surrounded by cascades of flammable shrubbery.

"We may not even commit firefighters to try to protect a home like that," he said.

The Zaca fire started July 4, when a ranch worker was grinding a length of irrigation pipe and a stray spark ignited some grasses. Firefighters managed to steer the fast-moving blaze away from Los Olivos and other communities but lost a race to keep it out of the chaparral-choked San Rafael Wilderness Area, which is inaccessible to trucks, bulldozers and other heavy equipment.

The only alternative was a costly, full-on attack using air tankers and helicopters, said Ferris of the Forest Service. Fire crews were dropped onto ridges and picked up every two or three days, reducing the cost of shuttling them back to camp each night.

Even so, aircraft rental adds up to real money in no time. Firefighting helicopters go for about $8,000 an hour; and at one time, 14 choppers and six air tankers were active at Zaca. Air attack, in fact, typically accounts for about one-third of all wildfire expenses. But the Forest Service believes it's cheaper to rent than to buy and maintain a year-round fleet, Ferris said.

Other expenses also mount quickly. Even seasonal firefighters — sometimes college students on summer break — can pull down $23 an hour including overtime. Full-time professionals — about 50 Santa Barbara County firefighters were at Zaca — make their regular pay and, often, overtime.

The agency gives an energy-restoring 6,000 calories a day to hardworking firefighters, so food can cost $47 a day per person. In addition to costly heavy equipment rentals, there are unglamorous necessities — such as an eight-sink hand-washing station that rents for $400 a day, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

At the Zaca fire, the more than $35 million spent so far could have been a mere down payment if the flames had swept into the adjacent Bob Smith and Matilija wilderness areas. Much of that acreage has not burned in at least 100 years, and officials said fire could have roared through the rough terrain unabated.

"If the weather hadn't cooperated with our firefighting efforts, this could have been much, much worse," said Capt. Eli Iskow, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. "We were 'what if-ing' this situation to death."

The worst-case scenario was outlined in blue on a huge map at Command Row, the dozen trailers that served as executive suites at Zaca's base camp. It showed the fire spanning about 800,000 acres — a vast swath that would have threatened the fringes of coastal Santa Barbara and inland Ojai. To prepare, firefighters carved nearly 200 miles of containment lines, some as far as 15 miles from the flames.

The aggressive — if costly — air campaign paid off, Ferris said: "It was a question of pay now — or pay a lot more later."

Critics such as Tim Ingalsbee, a former seasonal firefighter who now teaches fire courses at the University of Oregon, cast a skeptical eye on wildfire costs.

"About 45% of the Forest Service's budget is related to fire, and that's a big source of the problem," said Ingalsbee, founder of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. "The agency sees its money train hitched to fire."

He said costs could be slashed with greater attention to contracts, which can be bloated, and a greater willingness to use prescribed burns — fires set to thin the fuel supply in overgrown wilderness areas.

Prescribed burns hadn't been set in the wilderness areas singed by the Zaca fire, said John Bridgwater, Ojai District Ranger in the Los Padres National Forest. Managers calculated that thinning areas closer to ever-encroaching subdivisions made more fiscal sense, he said.

But some environmentalists say that, in general, the agency's approach seems to be changing — prompted at least in part by criticism of runaway costs.

"More than ever, the leadership is encouraging people on the ground to look at each fire as an individual event, as opposed to something that has to be extinguished as soon as possible," said Jaelith Hall-Rivera, a Washington-based wildfire policy analyst for the Wilderness Society. "Certainly they can be moving faster, but it's not something you can fix overnight."

