Mainline - San Francisco Firefighters Local 798

Letter From the President
As we enter into spring, we find the
SFFD facing a similar set of crossroads…
namely pension reform and the budget
crisis. Both remain the focal point of our
efforts, and no easy or clean resolution
seems apparent for either. Rest assured,
though, that your Union is working furiously
to ease the burden of both of these
issues on our workforce.
Pension Reform
San Francisco now has a new rite of
spring…Jeff Adachi submitting pension
reform ballot measures to the Department
of Elections. Apparently his winter
hibernation period was quite productive,
because this year Jeff Adachi has submitted
FIVE pension reform measures. Each
measure is more and more draconian
than last year’s Prop B, with one attacking
active employees, future employees
AND retirees. One measure would require
City employees to contribute nearly
23% of their paycheck to the general fund
to make up for the pension shortfall. The
general thrust of Jeff’s efforts seem to be
to once again blame the collapse of the
stock market on public employees.
Simultaneous to Adachi’s efforts, the
“Hellman Group”, consisting of Police,
Fire, SEIU, Attorneys, Executives, Plumbers
and Local 21 continue to work on finding
real solutions to the pension issue. As
of deadline for this magazine, the Hellman
group was about to roll out a proposal
that addresses the pension shortfall
in a meaningful manner, without gouging
City workers.
“
Letter From the
President
The meet and confer process has also
started with City Hall over pension reform,
but most of the ideas they have presented
have been similar to the Hellman
group. The deadline to submit a measure
to the Board of Supervisors is May 24 th .
If everything works out correctly, there
should be a “consensus ballot measure”
supported by the Mayor, labor unions
and the Board of Supervisors.
I believe only one person won’t agree
with the “consensus”…maybe we should
Jeff Adachi a ticket to Wisconsin. He
would fit in quite well there…
City Budget
As of our deadline, the Mayor’s office had
lowered the deficit projections but was
still requesting that all department’s continue
to submit 10% reduction plans AND
an additional 10% in contingency cuts.
Although the deficit has been reduced to
$305 million, the one time “tricks” and
quick fixes of the past are gone.
The SFFD still seems protected by Prop. F,
The Neighborhood Firehouse Protection
Act, but politicians are probing for savings.
Amazingly enough, our old “nemesis”
Supervisor John Avalos recently
stated that we need to find real budget
solutions “without closing firehouses.”
Remarkable…
Local 798 is still working on finding a
manner in which to collect EMS revenues
from private ambulance companies as
well as point out other efficiencies to be
found in the City budget. Two big items
stand out. One is the “12-B Compliance”
The general thrust of Jeff’s effo
blame the collapse of the stock m
Tom O’Connor
rule which mandates that the City of San
Francisco only purchase goods from vendors
that allegedly follow a series of social
policies. Vendors must recognize domestic
partners, provide health care, not
conduct business with Burma, etc. The
requirements are so burdensome that
only a handful of companies can match
these requirements…usually companies
that have few employees and simply act
as a “middleman” in the purchase of
goods. For example, Home Depot does
not match the criteria necessary to sell
goods to San Francisco. So someone sets
up a “shell” company that is “12 B” compliant,
then purchases goods from Home
Depot and sells them to San Francisco at
2-4 times the price.
While this “12-B” policy is noble in its
intent to advance social causes, the unanticipated
affect is that social services
get cut in San Francisco…the very same
social services mentioned in the “12-B”
policy! Currently a workgroup is trying
to highlight these issues to City Hall, to
little affect though. The policy should be
highlighted again once the budget cycle
heats up.
The other big ticket item in the budget is
Enterprise Funds. Certain departments
are considered Enterprise Funds, the airport,
the Port, the PUC, etc. The funding
for these and other departments are considered
legally untouchable by City Hall
since these agencies oversee “monopolies”
and charge a fee to those that use
their services. Makes sense on its’ face,
government shouldn’t extort fees when it
controls a resource.
6 Main Line www.sffdlocal798.org