County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters Joseph E. Canciamilla announces that vote-by-mail ballots for the March 17, 2015 7th State Senatorial District Special Primary Election were mailed the week of February 16th. Ballots were mailed to those registered voters who previously requested vote-by-mail ballots and to those living in precincts designated as mail ballot only.
The 7th Senatorial District includes voters in East Contra Costa, the Lamorinda and San Ramon Valley areas, Concord, Walnut Creek and Clayton. To view a map of the 7th Senatorial District, go to http://sd07.senate.ca.gov/district-map.
Registered voters who expect a vote-by-mail ballot and have not received it by February 26, 2015, please call (925) 335-7800 to confirm they are vote-by-mail voters or to request a replacement ballot.
We encourage voters to vote and return their vote-by-mail ballots as early as possible. Ballots must be postmarked by Election Day to qualify for counting. Ballots may be returned via mail, dropped off at the Elections Office at 555 Escobar Street in Martinez, or they may be dropped off at participating City Clerks Offices during normal business hours (Antioch, Brentwood, Concord, Danville, Lafayette, Moraga, Oakley, Orinda, Pittsburg, San Ramon, and Walnut Creek).
Any voter who wishes to become a permanent vote-by-mail voter for future elections may obtain information from our website at http://www.cocovote.us/voting/vote-by-mail/ or by calling the Elections Office at (925) 335-7800 or toll free (877) 335-7802. Voters may also sign and return the vote-by-mail application on the last page of their Sample Ballot Booklet.
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No good deed goes unpunished
by Ellis Goldberg
Voters in Senate District 7 are again being inundated with campaign mail, including an expensive 16 page mailer from the California Professional Firefighters Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee. The mailer praises Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla however it does not hint at the real reason the firefighters chose to spend union dues on the mailer.
The real reason: Assembly Bill 197, an “anti pension spiking” measure authored by Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan. AB197 bars the inclusion of unused vacation, sick and other types of “terminal leave” in an employee’s retirement calculation formula beyond what he or she would earn in a year. The Contra Costa County Employees Retirement Association board prohibited the use of terminal pay for all employees hired starting Jan. 1, 2013. After AB197 passed, the pension board reluctantly stripped the perk away from existing employees. Public employee unions responded with lawsuits in four counties, arguing that the promised benefits are vested rights that cannot be taken away. State attorneys say it was an illegal benefit to which they were never entitled.
The list below of endorsing labor organizations on the back of the mailer includes many unions where before AB197 spiking was a common practice used to increase pensions 10 to 16 percent. The endorsing unions are punishing Joan Buchanan for having the guts to stand up for taxpayers, those whose future pensions are threatened by under funding and all the unions that experienced negative public blowback because of spiking practiced by a few.
See SJ Mercury News articles:
California AG seeks merge four pension reform challenges
New Pension rules go before Contra Costa County
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