With the economic shutdown devastating private sector employment in California, with small family-owned businesses the worst hit, how are California’s public employees doing? A recent report by NPR paints a grim picture, “Cities Have Never Seen A Downturn Like This, And Things Will Only Get Worse.” From the San Francisco Chronicle, “California cities warn of widespread...

On July 1 the City of Placentia will begin to operate a fire department independent of the Orange County Fire Authority. The motivation for the Placentia’s City Council to take this step was to provide equal or greater service at a lower cost. In this report, those cost savings will be summarized. The figures were...

Editor’s Note:  Back in the early years of the 21st century, when California’s tech sector had collapsed and the stock market was down sharply, local government budgets were so strapped that they started closing their offices on Fridays, and applied “furloughs” to their employees to save money. But no public worker took an actual pay...