Wieckowski Attempts to Back-Peddle on Municipal Mediation

Last year, Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) drafted AB 502 in order that municipalities like Stockton could mediate with public employees rather than file for bankruptcy.

Now, Wieckowski has moved to compromise the very measure which would succor compromise from city leaders and public employees. His back-peddling legislation, AB 1692, would reassert the stalling tactics of public sector unions and prevent cities from filing for bankruptcy protection. While public sector unions can badger their municipal employers to keep their end of an unfair bargain, cities are stuck with paying the daily bills as well as managing the growing fiscal chaos -- which forces their hand not just economically, but also politically before voters who cannot change or frustrate unions or their coven of waste and fraud.

The double-dealing of this legislator is a malignant symptom of the growing plague of collusion between politicians and public sector unions. City governments, and more importantly the voters and residents in these communities, deserve leadership which is free to negotiate for reductions in benefits, pensions, and other emoluments provided during previous administrative tenures during more lucrative periods of growth.

I hope that the residents of Stockton stand up to their public workers and demand reform to public sector entitlements. Public sector unions have intimated our political class long enough. Now is the time to demand that our representatives either stand up to the collective interest groups which have padded their campaign funds in exchange for lucrative and exorbitant contracts at the expense of the taxpayer.