Survey finds VA Loma Linda workers uncomfortable reporting misconduct

• June 13, 2024

A 2023 survey of VA Loma Linda Healthcare System employees shows a large majority of respondents are reluctant to report workplace misconduct because they believe top leadership often fails to address their complaints, the Southern California News Group has learned.

According to a synopsis of the confidential U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection “climate review” administered in November, 78% of more than 900 respondents said inaction by management poses a significant barrier to filing grievances.

Just 27% of respondents who reported wrongdoing to VA Loma Linda’s executive leadership team believe their complaints were taken seriously and properly addressed, according to survey results reviewed by SCNG.

Additionally, 40% of respondents believe VA Loma Linda’s executive team makes an effort to encourage whistleblowing, while some workers believe those efforts are superficial. Slightly more than half of the respondents emphasized the need for increased leadership accountability to improve reporting.

VA Loma Linda physicians and nurses had a more positive view of the whistleblower reporting climate compared to nonsupervisory employees, the survey found.

“Veterans nationwide have earned access to the highest quality care and services — period,” House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Bost, R-Illinois, said in a statement. “That starts with ensuring that the VA employees who serve them have their best interests in mind and are able to work in a place free from hostility and retaliation.

“The climate survey revealed VA Loma Linda employees do not have faith their local VA leadership will adequately address their concerns,” he said. “That’s a culture problem that the Biden administration needs to fix, immediately.”

The VA is actively working to address issues raised in the climate review through “comprehensive and transparent measures,” Susan Carter, a spokesperson for the agency, said in an email. Results of a separate survey in May, completed by 73% of VA Loma Linda employees, are being reviewed and should offer a more accurate and broader perspective, Carter added.

Meanwhile, VA Loma Linda leadership has begun implementing the following to improve the complaint reporting climate:

Monthly town halls and service-level staff meetings.
Weekly in-person visits alongside department leaders within rotating work areas.
Monthly all-employee safety forums.
Biweekly “Answering the Call” sessions focused on strengthening organizational excellence by gathering staff to celebrate successes and spread best practices.
Addition of an “Ask the Director” link on VA Loma Linda’s internal webpage to directly address staff questions and concerns.

Results from the climate review survey have surfaced as the House Veterans Affairs Committee makes final preparations for a July hearing to address widespread whistleblower retaliation at VA Loma Linda, which has roughly 3,300 employees and serves more than 76,000 veterans.

The committee began investigating VA Loma Linda more than a year ago amid revelations about the employment of grounds department supervisor Martin Robles, who allegedly used frequent racial slurs, required employees to buy him food and drive him to and from work, and then punished those who refused his demands with bad assignments.

A 2021 federal investigation recommended he be fired. However, VA Loma Linda officials instead promoted him.

Sharon L. Sperry of Sedona, Arizona, the mother of Ryan Sperry, a 43-year-old former Marine and irrigation technician who worked for Robles and died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2022, believes his suicide was prompted by years of work-related harassment and retaliation. She is suing the VA and Robles for $5 million.

Robles, in a September 2023 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission grievance against the Department of Veterans Affairs, alleged Ryan Sperry and co-workers discriminated against him and created a hostile work environment.

Bost, Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Hesperia and several bipartisan lawmakers are sponsoring legislation to give the VA authority to quickly discipline poor-performing employees.

Federal watchdogs and advocacy groups also have scrutinized other whistleblower-related controversies at VA Loma Linda.

In 2022, government fact-finders found that VA Loma Linda mismanaged more than $1 million in patient transportation funding over three years by colluding with ambulance companies, according to a confidential report obtained by SCNG.

Additionally, several patient advocacy organizations determined in 2023 that VA Loma Linda violated the civil liberties of some veterans seeking voluntary mental health evaluations by placing them on involuntary psychiatric holds as a precondition for their transportation to a hospital or treatment facility.

