Community Commentary:

There was a time when having a government job was like the last place one would care to work. But times have changed over the past 20 years.

When the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power workers went on strike, then-Mayor Richard Riordan agreed to an outlandishly generous contract that became the standard for every other union when negotiating a contract with the city of Los Angeles.

Recently, the colorful Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa agreed to generous contracts for the Department of Water & Power and for city workers. But, a funny thing has happened on the way to the forum. About 45 days ago, the city administrator said the city, with all its revenue (collected taxes), was running in the red. So what have the mayor and City Council decided to do but to raise city telephone taxes. Nowhere, as far as I know, have politicians said that we must cut city salaries, pensions, medical benefits, or freeze new employment and salaries for the next five years to “catch up” with the real world. No, the city’s elected officials are beholden to the government unions that give them generous campaign donations for their reelection.

The city of Los Angeles, county of Los Angeles, state of California and every other government agency today seem to be top-heavy with employees making more income than the average taxpayer. Wow, what a country. If one is lucky to get a government job, he has just won the lottery.

At the Glendale City Council, one of the city’s gadflies, Herbert Molano, has told the council that our city has a problem because of this. The city has plenty of revenue coming in but not enough money to pay for all the government improvements, such as roads and parks. A big and bigger chunk of the revenue the city takes in is paying for a bloated government payroll and pensions.

Why is this, one might ask. Well, in my opinion, it is all about our city’s Civil Service Commission, which looks at other cities and sees what they pay their employees. Now it becomes a game in my opinion. The different city civil service commissions look at other cities for salary and benefit guidelines.

Well, if I were an employee of Glendale, I would look at the salaries that the city of Los Angeles pays its employees.

Yes, let us shop and compare one government with another government and now we know why the city parks and roads do not get repaired on a timely basis as in the “good old days,” or why the city sidewalks are full of cracks, grease, grime and melted chewing gum.

The public employee unions are well entrenched and now control the city purse strings. Yes, it is all about money and who has it.

But, should John Q. Public be upset? No, because John stays home on election day and does not vote like the public employee unions who vote in bloc for the politicians who will give them generous salaries when negotiations come up.

So please remember this coming election to stay home on election day so that the government unions can vote for the politicians who can bring home the bacon.

 MIKE MOHILL is a Glendale resident.