Dear Dave,

I have not taken the pleasure of emailing you in some time.  But I foolishly am doing so now, hopefully to bring some clarity to how we got to where we (the council) are today.

Let me start by saying that while we have unanimously voted for the budget, there are still differences in opinion on how rigid our stance should be in regard to MPOA.

Let me start by addressing one of your ongoing criticisms of the council, giving a pay increase to MPOA in December. 

I will use the term “YOU” in regards to the citizenry of Modesto because you seem to want to represent them.

YOU passed binding arbitration in the 90’s. [ Dave]   No, I did not pass binding arbitration.  The democrat party, the public sector unions - including cops, firefighters, teachers, city & county employees - passed binding arbitration.  And I bet you a hot dog that you voted for it.    That places the city in a delicate position when bargaining with its associations.  The analysis of pay for our general area found that our police are 17% BELOW the middle of the pay range when compared to other agencies.[ Dave]    Garrad, I have already made my own analysis of the other agencies pay and benefits.  When I did it, I found that Modesto was right in the middle of the game.  I do not know who is feeding you this incorrect info (17%), but it is wrong.  If you want to refute my findings, just produce the data, my friend, produce the data and let us see. 

Do you really thing an arbitration judge would side with the city if we said “tough luck” – NO Raises?  An arbitration judge would likely say, you need to be commensurate with the area - figure out how to get there.  YOU must realize that binding arbitration makes it very difficult to just dig our heels in and say, “tough.” [ Dave]   This is a red herring.  YOU voted to raise the cops pay, and promised to pay for it by putting a sales tax increase on this November's ballot.   

The association did agreed to delay their first increase to June, both sides knowing that the economy was a mess.  Did we (or anyone) know in Sept, Oct how bad it was going to be?  All thought that maybe by summer it could be better.  As we approved the contract in Dec, we all knew it was going to be difficult to meet.[ Dave]   Garrad, you have to be kidding.  You are supposed to have an MBA from Berkeley...  Even Jim Ridenour knew what was coming; he published his comments in his "Mayor's FY 2008-09 Proposed Budget Message", page i, Section "Budget Message", published July, 2008.  This is the FIRST PAGE of the document, and I am confident that you read it, and every other page in that budget.  In the FOURTH LINE of that page, the mayor told us that THIS BUDGET - the one we are currently living under - is "over $13 Million (in deficit) for FY 2008-09..."  And you ask "Did we (or anyone) know in Sept, Oct how bad it was going to be?"  Obviously, Jim did.  Were you out that day?

Time passes and we are in a much deeper hole than anyone could have foreseen.  [ Dave]  Baloney.  The County Assessor told you what was going to happen.  Arnie told you, the acting city manager told you, and  the BEE, for crying out loud, told all of us.  Perhaps you and your colleagues were not paying attention?????   All of our other employee groups have agreed, either by official vote or tentatively to REDUCE their compensation in some form.  We only asked the police groups to do likewise.  DELAY their raises, not lose them, not reduce their pay, just delay implementation.[ Dave]   Well, the MPOA DID propose furloughs, which, if you did the math, would have saved the city about 6.5% of total pay, which is MORE than the 3% plus 2% pay raise.  Did you ever consider that?  Especially the fact that we would still have the cops available for patrol?  Your solution kills 9 cop positions. 

You were the one who viciously attacked the pay level of the police in many emails when they were given their new contract in December.  Today you think we are slime because we ask them to delay that contract.[ Dave]   Well, I reject your assertion that I "viciously attacked the pay level of the police".  I DID comment on the incredibly bad timing of ALL the raises that you and your buddies handed out like candy, precisely when the businesses in Modesto were failing, civilians were losing their jobs and the city's (and county's) revenues were plummeting like an Air Bus in a thunderstorm.  I am sure that you would not want to even discuss your passing out the Citizen's tax money to the city's union employees because you were buying their votes, right?  Not one of you would mention that Hawn, Keating, Ridenour and even O'Bryant have direct personal and family interests in cops and fire fighters, right?  None of you would want to mention the fact that the cops and fire fighters walked the precincts for at least those 4 votes on the council? 

Sounds like there may be some hypocrisy there.[ Dave]   I think that if the concept of "hypocrisy" is going to be used, you might think about how the council just made a contract with a SACRAMENTO firm to provide SECURITY for city property at a cost of $378,000!!!!!  Why is that, Garrad?  Don't we have enough cops to provide security for our city?

I am a pretty consistent kind of guy, Garrad.  I hate to see you vote to waste Citizen's money.  I hate to see you vote blindly for things that Citizens know are wrong.  I hate to see 150 people address the elected "leaders" and not one of those "leaders" listens.  I hate to see a mayor who has only 5 minutes of time for legitimate Citizen issues.  I especially hate to see police officers disrespected and maligned by the very people they put in office.  YOU gave the raise, and offer no legitimate defense.  YOU voted to fire cops, when our city is in the midst of a nasty crime wave.  YOU have destroyed the morale of an already damaged police force.      

                               So, you do not like my criticism?  My gosh, Garrad, what are you thinking?   
 
Have a nice night.[ Dave]  Actually, I did have a very nice night, last night.  We visited with a neighbor who made a fabulous dinner, and we did NOT watch any TV, including the city council meeting.  My blood pressure went down, I did not get indigestion, and I slept like a tired kitten.   

Garrad Marsh, Council Member
City of Modesto
1010 10th Street, Ste.6200
Modesto, CA 95353
209-571-5169
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-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Thomas [ This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text4281 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ]
Sent: Tue 6/23/2009 3:05 PM
To: All My Friends
Cc: Adam Ashton; Dan Day; Judy Sly; Mark Vasche; Mike Dunbar; Brad Hawn; Garrad Marsh; Greg Nyhoff; Janice Keating; Jim Ridenour; Kristin Olsen; Will O'Bryant; Dave Lopez
Subject: BEE Opinion Fatally Flawed



                Friends, I have been very disappointed about the way our city council is treating the front line police union members.  the attached contains my thoughts and comments.  I would appreciate your thoughts, as well.

                Thank you very much, Dave