Comments on: Public Pay Study Seems Bogus

By: Tylerle13

Tylerle13 — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:53:47 +0000

Steveo, I think your a little confused, which is understandable since your are addressing an issue that isnt included in your PEU talking point flash cards, but Tylerle13’s definition of a BS study= a study with garbage data that has been manipulated & mined in order to create results that push an agenda rather than using ethical & scientific standards while conducting a statistical analysis. But dont worry, im sure no one is counting on you to be right on this issue, or any other issue for that matter.

Regarding your little talking point statistics, is that $61 figure calculated by diving the TOTAL cost(Benefits, Pension, Funding the Pension again after CalPERS loses Billions on bad investments & finders fees) and dividing it by every person in the state?

Or did they subtract out all of the children & retired people who dont work?

Did they include all of the unemployed people who are not paying taxes because they are not making any money?

Did they include the nearly half of the population who PAY NO TAXES?

Because that is a very important tid bit of information in determining the validity of your cute little numbers. If the people who pay no taxes were included in that calculation, then, once again, your spewing BS all over the place. Now I know you you probably dont know how that number was formulated, and even if some miracle happened & you did know, I doubt you would admit that you knew it was a misleading statistic because you seem to be allergic to the truth.

By: Milan Moravec

Milan Moravec — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 05:06:29 +0000

UC Berkeley public employee salary is $500,000. When UC Berkeley announced its elimination of baseball, men’s and women’s gymnastics, and women’s lacrosse teams and its defunding of the national-champion men’s rugby team, the chancellor sighed, “Sorry, but this was necessary!”
But was it? Yes, the university is in dire financial straits. Yet $3 million was somehow found to pay the Bain consulting firm to uncover waste and inefficiencies in UC Berkeley, despite the fact that a prominent East Coast university was doing the same thing without consultants.
Essentially, the process requires collecting and analyzing information from faculty and staff. Apparently, senior administrators at UC Berkeley believe that the faculty and staff of their world-class university lack the cognitive ability, integrity, and motivation to identify millions in savings. If consultants are necessary, the reason is clear: the chancellor, provost, and president have lost credibility with the people who provided the information to the consultants. Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau has reigned for eight years, during which time the inefficiencies proliferated. Even as Bain’s recommendations are implemented (“They told me to do it”, Birgeneau), credibility and trust problems remain.
Bain is interviewing faculty, staff, senior management and the academic senate leaders for $150 million in inefficiencies, most of which could have been found internally. One easy-to-identify problem, for example, was wasteful procurement practices such as failing to secure bulk discounts on printers. But Birgeneau apparently has no concept of savings: even in procuring a consulting firm, he failed to receive proposals from other firms.

Students, staff, faculty, and California legislators are the victims of his incompetence. Now that sports teams are feeling the pinch, perhaps the California Alumni Association, benefactors and donators, and the UC Board of Regents will demand to know why Birgeneau is raking in $500,000 a year despite the abdication of his responsibilities.

The author, who has 35 years’ consulting experience, has taught at University of California Berkeley, where he was able to observe the culture and the way the senior management operates.

By: Richard Rider

Richard Rider — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:09:53 +0000

Not only are public employees posting day and night on these comments sections — it’s apparent that they are too often doing it from work. And I suspect they do so with the blessing of their career bureaucrat supervisors. More likely, they ARE the supervisors!

Well, that’s not entirely fair. Some are labor union officials — only some of which are on the public payroll. TECHNICALLY some of these skilled spinmeisters are not being paid by the taxpayers while they blog.

By: Fake OCO

Fake OCO — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:18:20 +0000

I am making a difference with my own time and money. I’m using both to oppose the Tea Baggers, the plutocrats and the right-wing elitists.

====================
Steve, fess up, you’re a public employee paid to post these bogus talking points.

You know it, I know it, we all know it!

By: stevefromsacto

stevefromsacto — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 23:51:02 +0000

Tylerle13’s definition of a B.S. study: Any study whose results do not conform to your views.

As to the FACT that the ratio of state workers to citizens in California is the fourth lowest in the nation…and the FACT that California’s payroll cost per resident is $61, one of the nation’s lower per capita costs, no comments from the peanut gallery.

