There is no way for me or for our Board of Directors to properly thank each and every one of the CAPE members who gave their time and resources to make 2012 the outstanding success that we can all now celebrate.
To make sure that CAPE members know exactly what we were up against last year, I’ll have to list just some of the challenges we faced back in January. Both our salary and our fringe contracts were expiring in September (again) during some of the worst economic news in generations; Legislative leaders in Sacramento were contemplating pension reforms that could have cost CAPE members their retirement security, or at the very least kept us in Court and legal costs for a decade; State and local elected officials were using every opportunity to get headlines vilifying public employees as the cause of every conceivable problem from government budget deficits to male-pattern baldness; and, statewide ballot measures threatened the very existence of CAPE and public employee unions on a Wisconsin-scale.
I heard a phrase that properly characterizes our situation last January — “This month was the worse decade of my life.”
We took the challenges one at a time. First, we sent a delegation to Sacramento to explain our position on the pension reform issue. Since the County’s budget is thankfully in stable condition, and LACERA continues to be one of the most efficient and responsible retirement systems anywhere, we tried to make our message as simple as possible for the California Legislature— “If it’s not broken; don’t fix it.” Our delegation, with the help of our Sacramento representative Tim Yaryan, explained that any reforms considered by the Legislature should not make the mistake of causing problems we don’t have in a well-run system. At the end of the year, we can all celebrate that the language finally added in PEPRA had minimal impact on existing CAPE members, and minor rate and term changes for the County’s new hires in 2013. Considering the draconian reforms contemplated by legislative leaders last January, I call it a big victory and send my gratitude for those who travelled to Sacramento to make sure ourside was heard.
The next challenge was the expiration of our salary contracts. I want to personally thank the CAPE members who got together to review all of information on our current terms, and all of the economic and budget data, to make recommendations to our Board that resulted in 1-year contract extensions for all six of our L.A. County bargaining units. As an early part of the process, we surveyed members at worksites and sent our team out to discuss the options in-person with CAPE members. With all of that information, it was an easy decision to continue our current contract terms for one more year.
The fringe contract extension took a very similar route, thanks to our own Blaine Meek and the Coalition of County Unions (CCU). Blaine’s leadership as the Chairman of the CCU helped secure a oneyear extension and restoration of the County’s full 4% matching contribution to the Horizons deferred compensation program.
And finally, the defeat of Prop 32 was perhaps the victory I most enjoyed this year. With all due respect to the many people who I know supported the measure, there is no greater satisfaction than seeing the little guys win. Prop 32 may have had its’ supporters among the anti-government and anti-union talk radio crowd, but the money came from the wealthy corporate interests who stood to gain by taking union voices out of the political process. There were numerous member communications, hundreds of pledge cards collected, eight nights of phone banks, and nearly forty precinctwalk shifts—all coordinated by CAPE staff and assisted by membervolunteers. Thank you, one and all. By membership counts, we’re not one of the bigger unions, but our volunteer efforts were cited as a game-changing force by the County’s labor leaders. Thanks for making it happen.
For 2013, we still face some of the same challenges. Our contracts are up again at the end of September, and the assaults on our interests are not going to stop just because the election is over. Even with those issues on the horizon, I’m more confident than ever. We engage this year with a much better sense of control over our future, and I thank each one of you who put your time and talents towards our successes in 2012.