Comments on: Cooley as pension-reform poster boy

By: Chinhokelly

Chinhokelly — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:46:59 +0000

You can extrapolate the salary of a civil service worker or elected official into a very large number, but in this case the salary is public information, legal and easily attainable by anyone who passes the State Bar, passes the application for deputy district attorney (or deputy public defender), promotes through the various ranks, attains double-digit civil service seniority and wins election to one of the highest positions in any county three times…so what does his salary have to do with his ability to put crooks in jail? Besides, someone who can run the largest DA Office in the country with the headaches of 1000 civil service-protected prosecutors, 300 civil service-protected cops and 500 civil service-protected support staff seems a bargain at $292K. Compare that to someone who runs one of the smaller DA offices of a major American city with NO CIVIL SERVICE PROTECTED staff for only $76K less.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:38:38 +0000

I have the proof. Straight from Steve Ipsen, but no one will touch the story yet. In fact tomorrow will tell the whole story. All I have been doing is critical thinking for the past 4 weeks and tomorrow we will see how well this is thought out. The story goes down in San Fernando Court at 8:30 AM when a motion will presented to Judge Cohen. Others will tell you there is no way he will grant the motion since he has denied every previous motion for the past 6 months. I myself, am optimistic, you see I know the law of averages is on our side. Not to mention we have one hell of a argument. The motion for a retrial will be made due to multiple conflict’s of interest the head prosecutor and his office have regarding this case. Ill give you a teaser. One of the conflicts directly involves The ADDA case and Brady material. Our argument, People v Eubanks (1996) 14 cal.4th 580, Long story short these conflicts are grounds for prosecutorial recusal of not only the deputy DA, but the entire prosecutors office. Looks like a change of venue or a dismissal. Stay tuned

By: SkippingDog

SkippingDog — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:23:47 +0000

If that can be proven, you’re certainly correct. However, making the claim in a lawsuit filing doesn’t necessarily make it so. You might try a little critical thinking sometime.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:59:16 +0000

If the DA is a Law firm then He should be dis-bared just like Harris hides evidence. Read http://www.scribd.com/doc/26656019/10-02-09-One-Unnamed-District-Attorney-Deputy-et-al-v-County-of-Los-Angeles-et-al-Complaint-against-Los-Angeles-District-Attorney-Steve-Cooley

Start on page 19 Paragraph 66

By: SkippingDog

SkippingDog — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:42:34 +0000

OCO spouting nonsense again. The DA is in fact a law firm. Denying that only proves that you’re completely clueless about the work they do in that office. In any comparable private law practice, Cooley would be making something approaching or equal to seven figures. Even in the current economy, first year associates in large firms are making $165k. Read California Lawyer or the ABA Journal for details.

By: OCO

OCO — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 01:58:43 +0000

Gee, Steve Cooley runs one of the largest law firms in the country
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Hey Perry Mason Jr. the DA is NOT a “law firm”, it is the DA.

And since you seem to think lawyers make so much money try to wrap your brain around the fact that in the real world Cooley would be making, AT BEST, $100K per year if he were in the private sector-working 80 hour work weeks with NO benefits.

By: OCO

OCO — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 01:55:12 +0000

Even if you use the non safety employee formula, the number is still obscene. You are just arguing how obscene. Civil service was never meant to be a promise to make millionaires.
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Don’t confuse them with facts. They already have their little minds made up.

By: trubluvet

trubluvet — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:59:56 +0000

Gee, Steve Cooley runs one of the largest law firms in the country. Why don’t you compare his pay and pension to the heads of even substantially smaller firms throughout the US. Cooley’s pay and pension would pale in comparison.

By: RinSac

RinSac — Sat, 29 May 2010 00:53:17 +0000

All of this ignores the fact that as part of an employee’s yearly compensation, the gov’t entity makes matching contributions equal to about 3x of the employee’s contribution. So, Cooley’s pension “account” likely has well over $1 million in base contributions. I know most on this site don’t believe this, but in years when there aren’t apocolyptic stock market meltdowns, the pension funds do very well, thank you very much. It’s the miracle of compound interest.

Oh, and that $500 billion figure that folks throw around about CalPERS? Do your homework — it was cooked up by a few grad students at Stanford using hugely false assumptions … oh, and did you know their professor is a embittered ex Member of the Assembly?

By: Vosht

Vosht — Fri, 28 May 2010 22:58:07 +0000

Uh, yes? Especially when they contribute 0-10% of their own personal salary into the fund?

Here’s how you tell if public pensions/salaries are bad. Take the equivalent private sector position skillset compensation. Subtract 20%, since the public sector needs, and if I might borrow from our brilliant leaders and their union puppet masters ‘the best and the brightest’. Is the public sector position still ridiculously more attractive? Yes? Guess what? YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. Period.

But then again, I don’t blame idiots for being greedy and making stupid decisions. I blame lazy americans for not getting involved until it hits their wallets.