The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on June 17 to put the pension-killing initiative on the November ballot, after County Counsel, Leroy Smith found the initiative to be illegal.
This seemingly contradictory position comes as the Board felt that based on state law it had to either put the initiative on the November ballot or to adopt the initiative.
After the Board voted to put the initiative on the ballot there was a second Board item that asked the Board members to vote on whether the County would take a position on any subsequent lawsuits related to the initiative. Supervisor Peter Foy was the only Board member who voted against this item. Foy is a key proponent of the initiative and is also the California state chairman of Americans For Prosperity, a Koch Brothers backed national organization. The Board vote means that the County will take the position that the initiative is illegal.
During discussion on this item, the Board asked lawyer Deborah Caplan, who spoke earlier, if she intended to file a suit today on behalf of Citizens for Retirement Security (CRS) and she indicated that a lawsuit would be filed. CRS is a coalition of labor and community members that includes SEIU 721.
Community members David Atkins and Patrick Donahoe each voiced their opinions on the folly of sending an illegal initiative to the November ballot.
SEIU 721 County of Ventura retiree, Christine Will, spoke and pointed out that many initiative petition signers had little or no information on what they were signing and that they certainly didn’t know it was proposing something illegal. This sentiment was reiterated by a couple of Board of Supervisors as well during their comments on the item.
This fight for secure retirement for all is far from over. Join the Secure Retirement Truth Squad for updates and to get involved.
Related articles:
- Supervisors put pension initiative on ballot, call it illegal (VC Star)
- VC PENSION MEASURE HEADED TO VOTERS, COURT (KVTA on Facebook)
If something is Illeagl in the beginning, why entertain the problem. Another example of persons in power stealing from the old and poor.
Amazing. County Council Leroy finds initiative illegal. The board’s feeling is it should go on the ballot. I can hear there feelings now being echoed around the table “It’s so popular”.
Declaring it illegal does make people relax. There will be a reduction in energy and motivation to fight this selling of Democracy. I wonder how the Board feels about this. Pretty good I bet.
http://ventura.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=67&clip_id=3604
Click on above url, or copy and paste, press enter, and wait for Board of Supervisor video website to open
Below the video portion is a list of things. If you go to item 72 and click on it you will see the video advance to a time in the video. Play and you will see Terry Theobald speaking. I have not watched it yet but I believe it has to do with Terry asking for about 20 mil for Cerner off site data storage/management.Click on the URL and go to the 6-24-14 Board Meeting video. Below the video is a list. Click on item 72 and the video will advance to section I want you to be aware of. $20,000,000.00 over a 10 year period will be sent out of our community to a different state and different jobs, not to mention those of wealth and influence. This is another example of County managements outsourcing goals as well as their inability conceive a plan that would keep our money closer to home. Terry was prepped by HCA for his debut presentation to the Board of Supervisors. Steve and Mike ready with responses reaffirming, “What an undeniably good idea.” No dissenting opinions heard. No mention of what it would cost do this locally or even on a state level. $20,000,000.00 can purchase a lot of equipment and labor. In the meantime IT jobs are being farmed out to the highest bidder.
Maybe I have not mentioned this before, Outsourcing and the Selling of Democracy go hand in hand. The same people support both.
The Grand Jury has already pointed out that these people do not have the ability to manage multi-million dollar deals. It is interesting that the Grand Jury was created to provide oversight of the actions of local government. The County’s response to the Grand Jury’s Reports are, “We think your wrong.”
“You got gangsters in power and lawbreakers making rules.” Bob Dylan