(Editor's note: When Patch reported on a challenge that Hermy Almonte issued to Jim Prola, the article provoked dozens of comments. Read the commentary and add your voice.)
City Council candidate Hermy Almonte challenged City Councilman Jim Prola to return a $2,500 contribution he received from the Police Officier's Association (POA), calling the donation a "conflict of interest" given that the city is in contract talks with its officers.
Almonte made his challenge Friday, after the nine candidates for three city council seats had to file their last pre-election campaign disclosure statements.
Almonte, who has raised $6,790 in contributions and loans, thus far is running against Prola to represent District 6.
He also urged Councilwoman Ursula Reed to return the $2,500 she got from the POA. Reed is running against School Board President Morgan Mack-Rose and Bal Theatre owner Dan Dillman in the 2nd District council race.
One issue in the negotiations between the city and its unionized employees is the fact that San Leandro is virtually alone among East Bay cities in paying 100 percent of the pension contributions that go into the retirement funds of its police and civilian workers.
Earlier this month the bond rating agency Moody's said it would take a closer look at how San Leandro was financing its pension obligations.
Prola dismissed Almonte's challenge, noting that the police donation was less than 6 percent of the $44,440 he has reported raising thus far in the race in contributions and loans, including a $12,000 loan to himself.
Prola said the city would get pension reform at the negotiating table through the talks now underway.
Reed said the city council has hired negotiators to represent the best interests of the city in talks with its employees.
"We're not sitting at the table," she said.
Reed reported raising about $6,300 in the last few weeks, and has garnered a total of $15,400 in contributions and loans thus far in her reelection campaign. The POA contribution is one of her largest.
Candidate Benny Lee, who is running against Chris Crow, Darlene Daevu and Justin Hutchison for the open 4th District seat, also received $2,500 from the POA.
Lee, Reed and Prola were endorsed by the POA and have supported the police position that pension reform should be done though collective bargaining.
Almonte and two other candidates -- Morgan Mack Rose and Chris Crow -- have made pension reform a public issue and have had more adversarial relations with the POA.
In making his challenge Almonte said, "Prola and Reed’s acceptance of these donations demonstrates it is business as usual at City Hall."
See more campaign finance disclosure information in a separate story.
Get San Leandro Patch delivered by email. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter @sanleandropatch. Or start your own blog
I am a 34 yearold married father of 3 who basically is doing it all on a single income. My kids play on these fields, go to these schools, and my family patronizes these businesses. I would offer a Point of view not currently represented on the council. No other council member to my knowledge has kids in SL public Schools and playing baseball at the ballpark and at stencil. With regard to Prola/Reed versus the cassidy stacked school board council of Mack Rose and Almonte. I choose Prola/Reed.
Justin you should check out www.caltaxreform.org to see where the money really is. We live in a great state, 8th richest economy in the world , 40 percent of venture capital investments are won by California companies and they go on to built 50 percent of the country's IPOs , but we can't fund decent schools and well rounded education because the commercial property owners can blow off paying their fair share of taxes.
And you know what? I do want School Board members to be political leaders. But their main job, the one they were elected for, is running the School District. Organizing a movement to modify Prop 13? Not so much. But you can do it. You don't need to be elected to any political body to start a movement. Go for it!
What a BS topic this is. Once again a web site edited and dominated by friends of Cassidy can not be open minded. This web site has an agenda.
You hit it right on the head Mike! BS topic...We could play it 50 ways and it would always sound bad...
And, again, you elect School Board members to lead the School Board, not social movements. Activists do that. Which is why you should.
What you really should think about some day is that whenever you hand your money over to someone, do they ever spend it wisely or account for it accurately? Fundamentally you lose control when you hand your wages over to a public pension or a private one. It's no wonder that they spend the money and then some and then just ask for more, after all it's not their money. Just keep throwing your money away, stop trying to take mine too.
Almonte is publicly questioning the the ethics of council members accepting (relatively) sizable donations from local unions. He has done this through the political theatre of a "challenge." For the most part, I admire this technique for getting a campaign message out to voters. His opponent and a fellow running mate (Reed) would say, I presume, that as long as these donations are made public, then no harm no foul. I am inclined to agree, even as I support the idea that city worker compensation is on the table. This is a significant means for balancing our budget and making sure that we do everything ethically possible to secure the broad range of city services that our citizens deserve. All that said, I think our city leaders need to step back from the weeds and look at the bigger picture. The citizens of San Leandro have many needs which must be balanced to support a thriving community. As is merely hinted at in Alamonte’s campaign challenge, citizens should look at campaign financing in a thorough and factual manner, because how campaigns are financed impacts all of us down the line. (continued)
In a city our size, these types of questions are most accurately answered through the methodology of a human needs assessment which has been approved by the city council and paid for by local tax revenues. I have found some recent examples of a human needs assessments in Alameda County and offer them here for general consideration: The first and more detailed example is entitled the “Eastern Alameda County Human Services Needs Assessment” contracted and approved in June 2012 by the City councils of Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton. The second and more modest example is entitled “City of Alameda Community Needs Survey” created by that city’s Social Service Human Relations Board. I believe this City of Alameda Council assigns this responsibility of responding to the social service and human relations needs of the City of Alameda every 5 years. (continued)
The first one is more detailed and required more resources to produce, but neighboring cities who share resources felt it in their best interest to partner for a comprehensive evaluation. The second one is far more modest, but might be sufficient for the City of Alameda, given that as an island, it doesn’t tend to partner (or be negatively impacted) by neighboring cities to any great degree. I urge fellow citizens to talk with city leaders and candidates about considering prioritizing an initiative in San Leandro that aims to determine the scope of our community’s needs and to evaluate and publicize resources to meet those needs. http://www.ci.pleasanton.ca.us/pdf/Approved-EAHSNA-Report-June-2012.pdf Google "City of Alameda Human Needs Assessment" for pdf file of this doc dated July 2012
Hutch looks like the most enthuiastic candidate, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LmpWd3E_ZUw#!
Things that make me go hmmm....:-)
;-) http://sanleandro.patch.com/articles/pearl-harbor-vet-has-stolen-item-replaced#photo-9734715