SEIU Executive Director Steps Down After 25 Years

Classic. This guy has been a remora on the back of the union for 2.5 decades while working hard to negotiate the eventual insolvency of the city and county. Now he's retiring with a fat monthly stipend in excess of those he's guaranteed his members...and then he bemoans the fact that nobody "appreciates" the fact that the lights go on and the water still runs through the pipes. Well, folks, that's what the labor force gets PAID for: working. Not only have they been PAID for every hour of their labor (most get PAID just for showing up, forget about actually DOING anything), but they've enjoyed all the perks that come with public employment: sick days, vacation days, overtime, etc., etc. So please, no whining, okay? One can't help but notice that Mr. Hamilton is bailing out just when the boat starts springing some real leaks; by the middle of the next decade, it is not beyond the realm of imagination to wonder if the benefits currently enjoyed by public employees will still be part of our world. Simple logic would cast some doubt over that.

For some reason conservatives wants to blame our city's financial problems on working people and their unions for bargaining for their fair share of the American Pie. I have heard many professions referred to as parasitic. So JJ how much does one make in real estate these days. Anyone that has been paying attention and is honest would acknowledge that the national recession started in December 2007 and is due to a malaise caused by the 7 preceding years of war mongering and off the books spending by the conservative Bush administration. The conservative Clinton administration didn't help much either with the banking deregulation but at least Clinton worked with working people's Unions to get their fair share of the American Pie. In September 2008 the housing financial "bubble burst" and there has been a credit freeze since, deepening this recession and resulting in State and municipal budget deficits. It was the deregulation and lack of oversight of the insurance and banking industries that was the cause of this collapse. I would agree with anyone that wants to call our world-wide economic model a pyramid scheme but that's what we have and when the pyramid collapses everything collapses, including municipal budgets. So if you want to be constructive how about suggesting a different type of economy. Go ahead and Good Luck! Our current President, Barack Hussein Obama has stated "there is enough blame to go around." So JJ let's try not to panic and please stop the scapegoating of working people. Locally our city council (except Dale Francisco) are really doing a great job in the worst of situations.

Clearly Mr. JJAbercrombie has no clear understanding of either Mr. Hamilton's work ethic or his accomplishments while striving to support the working men and women of this county. He also doesn't understand what the workers hired in the City of Santa Barbara and around the county do and how many put in numerous hours of unpaid overtime to assure a job well done. I guess he's the only one really working and he should get all the money. Sounds fair to me. Let's put it up for a vote and see how it goes.