Bost sent a May 7 letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis R. McDonough reiterating an earlier request for information about discipline and performance plans for VA Loma Linda employees who have had allegations of serious harassment, relationships with patients, and pharmaceutical theft substantiated by the VA.

“These substantiated allegations are incredibly serious, further, I understand that the individuals in question are likely still employed by VA,” Bost said. “I am concerned that these individuals are still walking VA Loma Linda’s halls, collecting a paycheck, and interacting with our nation’s veterans despite the substantial misconduct against them.”

Related links

Lawmakers demand VA Loma Linda investigative reports amid employee retaliation probe
VA Loma Linda whistleblowers mount, probe widens into harassment allegations
Whistleblower retaliation allegations growing at VA, new report says
VA Loma Linda manager promoted after probe recommended firing for creating hostile work culture
Mother blames son’s suicide on work harassment at VA Loma Linda, files $5 million lawsuit

Obernolte concurs.

“The hostile work environment at VA Loma Linda has led to the loss of numerous committed and respected employees who were important to the success of the VA’s mission, and it has impeded the ability of the staff to provide the timely, high-quality care our veterans have earned,” he said in a statement.

“I strongly urge the VA to discipline VA Loma Linda employees, including leadership and management, who have serious, substantiated allegations against them. Our veterans deserve the highest quality of care, and the people choosing to serve them deserve a productive and safe workplace environment. Anything less is a disservice to both VA employees and the veterans they serve.”

​ Orange County Register 

Is Biden’s border move too little, too late?

• June 13, 2024

President Joe Biden’s announcement of executive action aimed at strengthening the Southern border is surely a welcome – albeit belated – development, considering the migrant crisis plaguing cities across the country.

However, this order – which shuts down the asylum system if the average number of daily encounters hits 2,500 and only reopens once encounters fall to 1,500 – is unlikely to significantly move the needle in Biden’s favor.

Put another way, while this is a step in the right direction, this move, which seems overtly political, coming this close to the election, may be too little too late.

To that end, as encounters between migrants and U.S. law enforcement have surged from roughly 850,00 in 2019 – the last pre-pandemic year under Trump – to a peak of almost 2.5 million in 2023, the border has become a significant political vulnerability for Biden. 

A single executive order, coming five months before the election, is unlikely to fix that, given how long-running disapproval of Biden’s handling of the border has been.

Recent polling underscores the uphill challenge it will be for Biden to convince voters that he has the right approach to immigration and the border, despite this executive order. A dismal one-quarter (25%) of voters approve of Biden’s handling of immigration, per Emerson polling conducted in June.

Indeed, immigration is often cited as a top-3 issue for voters, and as tracked polling from Harvard/Harris reveals, since May 2022, immigration has consistently been an issue where Biden’s approval is lowest.

Further, across all public polls, Biden currently has a 32% average approval on immigration per RealClearPolitics polling averages. This is his second lowest approval rating on any issue tracked by RealClear, trailing other hot-button issues such as the economy (40%), foreign policy (36%), and inflation (35%).

With that said, it isn’t simply that voters are unhappy with Biden’s handling of the border that poses a threat. Rather, it’s that a majority of voters strongly prefer Donald Trump and think he will do a better job.

Trump has a 27-point lead (52% to 25%) among registered voters on the question of who would be better at handling immigration and border security, according to a recent Marquette University poll. 

As CNN noted, this is a drastic reversal from this point in 2020, when the same poll showed Biden with a 1-point lead on the issue.

Even among Latino voters, who are absolutely critical to Biden’s reelection in swing states like Nevada, Arizona, CNBC polling found that Trump led on immigration by a staggering 23-points.

And while it is true that House Republicans share some blame for failing to pass a border bill earlier this year, Biden’s framing of this executive action as bypassing “Republican obstruction” are likely to fall on deaf ears. 

Fair or not, the president is almost always held responsible for immigration and the border, and on this, Democrats have been steadily moving to the left of the national consensus for years. As recent as 2019, every Democratic presidential candidate, including Biden, said they support decriminalizing border crossings.

