Mayor's willingness to include public defender in pension reform discussions is politically tricky
A group composed of union leaders, philanthropist Warren Hellman and an increasingly large coterie of city executives has been meeting every other week for months, trying to come up with a consensus plan to rein in the city's ballooning pension and health care costs.
Many of the group's members had promised to come up with a plan as they campaigned last fall against Proposition B, a controversial ballot measure sponsored by city Public Defender Jeff Adachi that would have required city employees to contribute more toward their pension and benefit costs. Prop. B lost by a wide margin, and Adachi has been treated as a political pariah in many circles ever since.
The Hellman/union group has cancelled its planned meeting next week. It will be weeks before the city controller's office is able to price out money-saving proposals the group finalized in its last meeting, on Feb. 9. Additionally, the cancellation was caused by “Warren Hellman’s availability, and also because the health care subcommittee needs to meet at least twice before our next meeting," said Nathan Ballard, Democratic strategist who has been working with the unions on the issue for months, and has been invovled in the meetings since their inception. (Hellman is the chairman of The Bay Citizen's board but plays no role in editorial operations.)
Pension and employee benefit reform is critical to the financial health of the city. Newly appointed Mayor Edwin M. Lee said in an interview Tuesday that not addressing the problem could result in the city's being bankrupt five to 10 years form now.
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