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

Rialto CA perchlorate hearing

Rialto takes perchlorate stand
Article Launched: 07/28/2007 09:59:16 PM PDT
http://www.dailybulletin.com/opinions/ci_6489939

According to the most recent Study by the Center for Disease Control, perchlorate in drinking water, even at low doses, is a threat to the thyroid function of many of U.S. women, and to brain and nervous system development in children. By 2002, it had become apparent that a 6-mile-long plume of perchlorate, a key ingredient of rocket fuel, and trichloroethylene (TCE), a hazardous solvent phased out of industrial use by the 1980s, contaminates the otherwise pure groundwater aquifer that supplies drinking water for the city of Rialto and the Rialto Utility Authority.

The source is a World War II ordinance depot later used for manufacturing by large defense contractors and fireworks manufacturers. The contamination comes from land now used by San Bernardino County for its Mid-Valley Sanitary Landfill, to the west, and a 160-acre site to the east occupied by Goodrich Corporation, Emhart (Black & Decker), Pyro Spectaculars and other manufacturers.

In response, the Rialto City Council adopted a policy of shutting down contaminated wells to avoid serving perchlorate in any amount to its citizens. Initially, perchlorate concentrations were detected in the dozens to several hundred parts per billion (ppb). Additional investigation and testing found perchlorate as high as 5,000-10,000 ppb, the highest level in the nation in a domestic water supply. The state of California action level is 6 ppb.

Protecting citizens' health is paramount, but the potential effects on business, development and the city's finances are also dire. Installing wellhead treatment costs millions, and operational costs add millions more. With the new 210 Freeway, parts of the city are poised for increased development and employment. But if the city cannot assure a 20-year supply of water, state law prohibits local development.

Projected costs for the cleanup run as high as $200 million to $300 million.

Initially, Rialto turned to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board - Santa Ana Region (RWQCB) for assistance. EPA undertook some studies and issued investigation orders to some of the dischargers. At the time, the Bush administration, under pressure from major defense contractors that had used perchlorate nationally and the Pentagon, resisted adoption of a federal cleanup standard or rigid enforcement by the EPA. EPA took no further action, and deferred to the state of California.

The first prosecution effort by the RWQCB ended in a dismissal for lack of evidence. In 2003, Rialto turned to San Bernardino County and asked it to take steps to control the perchlorate from its Mid-Valley Landfill. Through then-supervisor Jerry Eaves, the county declined to offer Rialto any help and denied the extent of the contamination later confirmed by more testing.

Faced with ineffective action from EPA and the regional board, a rejection of liability from the county, and some expiring statutes of limitation, Rialto brought suit in federal court in 2004 to make the large corporate polluters and insurance companies - rather than its own citizens - pay for the cleanup.

Through investigation of activities as far back as the 1940s, and under federal discovery authority, a mass of evidence was collected and delivered to the RWQCB and EPA. Using some of this evidence, Rialto was successful in November 2005 in obtaining a Clean-up and Abatement Order from the RWQCB that requires the county to clean up the perchlorate emanating from the landfill. By late 2006, the RWQCB began a further prosecution of Goodrich, Emhart/Black & Decker and Pyro Spectaculars, supported in substantial part by the evidence from the federal litigation.

Rialto's strategy is straightforward: use the federal litigation to supply evidence to EPA and the regional board with the objective of obtaining orders for cleanup of the basin. California law requires such a lawsuit to invoke the decades of insurance coverage of many of the dischargers, some of whom otherwise lack funding.

Rialto's objective has always been to play a supporting role to federal and state agencies to obtain the orders for prompt cleanup. That strategy has worked as to the county and its landfill.

The current State Water Board prosecution, which goes to hearing in Rialto Aug. 21-30, will hopefully result in a cleanup order on the eastern part of the plume as well. Rialto will participate and assist the RWQCB in presenting important evidence.

If that hearing, which has been delayed four times by the large, well-funded law firms representing the dischargers, is not successful, Rialto has as a backup its federal lawsuit, which should go to trial in late 2008. Either way, Rialto is committed to making the large corporate polluters and insurance companies pay for the cleanup.

