Thank you for taking a few moments to read this article. I feel compelled to answer the incomplete, distorted, and inadequately written article by the OC Register reporters Tony Sevvedra (Sound familiar?)and Brian Joseph on December 20, 2009 ‘Bad data, unfounded fears fueled pension crisis. They decided to provide incomplete information and, I believe, conspired with Councilman Denis Bilodeau and others to infer blame for the financial crisis on retirement costs and alleged bad behavior only. The reporters failed to speak to the Human Resources Director, Finance Director, or City Attorney from the City of Orange who were involved in the negotiations and to whom I referred the reporter. They also chose to partially quote me and taint my involvement and reputation.
The article portrays a self pitying, poor me Denis Bilodeau and infers that same feeling onto the other city councilmen. ENOUGH of the misrepresentation by the news media.What I see is a lack of leadership demonstrated by the current City Manager John Sibley and City Council members Mark Murphy, Jon Dumitru, and Denis Bilodeau. These men continually maneuver to undermine Mayor Carolyn
Cavecche and stifle the creative, hardworking, and productive people employed by the City of Orange who serve you, the community. I have great distain for management by intimidation and I have had ENOUGH of this divisive group contributing to our city crisis and you, the community, are entitled to more insight to the problems at City Hall. I am a citizen of Orange; I grew up in Orange since 1965, and worked for the
City for nearly 34 years. I began in the Fire Department and promoted up to Fire Chief, until I was appointed to City Manager for 10years. I worked hard to serve Orange with Integrity, Honesty, and with Courage. Courage to do the right thing for the right reasons and provide distinguished leadership, in spite
of the daily political pressures. City Managers are to provide leadership by being ethical; fair; help the City Council formulate equitable policies that are in the best interest of the community as a whole; and create a healthy, safe and productive workplace while focused on quality customer service. I have certainly made some mistakes, but any leader, in an effort to provide good leadership, can sometimes err or miscalculate. But never did I act with the intent to deceive or act for personal gain. In the article, former Councilman Mike Alvarez stated that he could not recall being informed that I might benefit from the 1998-99 Fire and Police
negotiations and that someone should have acted if I had a conflict. Mr. Alvarez
was not notified because I did not have a conflict as I did not participate as
a member of the city’s negotiating team and I did not provide recommendations.
As the City Manager I ensured the City Council was being thoroughly
informed and provided pertinent information to make a fully informed decision
by hiring two different companies with actuarial expertise to advise them and
the staff and were not connected to the PERS retirement system. You should
also know that the City’s contribution account at PERS, for Fire and Police,
were considered ‘over funded’ and that the contribution rates would be
unchanged for at least ten years.
Mr. Alvarez also did not share that he and the rest of the City Council members
directly benefited from the change of retirement formulas they granted to
the General Employees a few years earlier (2.7% at 55). The difference
between the Council Members and the employees in this retirement system is
that the employees paid for the increased cost of the program. Yes, City of
Orange Council members do benefit from the PERS retirement system too!
The 1998-99 city negotiating team, led by the Human Resource Director,
first rejected the Unions request to adopt the proposed 3% at 50 program due to
the increase in cost. The City Council, of which Mark Murphy was a member,
directed the negotiating team to recommend a solution that granted Police and
Fire a new formula. The city negotiation team then recommended that Fire and
Police pay 8% for any future cost increases in the 3% at 50 program. Again
their recommendations were rejected by the City Council and they were told
the language used by the City’s negotiating team was “too harsh”. With this
direction from the City Council the city negotiating team revised their recom-
mendations for the ‘new plan’ to a lower contribution rate and a complicated
formula, capped at 4%. This amount was readily accepted by the Unions.
Orange was the first city in Orange County to use such cost mitigating
language in their bargaining contracts.
It is the City Manager’s and City Council’s responsibility to find budgetary
solutions just as we did in past decades. In 1995, when I was appointed as City
Manager, the City Council, city management, employee union leadership, and
the employees themselves worked together to create a leaner and more productive
workforce and forged a path of aggressive cost cutting. We focused on
business retention and business attraction to generate new revenues such as the
redevelopment at The Block of Orange and The Village at Orange, while at the
same time building a culture and workforce that fostered cooperation and team
work with business and at City Hall. The City was positioned to more quickly
benefit from the recovery that eventually came. The City Council put their
personal differences aside and supported the leadership and ideas provided
by their management team, which made them a successful City Council.
Today, just the opposite is happening at Orange City Hall. Mayor Carolyn
Cavecche is trying to provide direction, accountability, and leadership but is
being undermined and thwarted by the petty, self-aggrandizement, and self
interest of Council members Mark Murphy, Jon Dumitru, and Denis Bilodeau.
These ‘boys’ contribute to an atmosphere of mistrust, poor moral, and offer no
solutions in retaining or attracting new business which is the source of vital
revenues to the city. Presently, these three are spending city resources to try
to extend or eliminate TERM LIMITS without your voter approval.
Companies have left the city such as Sybron Dental, a billion dollar multinational
company that generated tens of thousands in annual sales tax revenue;,
and PWR (Power), the largest Board of Realtors in the state, taking its membership
sales dollars and training classes that generated city revenue. Both companies
moved to the City of Anaheim without action from Orange. With these
relocations you also loose the ancillary business support in Orange such as
lunches and gasoline sales to mention a few. Councilman and former Mayor, Mark Murphy, who has been on the City Council for 15 years, should remember at least a few of the strategies, tactics,
and solutions we used in the past decades to confront this fiscal crisis. Obviously
he cannot remember, and does not have these leadership qualities
because he can only focus on his partnership with Denis Bilodeau and Jon
Dumitru to play petty games that do not contribute to finding solutions out of
this crisis. Councilman Jon Dumitru is a 9-1-1 dispatcher (not a firefighter) for the
Orange County Fire Authority, enjoying the thoughts of his future retirement
benefits, and has sat on the negotiations team for the Orange County Firefighters
Union, as reported by him, and bragged to me and others about his
pro-labor negotiating bias, after his being elected to the City Council. He
brings no obvious business acumen or mature leadership to the City Council
which is critical at this time. He demonstrates a continued pattern of ‘followship’,
not ‘leadership’, by his backroom collaborations with Denis Bilodeau
and Mark Murphy, and by what his actions prove out, not by what he ‘says’
while seated on the Dias at Council meetings. And Councilman Denis Biladeau, a second time County employee who himself is participating in the plagued County retirement plan (2.7%@55), as
well as the City of Orange employee retirement program. It is the hypocrisy
and audacity of Denis Biladeau to get a picture of himself in the news paper
implying that he is concerned for the budget crisis in Orange, when he is only
contributing to the crisis. This is your city and I want you to be more aware. Get involved. Responsible
and caring elected officials will welcome your involvement so that they
can best represent their community. Your involvement helps to make our
government a more represented democracy. Should you desire to discuss
any of these or others issues, I will be pleased to meet or talk with you. I can
be reached at 714-742-3500.
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