After listening to yesterday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting I was somewhat hopeful after Orange County Employees Association (OCEA) GM Nick Berardino’s comments that things might move forward. Norberto Santana had a different, more disappointing, perspective in his Total Buzz story Tuesday evening.
Responding to an idea floated last week by union leader Nick Berardino — calling for a week of unpaid leave during the holidays — County CEO Tom Mauk today told supervisors at their weekly meeting that he hoped the Orange County Employees Association would join the county in advocating a three percent pay cut.
Mauk’s suggestion came seconds after he chided Berardino for holding press conferences to float the union’s ideas for cutting the budget.
“Lets stop the bomb-throwing to get attention,†Mauk said during his comments before the board. Then he threw his own bomb.
“Lets agree with OCEA to do an across the board three percent pay cut,†Mauk said, estimating that it could save taxpayers between $25 million and $30 million.
As Santana reports, things went down hill from there.Â
Later the argument spilled into the hallways. Berardino reacted to Mauk’s three percent cut proposal by saying it was purely spiteful.
“That’s telling our members if you come up with any creative solutions, we’ll punish you,†Berardino said.
“It’s a penalty for coming up with stupid ideas,†Mauk responded.  â€Ask him how he closes the jails for a week.â€
Read Norberto Santana’s complete post here. Pleaese feel free to comment there, and here if you like.
Geez Mauk! Pay cuts, and layoffs are serious crap for people to deal with, especially over the holidays. The least you could do is get down to business and stop acting like a childish brat.
Berardino can ask his members to take time off, but that should not satisfy the Supervisors.
The Supervisors are ultimately responsible for the fiscal health of Orange County, which means they must take definitive, substantial and timely action. Berardino’s suggestion is neither definitive nor substantial.
Beradino proposes a week without pay. Mauk is asking for a 3% paycut.
Beradino’s proposal is in essence a 2% paycut. Seems to me there is
only a 1% difference.
RHackett, he’s calling for an optional 2% paycut for whoever decides not to show up for work one week. Are you really anticipating 100% participation? 50%?
At home you cut what you cannot afford. Why aren’t we doing it in the County? It seems to me that this kind of thing is not done voluntarily, nor in press conferences. Layoffs appear to be a reality everywhere but in the County. Have you talked to your neighbors lately and see if they are facing paycuts and/or layoffs?
The CEO needs to look at the Administrative Org Chart and see how its ballooned in the past 5 years.
He should also look at the qualifications and performance of the mid-level managers. Many of which are not the least bit qualified and are in those positions due to extreme-cronyism. Others were promoted and reclassified without taking any responsibilities or making additional contributions to the County.
A simple review of these managers executive decisions would show either that the County is wasting money on their total ineffectiveness or is losing money on top of that waste for poor decisions.
This is what we cannot afford and should cut.
Unfortunately, these privileged positions are also “protected” positions.
The crazy thing is that some of the information I mentioned about can be found through a Google search.
As some of these cronies detail their “experience” or lack there of on the Web.
Just think no expensive consultants would be needed.