Acting Santa Ana City Manager Paul Walters took on a tough job when he replaced retired City Manager Dave Ream. The city was left in the the red by Ream, to the tune of $25 million a year in pension obligations. Now, according to the L.A. Times, Walters is acting to make sure that the city’s union workers are paying their fair share of pension obligations.
“A Times analysis based on 2009 payrolls shows that cities and counties in California would save an estimated $1.3 billion if local government workers statewide paid what the governor’s office determines to be the normal employee share of pension contributions. Brown says workers should be contributing about 8% of their paychecks to their own retirement. Police and firefighters, who have more generous pensions, should pay about 9%, Brown says,” according to the L.A. Times. Continue reading