I am making a difference with my own time and money. I’m using both to oppose the Tea Baggers, the plutocrats and the right-wing elitists.

By: PN Peterson

PN Peterson — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:35:25 +0000

Great piece, Steve…this also from AEI’s American on this subject:

http://www.american.com/archive/2010/october/government-employees-still-overpaid

By: Tylerle13

Tylerle13 — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:35:51 +0000

Steve, your picking a bad spot to make a stand in regards to the validity of these reports that get paraded around as if they were the new bible. The study in question here is complete crap because it relies on BS data & biased analysis, not because I personally like or dislike what the study concludes. If you really believe all of these studies without analyzing the information, then I pity your inability to analyze information & sift through the crap. There are no studies that should be taken at face value, especially when most of them are taylor made for the group(s) that fund the reasearch. You have to look at what data was input into the models, how the data was gathered, how they formulated their statistical model & why thing were weighted the way they were, etc. These studies get churned out, paraded around in the press like they are some new revelation and public policy should be changed because of the results, then 2 months down the road when it is revealed that the study was completely false and manipulated, they just pick up a different study and try to deflect the attention away from the truth. If you just read the summary, then pound your fist on the table and demand that people act on that information “Before Its Too Late!”(Which seems to be the rallying cry of people who know they are pushing a BS study, and if they wait any longer, the study will be exposed as a fraud) then you are either one of the most unethical people I have ever had the misfortune of coming across, or you are more ignorant than I ever could have imagined.

And I’m sure you are a great guy, but if you were really that great of a guy, you would be going out and making a difference with you own time & money instead of shouting for the forced government taking of everyone elses money in order to fund causes that you deem as “worthy”. You should realize that the California government is the worst “Charitible Organization” that we could be funding because they are one of the few organizations that can take a $1 “Donation” and turn it into $0.10 worth of services.

By: stevefromsacto

stevefromsacto — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:35:21 +0000

Well you haven’t proved squat, fake OCO. What part of I AM NOT A PUBLIC EMPLOYEE don’t you understand? Time to shut up.

To the rest of you public employee haters, check out conservative columnist Dan Walters piece in today’s Sacramento Bee:

“….The ratio of “full-time equivalent” (FTE) state workers is 11.1 per 1,000 residents, fourth lowest in the nation.”

“….California’s payroll cost per resident that month was $61, one of the nation’s lower per capita costs.”

“….Bottom line: The data indicate that Whitman’s vow to solve the budget deficits by cutting jobs may sound good to voters but doesn’t hold statistical water.”

Sorry to confuse you with the facts (again). But (as usual) you will ignore them.

By: Fake OCO

Fake OCO — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 23:58:25 +0000

Reality Check says:
October 23, 2010 at 10:22 am
SteveFromSacto & Skipping Dog –
How the fact escape you that for the last 20 years wages have been flat in the private sector (and yes WE pay the taxes to support the public sector) while every year public employees get cost-of-living increases and enhanced benefits
=======================
I cannot vouch for the last 20 years, but the wages in the private sector had remained 100% FLAT from 98-08 time period, and I am sure that they have gone down in the last 2 years. That are just wages if you’re still employed in the private sector-the job loss has been devestating in the real world.

Public employee compensation has grown exponentially during the 00-10 period. Especially “public safety”. The San Jose PD has seen their comp go up 97% in that 00-10 period, basically doubled in a 10 year time span-while the private sector remained 100% flat.

The DWP in LA (and MANY water/utilities districts) received 7% pay increases for a total of 5 years in the last contract they signed 18 months ago-that is a whopping 35% increase in just 5 years. Now that they gor that-the rest of the muni employees wanted the same deal-that is another reason why you never give out raises that large even in the good times.

The SFPD gave their cops 8% raises last year-in the middle of this depression. Vallejo gave their PD and FD 7% raises and have indemnified those unions for legal costs in any future lawsuits! Who does that in the real world with their employees???? No one. It is insane.

That kind of comp increase at ANY TIME is ridiculous, but in a depression it is criminal.

By: Tough Love

Tough Love — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 18:51:51 +0000

Stevefromsacto may not be a “public servant”, but either he or a close friend or relative) certainly is or participates in one of the Publicly funded retirement plans as a Board member, Freeholder, etc., and doesn’t want his gravy train derailed.