Our state legislators will take up an important bill this morning dealing with your tax dollars and those who seek to use their position to unlawfully benefit themselves.
The California Assembly Public Employees, Retirement, and Social Security will be discussing Assembly Bill 1858, introduced by Assemblyman (and longtime FR friend) Kevin Jeffries, which if enacted would require any public employee who is hired after January 1, 2009 and convicted of a felony involving the abuse of his/her position to forfeit the government contributions made into the their pension plan, but would not affect the personal contributions made by the employee.
This common sense bill is in fact an extension of current law which maintains the same stipulation for elected officials. In spite of this, the bill seems headed for failure in committee today at the hands of union opposition.
Assembly Democrats have an opportunity to support good public policy and emphasize the integrity of public offices and stand against those who would steal from the California taxpayer.
Or, they have another opportunity to demonstrate the prevailing theory around the Capitol — which is that whatever the labor union bosses want, they get. That their control over legislative Democrats is that overwhelming. I guess that is good news for the labor union "felon" caucus.
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I would remind all FR readers that state employees are all part of the human race, which is to say that many are exemplary, and some are far from it. Check out these MSM excerpts…
“Madwell, 51, is on trial facing four felony counts of misappropriating public money. Among other things, he is accused of paying a 21-year old temporary employee $300 in city funds to show him her breasts…. Madwell, who oversaw about 90 employees and was paid $94,000 a year, gave the Grizzlies baseball team a discount on city parking fees in 2004 and 2005 that totaled $6,200. In exchange, the Grizzlies gave Madwell suite tickets in 2004 and season tickets in 2005 that were worth $6,2000.” (Chris Collins, “Ex-Parking Manager ‘A Good Man’ Lawyer Says,” Fresno Bee, 3/18/08)
“Every morning, Shawn Spitzer sent her 13-year old daughter off to school with a lunch box of snacks and $5 to buy a hot meal. Every afternoon, Spitzer noticed that her daughter, who has severe autism and cannot speak, would head straight for the refrigerator when she came home. Spitzer wondered if it was a growth spurt. Maybe the cafeteria food was bad. But the reason for her daughter’s hunger, authorities learned, was more disturbing: The special education assistant was stealing her lunch money. Over the course of three days, using a hidden camera, police twice caught Kristen Rene Santoyo, 37, lifting the $5 from the girl’s lunch box at Camarillo High school.” (Tami Abdollah, “Theft From Autistic Girl Brings Jail Term,” Los Angeles Times, 3/6/08)
“Former inspector Hans Warner Williams, 47, targeted a Webster Street restaurant owner; he would eat free meals at the business and demanded the victim purchase an expense kitchen appliance for his wife. ‘You help me and I’ll help you.’ … wanted free food and other favors in exchange for overlooking building problems at his properties…. In addition, William suggested that Chiu open a business account at Economy Lumber in Oakland so that Williams could use it to get discounts on materials for renovating his home in Dublin.” (Peter Hegarty, “City Takes Measures To Combat Bribery,” Alameda Journal, 2/20/07)
“A San Diego employee accused of stealing nearly $74,000 from the San Diego Park and Recreations Department failed to appear in court yesterday to be arraigned on felony charges.” (Dana Littlefield, “San Diego Worker Accused In Theft Misses Hearing,” San Diego Union Tribune, 7/16/07)
“A couple were sentenced Friday for their roles in a scheme in which state Department of Motor Vehicles workers in Oakland accepted bribes for providing bogus identification documents to illegal immigrants…. Ramirez recruited clients willing to pay $1,000 to $1,500 to obtain a fraudulent California driver’s license, and Brooks obtained bogus receipts for clients from then – DMV worker Maria Robinson, authorities said.” (Henry K. Lee, “Couple In DMV Scam Sentenced,” San Francisco Chronicle, 10/20/07)
“City officials are looking into nearly $38,000 shortage in the treasurer’s office petty cash account. the shortage, which was found in September, led to the treasurer’s arrest Oct. 24.” (Michael Perrault, “Petty Cash Audit Advances,” Press-Enterprise, 12/20/07)
“A former ticket agent for the Contra Costa County public transit system has been charged with embezzling at least $184,000, authorities said Tuesday.” (Henry K. Lee, “Former Transit Worker Changed With Embezzling Funds,” San Francisco Chronicle, 12/19/07)
“A former youth counselor at the Preston Youth Correctional Facility in lone is facing several counts of workers’ compensation fraud and stands accused of bilking the state of more than $150,000, according to a press release by the California Department of Insurance.” (Stan Oklobdzija, “Man Charged In $150,000 Workers’ Comp Fraud,” Sacramento Bee, 3/18/08)