Tension Rises at San Diego Unified School District Over Proposed PLA

The concept of San Diego Unified School District having a project labor agreement is starting to really heat things up here. (and you thought it was the sun) Eric Christen and his cohorts have really inflated their PR campaign and are trying to spread fear like it is butter. The Voice of San Diego has been covering the issue.

For starters Mr. Christen (someone not from my community) has resorted to name calling and ultimately threatening to recall our elected officials.

"We are targeting the three board members who are handmaidens for the union," said Eric Christen, executive director of the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, a group that lobbies against labor agreements. Christen added, "The public has a right to know what their school board has been up to."

This is the same guy that could not figure out how to legally qualify a ballot measure in Chula Vista. I doubt he has the skills to pull off a recall.

Well here was some more information about Mr. Christen:

Christen's group is part of a nationwide nonprofit called Congressional District Programs, a public charity that that is itself a subset of National Heritage Family. Christen earns more than $160,000 annually as a consultant to Congressional District Programs, according to its most recently available tax return. Prior to its merger with Congressional District Programs four years ago, it pulled in roughly $33,000 in revenue in a year.

Since when do consultants of non profits make more than state legislators, city council members, and over $60,000 more than the mayor of San Diego? I think his efforts and bombastic threats are the way that he justifies his salary.

Board member Sheila Jackson penned a letter to the editor supporting the agreement. You can read it here. It is on point.

Stay tuned...

Stiumuls Passes House

Well the stimulus is half way here.

Last night the House of Representatives passed the $819 billion dollar stimulus package. It goes to the Senate now, where barring a filibuster the stimulus package will soon be headed to states soon.

According the SF Gate:

President Obama scored his first legislative victory as the House passed an $819 billion economic stimulus package Wednesday night, but his bipartisan outreach failed to net even one Republican vote.

If he was upset with the outcome, Obama didn't show it. After the vote, he invited top House and Senate leaders of both parties to the White House for cocktails, hoping to smooth the way for the bill in the Senate, which could begin debating the bill later this week.

Is a Relaxing of the Air Quality Rules Is on the Budget Table?

It looks like the Diesel Off-Road rule is "in play" with regards to settling the budget crisis. Philosophically I am not for using the budget process to amend laws. I think legislators should have to line up the votes and pass bills the traditional way. Some might call this "trickeration"

But I think this is one rule that could use some amending.

According to the SacBee,

Another change would relieve construction firms and other businesses from having to meet a 2007 retrofit requirement for diesel off-road vehicles. Mike Lewis, senior vice president for the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition, said contractors already have reduced emissions below targeted levels because the economic slowdown has reduced activity and firms have begun complying with new rules.

Under the air-board requirement, he said businesses would have to pay $1 billion to retrofit 35,000 particulate traps by next year: "The industry simply doesn't have a billion to do that."

Well we will just see how this turns out.

Laborers Union Demands that the Stimulus Plan Get "Americans Back to Work"

The Laborers have rolled out an ad campaign to push the economic stimulus to create jobs. There seems to some parts of the stimulus plan that are developing that are not going to provide jobs. Well the Laborers have a response and a solution.



A copy of the press release can be found here.

“Working Americans need paychecks, not stimulus checks”

LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – today launched an effort to increase the share of job-creating investment in the economic recovery plan under consideration in Congress. The effort by LIUNA, with a half-million members, will include intense member mobilization, supported by TV ads initially in Washington, D.C. and four states.

LIUNA General President Terence M. O’Sullivan will deliver automated phone messages to members, allowing them to immediately patch-through to the office of their Senator. This effort will be supported by TV ads, which will air in Nevada, Kentucky, Tennessee, Iowa and Washington, D.C. Additional markets may be added. As the bill currently stands in Congress, less than 20 percent of the $825 billion cost will directly create jobs.

LIUNA has called the economic recovery proposal a major step forward, dedicating badly needed
resources to building America, including its roads, bridges, transit systems, schoolhouses and energy systems. However, the union believes at least a third of the package should directly create “build America” jobs.

“The current proposal is true progress, but falls short,” O’Sullivan said. “It fails to fully take advantage of the opportunity to put America back to work building the essential and long neglected basics of our country, which would leave behind real assets for future generations.”

I really like the tone of the campaign...lets hope those in the halls of power hear it.

Larger List of Projects with Delayed Funding Released

Sorry about this. This post is late but unfortunately not overcome by events.

The Department of Finance has released its updated list of projects that will have payment delayed. You can find the list of over 5000 projects here. The list encompasses projects from all over the state. It has a wide range of projects from schools, fire stations, roads and just about everything else.

To make matters worse the state Controller John Chaing says that the state will start running out of cash next week and payments will be delayed for more than just the construction projects. You can find the list here.

Pressure Building for Stimulus

So there has been more and more talk about the Stimulus Package coming. However the more I look the harder it is to follow. One of the major issues is that the stimulus package seems to be administered by federal agencies instead of the "earmark process". The bad thing about this is that now that it is not a legislative earmarked program you can not just look at the authorizing and appropriating bill to find the answer.

I just think that is hard to follow.

Here are a few interesting articles that I found regarding the stimulus.
California could reap $21.5 billion from U.S. stimulus plan.-SacBee

On Thursday, staffers of the House Transportation Committee estimated that California would receive $4.5 billion to spend on highways, bridges and other projects. But that's only a small part of the overall package, as the new numbers make clear.

Economic stimulus or just more pork?-SF Gate

In his first presidential radio address Saturday, he said it would accomplish big things: renovate 10,000 public schools, build 3,000 miles of new electric grid, computerize all Americans' health records in five years, weatherize 2.5 million homes, provide Pell Grants to 7 million college students, and protect the health insurance of 8 million Americans who risk losing coverage during the downturn.

Obama stimulus, Schwarzenegger budget plans at odds- San Jose Mercury

Within the next few weeks, President Barack Obama is expected to sign an enormous package of federal spending and tax cuts in a bid to revive the nation's economy.

Around the same time, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hopes to sign a budget plan imposing steep tax increases and spending cuts to wipe out a $40 billion deficit.

The contradiction underscores a difficult reality: The solution to the state's yawning budget deficit may well blunt the effects of the federal stimulus here.

When I find out more I'll pass it along.