In that same vein, by moving to the middle on this hot-button issue, Biden has inflamed tensions with the left-wing of his party, which has already begun pushing back. Two Democratic Representatives from California – Reps. Nanette Barragan and Judy Chu – expressed their “disappointment” in comments criticizing the new policy.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Biden campaign surrogate, likewise criticized the order as “a functional ban on asylum.” Warren even broke with her state’s governor, Maura Healey, who stands to pay a bigger electoral price, given high levels of voter dissatisfaction with how she’s handling an influx of migrants to Massachusetts. 

Moreover, the ACLU has already promised to sue in order to block this order, ironically forcing the Biden administration to defend similar asylum restrictions that then-President Trump attempted to enact in 2018.

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Taken together, it does not appear that Biden did enough to improve perceptions of his immigration policies among moderates and Independents, nor will this be enough to effectively rebut Trump’s attacks in their upcoming debate.

Part of the problem for Biden is that for three years, Americans have been unwavering in their concern about the Southern border. And even with Congressional stonewalling, Biden could have issued these orders at any time before the migrant crises metastasized  to the point of overwhelming even the most deep-blue states and became the vulnerability it now is.

Ultimately, this is a band-aid on a much more serious problem that demands bipartisan legislation. As I wrote in these pages in February, our immigration system and border security have long needed sweeping reform that goes beyond the scope of an executive order.

And while it remains to be seen what the true electoral impact is of Biden’s shift on the border, it seems unlikely that even this blatantly political move will be enough to overcome the challenges Biden and Democrats have vis-à-vis immigration. 

Douglas Schoen is a longtime Democratic political consultant.

​ Orange County Register 

Trump’s abortion dilemma: He cannot please hardline activists without alienating voters

• June 13, 2024

When former President Donald Trump agreed to address a conference hosted by an organization that opposes abortion in all circumstances, President Joe Biden’s campaign cited the appearance as evidence of Trump’s extremism on the issue. But in his brief recorded remarks at the Danbury Institute’s Life & Liberty Forum in Indianapolis on Monday, Trump did not explicitly mention abortion at all, although he paid lip service to the value of “innocent life.”

That episode reflects the dilemma Trump faces as he tries to retain the support of pro-life activists without alienating voters who reject the hardline position of groups like the Danbury Institute. Trump has staked out a mushy middle ground that is more consistent with public opinion, even as he brags about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade and describes himself as “the most pro-life president in American history.”

The Danbury Institute’s understanding of “pro-life” is clear. “The greatest atrocity facing our generation today is the practice of abortion — child sacrifice on the altar of self,” it declares. “Abortion must be ended. We will not rest until it is eradicated entirely.”

The group emphatically opposes exceptions that Trump supports. “Abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a mother,” it says, adding that “aborting an innocent child conceived in rape or incest only compounds the injustice and pain caused by the initial crime.”

Whatever their moral logic, those views are wildly unpopular, even among Republicans. And according to recent polling, voters dissatisfied with current abortion policies overwhelmingly say they are too strict, while 63% of Americans think “abortion should be legal in all or most cases.”

The latter view could be consistent with banning abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, since around 96% of abortions are performed before that cutoff. But Trump, after floating the possibility of a 15-week federal ban, reconsidered the idea.

Trump now says abortion regulation should be left to the states, which jibes with the federalist critique of Roe. Biden, by contrast, supports national legislation that would codify Roe’s limits, without much regard to the constitutional rationale for overriding state legislators in this area.

Roe is often described as recognizing a right to abortion prior to fetal “viability,” which nowadays is said to occur around 24 weeks. But Roe and its progeny also required that post-viability abortions be allowed when pregnancies “endanger the woman’s life or health” — a potentially sweeping exception that arguably mandates “abortion access for all pregnancies.”

That broad interpretation of the health exception underlies Trump’s charge that Democrats are “radically out of touch with the majority of Americans in their support for abortion up until birth,” as Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt put it. Beyond his rejection of abortion on demand, however, Trump is cagey about which restrictions he favors.

