In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jerry Brown, the California Attorney General and Democratic candidate for governor, advocates for reforms of state employee pensions, including that employees contribute to the cost of their pensions.  I have advocated the same for San Leandro employees since last year to resolve the city fiscal crisis, stating:

Offering pensions helps attract and retain quality workers. Our city employees deserve good pensions. But in this economy and with city reserves nearly exhausted, the city can no longer afford to pay 100% of the employee pensions costs. To avoid a fiscal meltdown, city employees should start contributing to the cost of their pensions. This would substantially solve the city’s fiscal crisis, and not negatively impact the pensions employees would receive when they retire.

The San Leandro City Manager earlier this year called for the same reform in a position paper on public employee pensions issued by city managers in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.

I am the only candidate for mayor to advocate for pension reform. Mayor Santos and Council member Starosciak continue to support the city’s payment of $10 million each year to CalPERS, constituting almost 15% of the general fund, with no contribution by employees to the cost of their pensions.

If city employees had contributed to the cost of their pensions over the four years Tony Santos has been mayor, instead of $24 million in deficit spending, a police force cut by 10%, nearly exhausted reserves and a 10% San Leandro sales tax on the November ballot, San Leandro would possess over $10 million in reserves, have a fully staffed police force, and could be offering incentives to attract businesses to San Leandro.