The same federal litigation has been filed by the city of Colton, West Valley Water District and the private supplier Fontana Water Company. Right now, Rialto and Colton are doing the work in the litigation. The same water purveyors, and the county - both singly and jointly - have applied for federal and state cleanup money for years with only limited success.

Rialto is following a dual approach of assisting the administrative agencies and using the federal litigation as a backup. We request this newspaper and all affected citizens to support the current State Water Board prosecution in Rialto Aug. 21-30.

The state Legislature should be encouraged to supply funding for prosecution of the dischargers and to assist with the cleanup. EPA should likewise be more actively involved, and take further action on the evidence that has been supplied to it. The health and welfare of Rialto's citizens, and its women and children in particular, deserve nothing less.

- Winnie Hanson, Rialto's mayor pro tem, and Ed Scott, council member, comprise the Rialto Perchlorate Subcommittee.

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

Will the streets ever get swept?

Again and again we have told Lakewood that until the parking problem get under control and there is some enforcement of parking rules, the gutters will remain dirty and the the city will continue to waste money on hiring the sweeper to drive down the middle of the street as no one will move their car (as none ever gets a ticket). The city even refuses to enforce the vehicle code (state law). Cars routinely park across the sidewalk blocking driveways making it very difficult for small kids or the handicapped to use the sidewalk. Well fortunately the state is no longer letting cities skate on their dirty streets any longer. Read more on the Water/Urban Runoff problem under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and the State Water Resources Control Board. Which means parking has to get under control.

Finally the city is taking some long overdue action via this letter to north Lakewood residents in the "test area". Now lets see some enforcement.


Sweeping parking ban test due
Trial of enforcement method planned in north.
By Karen Robes, Staff writer
Article Launched: 07/14/2007 12:32:46 AM PDT

LAKEWOOD - On many Lakewood roads, street sweepers often have to maneuver around parked cars and vehicles to clear out leaves, trash and other debris, leaving some not-so-tidy streets.

But next year, officials may ban parking during street sweeping hours if a fall pilot program in northern Lakewood is successful.

The City Council this week agreed to test street sweeping enforcement every Thursday beginning on Oct. 4 in northern Lakewood, where about 4,000 households will be affected, said city spokesman Don Waldie.

There will be two sets of street-sweeping hours: 7 a.m. to noon and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Implementing a citywide program would guarantee that streets would be well swept and prevent more trash from ending up in storm drains and ultimately the ocean, Waldie said.

Northern Lakewood was picked for the first phase of enforcement because the area's diverse mix of homes, businesses and apartment units allows the city to perfect the sweeping process and deployment of equipment.

"It's a good test area to learn all that we can about rolling out this massive change to people's lives," Waldie said.

As it stands, the city sweeps the streets, but only 34 percent of Lakewood has no-parking signs on street-sweeping days.

Residents in that 34 percent had to petition for the enforcement by securing at least two-thirds support from the neighborhood for streets to be cleared for weekly sweeping.

Citywide enforcement would eliminate the petition process, Waldie said.

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

No money for the San Gabriel River?

It seems every time money gets doled out its for the LA River and not the San Gabriel River. Why is that? Also the money seems to be focused on plants an animals but not much on what bike riders need. Not even safety. The LA River has had millions spent on it after the walls were heightened by the Corps of Engineers a few years back due to FEMA's flooding concerns. Lets spend the money on the lower San Gabriel now.


L.B. gets $5M for new parks
City plans to restore, expand parkland near L.A. River
By Jennifer Hall, Staff writer
Article Launched: 07/12/2007 09:34:53 PM PDT

Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster presents Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe with what the mayor jokingly called a $5 million T-shirt at Cesar Chavez Park after the supervisor gave Foster a check for the same amount to be used to improve Long Beach parks. (Steven Georges / Press-Telegram)

LONG BEACH - Visions for more parks and open spaces in Long Beach moved closer to reality Thursday when the county of Los Angeles gave the city $5 million for projects along the Los Angeles River.