Trump has said “heartbeat” laws, which apply around six weeks into a pregnancy and rule out most abortions, are “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.” But the mistake that Trump perceives seems to be more political than moral.

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After Republicans’ disappointing performance in the 2022 midterm elections, Trump complained that his party’s candidates had “lost large numbers of Voters” because they “poorly handled” the “abortion issue,” especially when they “firmly insisted on No Exceptions.” Republican politicians who share Trump’s concern were relieved when he helped neutralize this electoral liability by accepting a wide range of state policies.

Although Trump’s federalist approach has a sound constitutional basis, his apparent agnosticism regarding exactly how abortion should be regulated suggests he has no firm convictions on the subject. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, was “deeply disappointed” by Trump’s position, while Live Action founder Lila Rose flatly declared that “President Trump is not a pro-life candidate.”

When push comes to shove, Trump is betting, such critics will swallow their reservations and turn out for the man who ensured Roe’s demise. But as his triangulation shows, that victory was just the beginning of the struggle to persuade Americans that “abortion must be ended.”

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @jacobsullum.

​ Orange County Register 

Federal Reserve sees just one rate cut this year

• June 13, 2024

Federal Reserve officials said Wednesday that inflation has fallen further toward their target level in recent months but signaled that they expect to cut their benchmark interest rate just once this year.

The policymakers’ forecast for one rate cut was down from their previous projection of three cuts, because inflation, despite having cooled in the past two months, remains persistently above their target level.

The scaled-back estimate for rate cuts came as something of a surprise, given that the government reported earlier Wednesday that consumer inflation eased in May more than most economists had expected. That report suggested that the Fed’s high-rate polices are succeeding in taming inflation.

Financial markets took encouragement, though, from the policy statement the Fed issued after its latest meeting ended, which underscored that it sees progress in its fight against high inflation. Broad stock indexes rose sharply, and bond yields fell in response.

The policymakers, as expected, kept their key rate unchanged Wednesday at roughly 5.3%. The benchmark rate has remained at that level since July of last year, after the Fed raised it 11 times to try to slow borrowing and spending and cool inflation.

Whenever the Fed does begin to reduce its benchmark rate, now at a 23-year high, it would eventually lighten loan costs for consumers, who have faced punishingly high rates for mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and other forms of borrowing.

The central bank’s rate policies over the next several months could also have consequences for the presidential race. Though the unemployment rate is a low 4%, hiring is robust and consumers continue to spend, voters have taken a generally sour view of the economy under President Joe Biden. In large part, that’s because prices remain much higher than they were before the pandemic struck. High borrowing rates have imposed a further financial burden.

Speaking at a news conference after the Fed meeting ended, Chair Jerome Powell seemed to downplay the significance of the policymakers’ collective forecast of just one rate cut in 2024. That forecast is derived from the individual predictions of 19 policymakers, and Powell noted that 15 of the officials projected either one or two rate cuts this year.

“I would look at all of them as plausible,” he said.

“No one,” the Fed chair added, “brings to this a really strong commitment to a particular rate path. It’s just what they think in a given moment in time.”

Economists say two rate cuts, with the first one coming as early as September, are still possible despite the central bank’s prediction of just one.

“I don’t think September’s off the table,” said Matthew Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. “To get there, you’d have to have a string of inflation reports like the one we got this morning.”

At his news conference, though, Powell cautioned, “We’ll need to see more good data to bolster our confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%.”

He also underscored that with the economy still overall healthy, Fed officials feel little urgency to cut rates.

“What we’ve been getting is good progress on inflation, with growth at a good level and with a strong labor market,” the Fed chair said. “Ultimately, we think rates will have to come down to continue to support that. But so far they haven’t had to.”

Uncertainty over when borrowing rates might come down is keeping some consumers on edge, especially those seeking to buy a home who face painfully high mortgage rates, now averaging around 7%.

