FLASHREPORT

WHERE WAS JERRY BROWN DURING OAKLAND’S PAY SCANDAL?

Assemblyman Jim Nielsen

[Publisher's Note: As part of an ongoing effort to bring original, thoughtful commentary to you here at the FlashReport, we present this column from Republican Assemblyman Jim Nielsen - Flash]

If you are new to the FlashReport, please check out the main site and the acclaimed FlashReport Weblog on California politics.

Before there was Bell, there was Jerry Brown’s Oakland.
 
Given California’s dire financial straits, it’s hardly surprising that the outrageous salaries that Bell bureaucrats awarded themselves have captured the attention of the nation. Jerry Brown launched a full investigation into the compensation practices of the city of 40,000. I find this very ironic given the long history of $100,000-plus salaries paid out to Oakland government workers while Jerry Brown served as mayor.
 
The hypocrisy here is obvious. Jerry Brown’s failed management skills cannot be overlooked in the crucial race to determine our next governor.
 
As mayor, Brown oversaw a bloated Oakland bureaucracy in which more than 1,100 employees, were paid more than $100,000 a year. Even more startling: the number of people on the Oakland payroll earning more than $200,000-a-year increased by more than 700 percent between 2003 and 2006.
 
Where was Jerry Brown?
 
Oakland’s payouts were so egregious that the Oakland City Auditor launched an investigation of the city’s pay practices shortly after Brown left office, and what she found makes Bell look well managed in comparison. Under Brown, Oakland paid its employees millions of dollars of bonuses, leaves and vacation buybacks that were far in excess of negotiated labor agreements. These payouts were made with almost no oversight.
 
Where was Jerry Brown?
 
Then-Oakland Controller Larae Brown found 950 city employees were paid for a combined 22,000 hours that were never actually worked between 2003 and 2005. When she tried to correct this problem, Brown’s handpicked city manager, Deborah Edgerly, refused and said the handouts should be labeled a “beneficial past practice.”  Edgerly, too, cashed in nearly $200,000 worth of vacation, sick pay and management leaves. But here’s the real crime: The Brown-appointed city manager awarded herself $60,000 in bonuses.
 
Where was Jerry Brown? 
 
His management skills then and now are a serious issue when considering whether Brown or Meg Whitman, with 30 years of business experience making and balancing budgets, can be counted on to lead California out of fiscal crisis. I’m standing with Meg Whitman.
 
If Brown’s failed management in Oakland is any clue, California cannot afford Jerry Brown.  Other blatant examples of mismanagement on his watch include granting $3 million for city management work leaves in 2005 and 2006, which was hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the amount specified under city rules. The city also handed out nearly $400,000 in job bonuses that had few guidelines for how they were awarded.
 
At the same time, Brown failed at what he was hired to do: He failed to curb escalating homicide rates and he left the city with a $13 million budget deficit and a high debt burden.
 
This all adds up to a single conclusion: Jerry Brown has a long record of mismanagement. A Democratic leader, describing Brown’s tenure as governor, called Brown “the worst administrator ever to come down the pike.”
 
Let’s take a step back here.  Can California really afford to give Jerry Brown a third term? I hope most California voters come to reasonable conclusion that the answer is no.
 
The good news is that we have a terrific alternative in Meg Whitman.  Her vast experience running and managing large businesses gives me great confidence that Meg knows about the conditions for creating and keeping jobs, making large organizations more efficient and being held accountable for meeting the bottom line. She will rid state government of useless bureaucrats and pay state workers what they deserve. And she will appoint people of the highest ability. She will not owe any favors to anybody, notably the government-worker union bosses who are propping up Brown’s campaign.
 
I know if Meg is our next governor I can be assured she will pore over budget and spending plans and watch expenditures like a hawk.  Obscene handouts and excessive benefits will not be tolerated. The same cannot be said if Jerry Brown gets a third term in Sacramento.  Meg Whitman is just what California needs.
_____________________________________________________________

Assembly Budget Committee Vice Chairman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, represents the 2nd Assembly District

You can write to Assemblyman Nielsen, via the FR, here.