"Today we're going to launch a program that is going to preserve and restore wetlands and park lands for generations to come," Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster said. "It will be something that you and your grandchildren can enjoy."

The money will go toward four separate sections that are part of the Long Beach RiverLink project. Of the money announced Thursday, $1 million will be for a greenbelt connecting Drake and Chavez parks, $2.5 million will go to the development of the DeForest Wetlands, $1 million will be put toward the Wrigley Greenbelt between Willow and 34th Streets and $500,000 will be used for the Baker Mini-Park in the Wrigley Heights area.

"This allows us additional parks, more green spaces and I think it goes with all of our visions working together," Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe said. "They have a great vision down here of not only rebuilding and revitalizing but also to improve the quality of life."

The Drake/Chavez Greenbelt will consist of 16 acres of recently acquired land and an additional 0.78 acres that the county money will help purchase. The new land will form a 46-acre greenway and parkland area on the east bank of the Los Angeles River including 23-acre Chavez Park and 6-acre Drake Park. It will include wetlands, trails, open space and a wildlife habitat.

"The areas along the rivers in general are not restored, they wind up being areas where people start dumping stuff," Foster said.

The Drake/Chavez greenbelt will link downtown Long Beach with the Los Angeles River bike trail. Purchase of the land was funded by the city of Long Beach and Los Angeles County using funds from Proposition 13 and Proposition A, as well as city redevelopment money.

A master plan for the greenbelt will be completed by the end of the year at which point the city will attempt to obtain money from Proposition 84 to complete the project.

"You take land that's in pretty bad shape and you convert it back to its natural state," Foster said. "You'll be able to walk through and enjoy things as they were decades and centuries ago."

The area where the greenbelt will be built had the least amount of parks in Long Beach.

"I'm very excited about what this park land will mean to the community in the future in terms of recreation and picnicking and family events," City Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal said.

Lowenthal, who represents the 1st District that includes both Chavez and Drake parks, wants to see an education center and more soccer fields built at the site.

"The most important thing is you take the blighted areas and you rejuvenate and regenerate and rebuild and you really improve the quality of life," Knabe said.

The DeForest Wetlands, part of the Los Angeles County lower Los Angeles River parkway plan, will run along the river next to the 710 Freeway. It will include the re-creation of 34 acres of historic wetlands, scrub and woodland habitat, recreational areas and improvements in water quality and flood control.

An additional $3 million is required to complete the $5.5 million project. The city has applied for a grant to reach that amount, said Phil Hester, director for Long Beach Parks and Recreation Department.

The Wrigley Greenbelt will cover 8 acres between Willow and 34th Streets that will include native plants, a multipurpose trail and a rest area along the Los Angeles River bike trail.

The Baker Mini-Park will be a 1.34-acre neighborhood park in the Wrigley Heights area near the Los Angeles River and San Diego (405) Freeway that will include additional irrigation, playground equipment and picnic tables.

Construction on the projects won't start for two years after design and departmental reviews are completed and the correct permits have been obtained, said Dennis Eschen, manager of planning and development for the Long Beach Parks and Recreation Department.

However, the purchase of the remaining land needed for the Drake/Chavez Greenbelt project will begin immediately.

Potential realignment of the 710 Freeway may change the design plans for the greenbelt and the elimination of Shoreline Drive North could connect Chavez Park with the piece of land between the north and south parts of Shoreline Drive.

The Long Beach Open Space and Recreation Element, approved in October 2002, aims to provide 8 acres of recreational open space per 1,000 residents in Long Beach. To reach that goal, 1,100 acres need to be added to the city's existing 2,855 acres. Currently, there are 5.4 acres per 1,000 residents.

The RiverLink plans will add 217 acres of open space to the Long Beach River area bringing the total to 263 acres.

City officials are seeking new grant funding from Proposition 84, the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy and other state and federal agencies, as well as private sector support to complete the projects.


Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™