David Goines, who owns a four-bedroom, two-bath mobile home in Lexington, Oklahoma, began looking for a new house last year but was put off by the elevated mortgage rates.

“Once we calculated what our payments would be for the house that we were looking at, it was just unfeasible,” he said.

Goines, a 36-year-old information technology director, has been holding out hope that rates would ease this year. He’s still waiting.

“We’re pretty pessimistic of the rates even getting down to 5% in the next 12 months,” he said. “Right now, we’re just pretty much stuck.”

On Wednesday morning, the government reported that inflation eased in May for a second straight month, a hopeful sign that an acceleration of prices that occurred early this year may have passed. Consumer prices excluding volatile food and energy costs — the closely watched “core” index — rose just 0.2% from April, the smallest rise since October. Measured from a year earlier, core prices climbed 3.4%, the mildest pace in three years.

“We welcome today’s (inflation) reading and hope for more like that,” Powell said.

Inflation has tumbled from a peak of 9.1% two years ago. The policymakers now face the delicate task of keeping rates high enough to slow spending and fully defeat high inflation without derailing the economy.

Measures of inflation had cooled steadily in the second half of last year, raising hopes that the Fed could achieve a rare “soft landing,” whereby it would manage to conquer inflation through rate hikes without causing a recession. But inflation came in unexpectedly high in the first three months of this year, delaying hoped-for Fed rate cuts and potentially imperiling a soft landing.

As part of the updated quarterly forecasts the policymakers issued Wednesday, they projected that the economy will grow 2.1% this year and 2% in 2025, the same as they had envisioned in March. They expect core inflation to be 2.8% by year’s end, according to their preferred gauge, up from a previous forecast of 2.6%. And they project that unemployment will stay at its current 4% rate by the end of this year and edge up to 4.2% by the end of 2025.

The expectation that the unemployment rate will remain around those low levels indicates that the officials believe that while the job market will gradually slow, it will remain fundamentally healthy.

“By so many measures,” Powell said, “the labor market was kind of overheated two years ago, and we’ve seen it move back into much better balance between supply and demand.”

​ Orange County Register 

Daxon: Raise the flag for Flag Day — and new Brea businesses

• June 13, 2024

Did you know that a declaration to proclaim June 14 as Flag Day started with President Woodrow Wilson in 1916?

Again in 1927, President Calvin Coolidge’s Flag Day proclamation went nowhere. Finally, in 1949, under President Harry Truman, Congress finally gave approval for June 14 to be observed nationally as Flag Day. But it is not a legal holiday, except in Pennsylvania, but we proudly honor our flag on that day.

Flag Day is also a good time to replace that flag that’s faded or a bit tattered. When you do replace it, the old one doesn’t go in the trash. The proper disposal of our flag is by burning it in a retirement ceremony usually done by scouts and veterans’ organizations.

In 2018, Danielle Eby chose to create flag disposal boxes out of wood and painted in red, white and blue for her Girl Scout Gold Award project, equal to Boy Scouts’ Eagle Award. With help from other scouts, her parents and others, the boxes were built and ready for old flags.

Today, as in the beginning, the disposable boxes are conveniently located around town at the Brea Lions Scout Center, Brea Museum, Brea Senior Center, Brea Community Center, Brea Fire Administration offices in the Civic Center and at Birch Hills Golf Course.

Danielle’s parents, Denise and Dale Eby, currently maintain the boxes. Yes, Denise Eby is also Brea’s treasurer and Danielle is a senior at Northern Arizona University.

“Last October,” said Denise, “I took a large quantity to the Orange County Fire Authority when they did their annual retirement.”

She added that Boy Scout Troop 707 plans to take over the project.

Just remember when your flag is ready for retirement, place it in one of flag retirement boxes all around Brea.

Something not retiring in Brea are new places to shop and eat.

Just recently, l discovered the J. Crew Factory store in the Brea Union Plaza center. It took over the former Hallmark Shop and is next to Ultra Beauty Store & Hair Salon, located in the former Pier One store.

