The state Public Employment Relations Board on Wednesday ordered the city of San Diego to rescind a voter-approved pension reform measure and once again offer pensions to city employees.
Proposition B, passed by an overwhelming margin three years ago, shifted new non-police employees from the debt-ridden pension system to a 401(k)-style plan. The ballot measure was a major part of efforts by city leaders to restructure municipal finances.
Four of the city’s six organized labor groups filed a complaint with the PERB, contending that the city failed to bargain the provisions of the ballot measure with them before it went to a public vote, as required by law.
The city, arguing against the complaint, said the requirement didn’t apply, since Proposition B was sponsored by private citizens, and that municipal leaders who campaigned for it weren’t acting in their official capacities.
“It comes as no surprise that a state government board dominated by the unions would side with a bogus complaint filed by the unions,” former Councilman Carl DeMaio, an author of Prop. B, told Times of San Diego via email.
“This complaint will be laughed out of court because it is clear in the state Constitution that voters have the right to use initiatives to reform their government.”
The board affirmed a previous ruling by an administrative law judge that officials, including then-Mayor Jerry Sanders, in fact were acting in their city roles.
City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said the PERB ruling was expected. The city has prevailed in court once already on the issue, he said.
“We will be bringing this matter to the (City) Council in closed session as quickly as possible,” Goldsmith said. “If the council authorizes an appeal to the courts, we are confident that PERB will lose again. The law does not give labor unions the power to negotiate the terms of a citizens’ initiative.”
Craig Gustafson, press secretary for Mayor Kevin Faulconer, said he was also confident the city would prevail in an appeal. Faulconer was a strong supporter of the initiative.
If the PERB ruling is upheld in court, the city would not only have to enroll employees hired in the past couple of years into the pension system, but offer 7 percent interest on differences in benefits.
Voice of San Diego summarized the measure in 2013: Then-Mayor Jerry “Sanders and Councilman Kevin Faulconer developed a pension initiative in the months before the measure went on the ballot. Then-Councilman Carl DeMaio worked with the San Diego County Taxpayers Association and the Lincoln Club simultaneously on a separate initiative. The two groups later agreed on one initiative.”
— City News Service
