4/2/09
Budget Solutions
By Paul "The Gadfather" Norberg--retired CFO----AND---- Katy "The Aging Disco Queen" Miessner
Suggestions for Balancing Vallejo's Budget
Our City Council is now trying to figure out how they are going to balance next year’s budget with a projected $12 million deficit. As the city has already filed for bankruptcy and Judge McManus has issued a ruling that the contracts may soon be set aside, what was the rush to approve new contracts for police and CAMP? The city is bankrupt, so the leverage is on the city’s side. We are now burdened with paying the police union $1 million for voiding the current contract and paying their future legal fees if we try to void any future contracts.
If that was the best the city could do, we need a new labor negotiating team.
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Unions’ flawed Proposals come to light in Bankruptcy Declarations |
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By Paul Norberg--Retired CFO
(With Glitter Sprinkles from Katy Miessner--Aging Disco Queen)
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July 6, 2008
SUNSHINE ON THE CLOSED SESSIONS!
Now that the city has filed for protection under the bankruptcy act the actual proposals made by the unions have been filed as a public record. Much of the information was previously disclosed in our analysis of the Rose Report and now the objections filed by the Unions against bankruptcy exposes the flawed reasoning behind their proposals. And the Union proposal is more of the same that has been offered year-after-year-after-year. They are easing up on the city only enough to balance the budget for one year.
As we suspected, the Unions’ proposal was not sufficient to avoid bankruptcy. The Unions again are attempting to use their proposal to extend their contracts and bloated pay. The unions’ proposal offers only the smallest concessions; just enough to balance the budget for the 2008/2009 fiscal year. But in return, they demand their contract—currently set to expire in June, 2010—be extended until June, 2014.
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The Rose Retort

An analysis of the "confidential" report by Harvey M. Rose Associates, LLC
Starring:
Paul "The Gadfather" Norberg--Retired CFO
Katy "The Aging Disco Queen" Miessner--Financial Expert
5/19/08
See the Rose Report HERE
The Rose Report dated May 5, 2007 seems to be the same report the Public Safety Unions released to the media on 5/13, in conjunction with their press conference on 5/12/08. It also seems to incorporate the Unions’ final offer to the city made on 4/21/08. The City rejected this offer as inadequate to avoid bankruptcy.
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3/7/08
The Gadfather Presents: Public Safety Costs
General Fund Fiscal Year 6/30/07
By Paul Norberg--retired CFO--foreword by Marc Garman
It is with great pride that VIB presents a work of landmark proportions. This document is a fiscal work of art. A veritable rosetta stone of clarification. An earth-shattering literary and factual revelation that dwarfs the works of both Tolstoy and Shakespeare.
Uuuh, okay okay. If trying to comprehend public safety costs and get the overall picture makes your head fuzzy...this may help.
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Fringe Benefit and Extra Pay Costs
2/28/08
By Paul Norberg--Retired CFO (With Glitter Sprinkles from Katy Miessner--Aging Disco Queen)
Contrary to Fire Union Vice President and Fire Captain
Jon Riley, the cause of out-of-control firefighter overtime is not due to too
few firefighters. The truth is it is
actually less expensive to pay existing staff overtime than to hire new
employees. Why?
Vallejo’s public safety employees—Fire and Police—are
among the highest paid in the Bay Area.
They also have a very generous fringe benefit and extra pay program. In
fact it is less expensive to pay existing staff overtime than to hire new
employees. Fringe benefits cost the
city about 80% of a public safety employee’s base pay so no wonder the City is
unable to hire more staff. As Riley
says, overtime is about 30% of an employee’s salary. That’s a whole lot cheaper than 80% of an employee’s salary. The full benefit and extra pay list
follows at the end of article.
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2/26/08
Election Financing in Vallejo
Or, What does it cost to get elected to Vallejo's City Council
By Paul Norberg--Retired CFO (With Glitter Sprinkles from Katie Miessner--Aging Disco Queen)
The November election was
one the costliest in Vallejo’s history.
Erin Hannigan raised $75,758 and Mike Wilson raised $80,445. In addition the United Workers For Local
Government PAC spent over $26,000 each on Hannigan and Wilson plus another
$34,675 on Pam Pitts. These
“Independent” expenditures by the PAC are not reported by the candidate and are
in addition to the money raised by their campaign committees. That brings the total income to over
$100,000 each for Hannigan and Wilson. Contrast this to the $25,000 raised by
Joanne Schivley. In past elections
Hermie Sunga and Tom Bartee were also supported by the unions who now, with
Wilson and Hannigan, control a majority of the council.
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Public Safety Salaries
Why Are They so High?
02/20/2008
By Paul Norberg--Retired CFO (With Glitter Sprinkles from Katy Miessner--Aging Disco Queen)
A History of Union Negotiations
We often hear that Vallejo’s public safety salaries—Fire and Police pay—are among the highest in the Bay Area and even the state. For a city with a low tax revenue base, with median household income among the lowest in the Bay Area, and with fire risk not different than other cities, how did this happen?
Here is a little history of our public safety contracts. They were originally negotiated in 2000 and covered the years 2000 to 2005 and then were extended to 2010.
In 2000, when the current Public Safety Union contracts were negotiated with the Fire and Police Unions, the City agreed to set union salaries at 10% higher than 14 surrounding cities and fire districts. If this weren’t bad enough, the 14 cities include affluent cities such as San Mateo, Santa Clara, Berkeley and Palo Alto, but exclude neighboring cities that are more like Vallejo: Fairfield, Vacaville and Napa. Future increases were based on the average increase of the 14 cities, so Vallejo would theoretically always be 10% higher than the other 14 cities.
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Fund Accounting for Dummies
OR
Everything You Wanted to Know about Vallejo's Accounting Practices
Written by Paul Norberg
with glitter sprinkles from ADQ Katy Miessner
01/08/2008
The City is currently projecting that in 2 ½ years-by June 30, 2010-our General Fund will have a deficit of $22.6 million.
The city has over $1 billion in assets and collects and spends about $300 million annually; this year about $82.8 million in the General Fund, and the remaining $217.2 million in other special funds. You might ask, why can't the city simply move money from one "fund" to another to solve the huge problem we are now facing with the General Fund? To answer this question, first you need to understand the complexities of "Fund Accounting" and the restrictions it places on governmental spending.
A government is like a non-profit corporation. The City has no personal profit motive-that is, no shareholders-and instead measures "accountability" instead of profitability.
The main purpose of this "accountability"-the guiding principle of governmental "Fund Accounting"-is to keep revenues and expenses separate from each other to insure the money is legally spent as the taxpayers intended it to be. In a typical corporation or private business the owners or managers can move money around to create new projects or cover losses from one department with profits from another. Governments on the other hand must separate-or segregate-money to insure that funds collected for one purpose is spent only on that purpose. This is exactly what we are now facing.
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