A lot of us remember the cool J. Crew Store that was at Brea Mall.  J. Crew Factory is looking good and so are its reduced prices.

A surprise to me is that its manager, Hector, told me it’s been there for three months. It has cool clothing for women, men and kids, plus accessories and even shoes. Hard to believe that was once a card shop.

And there are even more big changes to the Brea Union Plaza.

The former Sears Outlet, next to Nordstrom Rack, is being transformed into a Mor Furniture Store. According to Mike Zeller of Mor, it expects to open in August.

In Brea Downtown, the former Ruby’s Diner is being transformed into a Finney’s Craft House & Kitchen. According to Brad Finney it is family owned, family friendly and was started eight years ago by his twin brother, Greg.

There are currently 14 Finney’s and the Brea location and a couple more are in the works.

Finney’s features an array of craft beers and a varied menu that includes everything from tacos and flatbread pizza to gourmet sandwiches and burgers.

He expects the Ruby’s signage to be gone in about 30 days. Then we’ll see Finney’s “coming soon” signs, but they are making major changes to the property and Finney doesn’t expect them to open until February or March of 2025. I bet it will be worth the wait.

Terri Daxon is a freelance writer and the owner of Daxon Marketing Communications. She gives her perspective on Brea issues twice a month. Contact her at  [email protected].

​ Orange County Register 

Despite budget crisis, Orange will save cherished community events, hire police and fire — for now

• June 13, 2024

After weeks of budget deliberations on a projected deficit, the Orange City Council voted Tuesday to temporarily protect beloved community events such as the 3rd of July fireworks celebration and the Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

The council also directed city staffers to continue to hire police and fire officers for roles never before filled, while authorizing a freeze on vacant positions outside of public safety. In addition, the council mandated cuts to community and library services.

Still, the city faces a deep hole for the new fiscal year beginning in July, and the council appears inclined to ask voters for a sales tax in November to fill it.

Orange is facing a $19.1 million structural budget deficit and is on pace to run out of emergency reserve funds within two years, officials say. If approved, the council’s latest direction for revenue enhancements and cuts would still leave the city with a budget deficit next year of more than $8.7 million, according to Finance Director Trang Nguyen.

“Our task is to pass a balanced budget,” Mayor Dan Slater said to the council Tuesday. “Tonight, we couldn’t get there.”

He said he hoped some more cuts might be identified before the seven-member council has a final opportunity at its next meeting June 25 to adjust the city budget before the new fiscal year. Regardless of their decisions in two weeks, councilmembers plan to revisit expenditures in December including the idea of chopping community events or freezing public safety hires.

“We cut tonight $5 million and we saw how painful that was, and if we don’t have revenue coming in, the problems will still exist,” Councilmember Kathy Tavoularis said Tuesday.

A majority of the council rejected again recommendations from city staff to sign off on budget reductions to public safety – spending on police and fire accounts for about two-thirds of Orange’s general fund, or day-to-day, spending.

Conversely, councilmembers provided direction to hire for previously budgeted, yet left vacant, roles that when filled will grow the Police Department to its largest size in city history. They acknowledged the city needs to raise new revenue to sustain the police force and other services.

“The only way we’re going to get there (to a balanced budget) is to pass some kind of a sales tax measure,” Slater said.

The council is still weeks away from having to decide whether to ask voters for a local sales tax this November, but on Tuesday, all seven members voted in favor of city staff coming back to the council with a formal study of some sort of proposal to levy a local tax.

Sales tax in Orange County is 7.75% and 10 cities, as City Manager Tom Kisela pointed out, have added their own local taxes as an additional revenue source. The highest are Los Alamitos and Santa Ana at 9.25%.

Slater and Councilmember Denis Bilodeau called for staff to examine a half-percent sales tax addition that would sunset after six years, but their five colleagues voted instead for studies of either a 0.75% or 1% sales tax, citing a need for the city to raise more revenue.

