Are Firefighters Hard to Recruit in California?

By Edward Ring
04/11/2022
This article originally appeared in the California Globe. In response to a recent California Policy Center analysis that provided an updated calculation of the average pay and benefits for full-time firefighters working for cities in California, one commenter claimed that it has become difficult to recruit firefighters. The accuracy of this claim carries significant implications. When employers...

TAGS: firefighters, San Diego

Rating California counties on the thoroughness of their COVID-19 data dashboards

By Marc Joffe
04/14/2020
Editor’s Note: The following was originally published on Reason. In terms of providing quality information that researchers, hospitals, public health officials, and taxpayers would find the most useful, the best portals are offered by San Diego, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Marin counties. County governments across California are providing an array of public coronavirus data...

TAGS: Chapter 9 bankruptcy, coronavirus, Marc Joffe, Marin County, pensions, San Diego

Gompers must choose what kind of future it wants

By Koppany Jordan
01/08/2020
In 2004, following decades of poor student performance and gang crime, parents at San Diego’s Gompers Middle School and the school’s principal used a little-known state law to convert their campus into a public charter school. The new school, called Gompers Preparatory Academy, thrived. Campus safety improved, test scores rose, and students and teachers lined...

TAGS: Charter schools, education, public unions, San Diego, Unions

Local and State Initiatives – The Future of Policy in California?

By Edward Ring
09/18/2019
Grassroots activists in California point to the initiative process as a potent and underutilized last resort, capable of ushering in sweeping reforms. They’re right, but the initiative process is equally available to California’s progressives, backed by powerful special interests. And while the activist reformers talk, the progressives act. How else does one explain the hundreds...

TAGS: Oxnard, pension reform, San Diego

How Does a California Family Survive?

By Edward Ring
07/01/2019
It’s common enough to discuss the high cost-of-living in California. It’s become a serious topic, at last. But for Californians who are used to paying ridiculous prices for everything, it may be helpful to present a comparison in the form of an annual family budget. How much does it cost to take care of a...

TAGS: Democrats, energy, Los Angeles, San Diego

Why is San Diego’s Pension Settlement Estimate So Much Money?

By Edward Ring
04/04/2019
In 2012, San Diego voters approved Proposition B, a pension reform measure that replaced pensions for new hires with a 401K plan. Seven years later, this reform is likely to be completely unwound, because union attorneys successfully argued that the city did not “meet and confer” with the unions before putting the reform measure on...

TAGS: pensions, San Diego, Unions