After yesterday’s news broke that former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan was dropping his union-opposed pension plan for current and future city workers, mayoralty candidate Kevin James warned Los Angeles may become the largest city to confront bankruptcy.
Since the Riordan Plan was announced on Oct. 15, Mr. James has been the only contender among the top four in the mayor’s race to indicate support.
“Our city is in a financial crisis,” Mr. James said, “and real pension reform is needed to maintain the city's solvency and to protect the pensions of our city employees and retirees.
“Unless we reform our pension system, Los Angeles will face bankruptcy.
“The City of San Bernardino has stopped making payments into CalPERS, the state's public employee pension fund, because of that city's bankruptcy.
“Unless we implement pension reform in 2013, Los Angeles could be next. We must do a better job of protecting our city services and our employees' pensions.”
On Aug. 21, prior to Mayor Riordan's formal announcement of his ballot reform measure, Steve Lopez devoted his column in the Los Angeles Times to pension reform ideas submitted by the Mayoral candidates.
In that essay, Mr. James offered several categories of pension reform that called for the inclusion of all of the city unions (including the DWP's union) in all reforms, raising the retirement age, lowering the assumed rate of return, raising the contribution rates employees contribute to their pension and health insurance costs, limiting pension calculations to an employee's base salary, and stopping the abuses of the pension system such as double-dipping and spiking.
With the suspension of signature gathering for Mayor Riordan's plan, Mr. James remains committed to his previously published reform measures.
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/21/news/la-mayoral-candidates-discuss-city-employee-retirement-costs-20120821/4
“Our city workers have put money into the pension system for years,” he said. “They expect to receive their pensions, and they should.
“My concern is that they may not get their full pensions. The pension system is grossly underfunded. The current assumed rate of return is unrealistically high.
“At the same time, the city’s budget cannot support escalating pension costs at the expense of key city services and ironically, union jobs.”
Mr. James, a radio talk show host for eight years, advocated for working residents, for neighborhood councils, and for common sense solutions to city challenges. Previously, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney and served on the Board of AIDS Project Los Angeles for six years. Currently an entertainment attorney, his website is http://www.kevinjamesformayor.com