“I can’t in good conscience light off fireworks while asking people to dig into their pockets,” Bilodeau said before his minority vote, along with Slater and Tavoularis, to end the 3rd of July fireworks show. “We don’t have the money to fund all these things. There are things that we need to have and things that we want to have, and this is a want to have.”

Councilmember John Gyllenhammer, in the majority, disagreed. “There’s value to these events, value to living in Orange,” he said. “It’s an investment in Orange.”

City Attorney Michael Vigliotta said he needed to research the legality of a sunsetting sales tax that could potentially vanish after Orange ran a budget surplus for a certain number of years. Currently, staff estimate that a 1% sales tax could help Orange increase annual revenue by up to $40 million.

In support of a sales tax measure, Tavoularis called Orange a “cheap city” that historically has spent less than many of its neighbors. But she and others on the dais also expressed their opinion that the city has not done enough economic development to keep up with services for a growing population and an increasing number of unfunded state mandates. A city staffer pointed out that Orange has run a structural deficit since fiscal year 2009 during the Great Recession, but through the years has used one-time money sources and other options for covering costs.

Councilmembers Jon Dumitru, Ana Gutierrez and Arianna Barrios made informal calls for a budget audit going back at least several years to determine how Orange ended up in this predicament and why previous city leaders allowed an annual deficit to grow for more than a decade.

City staff will also continue research into fee studies to see where Orange can generate more money. Tavoularis and Barrios are advocates of asking Chapman University, which is exempt from property taxes, to make a payment to the city in lieu of taxes. The council previously discussed imposing some sort of per-student public safety fee on Chapman, a measure that Gyllenhammer said in May might not be warranted without assessing data on the university’s impact.

Staff say they also are working on development plans to help Orange capitalize on its proximity to Disneyland, potentially bringing forward an incentive program to lure upscale hotels to the west side of the city.

Near the end of the meeting this week, Kisela apologized to the council for delays in responding to their study requests, saying that staff has had little time to examine anything other than line item cuts to the budget.

In a warning about overworked city staff and their low morale, Kisela said City Hall faces a “self-correcting problem.” He worries overburdened employees will find new places to work by the end of the year — inadvertently correcting the city’s budget crisis by trimming the payroll.

“I would say in about six months that people aren’t going to be here, and that’s going to be a result of some of the things that are happening tonight,” he said.

“The only reason I’m still here is because I made a commitment for two years,” he added. Kisela, a former Orange police chief, was lured out of retirement by the council to become interim city manager in 2022. The interim tag was removed in early 2023.

Kisela said Orange has a history of “always getting by.”

Now, he said, it’s time for the city to start “thinking big.”

And, he said, “Thinking big costs money.”

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​ Orange County Register 

California has No. 1 US wage gap between haves and have-nots

• June 13, 2024

”Survey says” looks at various rankings and scorecards judging geographic locations while noting these grades are best seen as a mix of artful interpretation and data.

Buzz: The pay gap between California’s upper and lower halves of the pay scale is larger than any other state.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet looked at some federal jobs data for May 2023, tracking two noteworthy slices of wages by state – the 75th and 25th percentiles, or the medians of the top half and bottom half of salaries. This spread offers clues about uneven paychecks across a state.

Topline

There’s a 146% difference between what California bosses typically paid in the top half of salaries versus the bottom half. That’s the No. 1 chasm among the states and well above 108% nationally.

After California came Massachusetts and New York at 144%, then Maryland at 142%. The smallest gap was in Maine at 81%, then South Dakota at 82%, Iowa at 84%, and North Dakota at 85%.

And this measure of income inequality in California’s two big economic rivals? Texas ranked No. 8 at 128% and Florida was No. 32 at 100%.

The details

How did we get to this gap?

Well, California homes still sell (slowly), our roads are filled with new vehicles, and our shopping centers are busy because many bosses in the Golden State pay really well.

The state’s 75th percentile pay – the mid-point of the upper half – ranked No. 3 in the U.S. at $93,250 a year. Nationally, that pay is $70,035. So Golden State bosses pay 33% better for the higher-pay work.

Topping California were Massachusetts at $98,110 and Washington at $95,180. The lowest was Mississippi at $55,870, Arkansas at $58,900, and South Dakota at $59,980.

REAL ESTATE NEWSLETTER: Get our free ‘Home Stretch’ by email. SUBSCRIBE HERE!

By the way, Texas was No. 22 at $72,640 and Florida, No. 30 at $67,600.

Yet, many California jobs don’t pay well – thus the huge have-versus-have-not divide.

Wages at the 25th percentile – mid-point of the lower half – in California ranked No. 7 at $37,890 vs. $35,030 nationally. So, for the lower-salaries worker, Golden State bosses pay only 8% better than US peers.

Tops? Washington at $43,370, Massachusetts at $40,130, and Colorado at $38,830. Lows? Mississippi at $27,910, Louisiana at $28,900, and West Virginia at $29,260.

And Texas was No. 41 at $31,920 and Florida, No. 32 at $33,730.

Bottom line

Whenever you wonder who can afford California, don’t forget that some people can – as this math shows.

However, while California pay level for the upper half may seem generous – it does not go very far in the Golden State. For example, ponder those paychecks as fuel for house hunting.

SHOPPING NEWS: What’s the big trend? Who’s buying what? CLICK HERE!

The California Association of Realtors estimated buyers needed a $208,000 household income to qualify to buy the median priced home in the spring of 2023 – when this wage data was tabulated.

That’s more than double the 75th percentile wage. Yes, a household with two jobs paying more than what three-quarters of Californians make doesn’t cut it.

And that why’s the Realtors math says only 16% of households could “afford” to buy.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at [email protected]

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​ Orange County Register 

Report: Lakers interviewing JJ Redick for coaching job this weekend

• June 13, 2024

The Lakers will reportedly interview JJ Redick in Southern California for the organization’s head coaching vacancy this weekend.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Thursday morning that Redick, the former player-turned-broadcaster, has the opportunity to “move him to the forefront” of the Lakers’ coaching search with a strong interview performance.

Redick’s interview will come after the organization’s failed pursuit of UConn men’s coach Dan Hurley, who turned down the Lakers’ six-year, $70 million offer and returned to the Huskies.

Redick was considered the frontrunner for the Lakers’ job before their pursuit of Hurley became public.

The Lakers hope to hire a coach before the NBA’s June 26-27 draft.

Redick met with Lakers VP and GM Rob Pelinka last month at the draft combine in Chicago, and is expected to have a more formal and thorough interview with Pelinka and Lakers governor Jeanie Buss this weekend.

New Orleans Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego, who is also in the mix for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ coaching vacancy, is reportedly the only candidate to interview with the Lakers twice. Borrego interviewed with the Lakers two weeks ago and interviewed with the Cavaliers this week.

Redick is a color commentator for ABC’s broadcast of the NBA Finals between the Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks.

If the Lakers hire Redick, an announcement isn’t expected to be made until the series is over. Game 4, the earliest the series could end, is Friday, with the Celtics leading the series 3-0.

If necessary, Game 5 would be played on Monday, Game 6 is scheduled for June 20 and Game 7 would be on June 23.

Redick, who played in the NBA for 15 seasons (four with the Clippers) and retired in 2021, has no professional or college coaching experience, never coaching above the youth level.

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But he has interviewed for multiple head-coaching vacancies recently: the Toronto Raptors’ last offseason, which went to Darko Rajaković, and the Charlotte Hornets this spring, with Boston lead assistant Charles Lee set to join the Hornets after the conclusion of the Celtics’ playoff run.

Redick became an analyst/broadcaster for ESPN immediately after retirement and has hosted a podcasts since 2016, including, “The Old Man and the Three” which is part of the ThreeFourTwo Productions company he co-founded.

Notably, Redick has also been co-hosting a podcast, “Mind the Game”, with Lakers star LeBron James since March.

​ Orange County Register