'Spiking' was common knowledge

Re "Late pay hikes stir 'spiking' claims" (Page A1, July 10): I'm a retired high school teacher who's been following the discussion about "pension spiking" with growing interest. Since when is this news? Have the legislators not known about this pension spiking phenomenon in the public school system? I'm amazed that they wouldn't be aware of this.

During my last 15 years of teaching, my colleagues and I – who were not allowed to spike our pensions – watched as our school board hired one superintendent after another who came and stayed for only three years, spiked their pensions and then retired.

These superintendents didn't care one whit about our high schools, the students, the curriculum or the faculties in them. They were there for one purpose only and everyone knew it. In the lunch room, we'd grouse and call them "pension spikers" and secretly wish we could do the same.

– Donna Wierzbowski, Granite Bay

School administrators overpaid

Although pension spiking is an obvious problem within CalSTRS, what isn't discussed in this article is the bigger issue. The high salaries these school administrators receive are just plain excessive. There is no excuse for it – $200,000 a year is ridiculous, no matter what size the school district.

As a comparison, nearly every person in the Obama administration is paid less than that. Are you telling me running the CIA or the Department of Defense is less challenging than the Sacramento City Unified School District? Too many administrators plus excessive pay equals not enough money for the students.

– Derek Dunbar, Sacramento

'Real educators' go without

The article refers to those employees as educators. However, they are more correctly called administrators. Some have never taught in their entire careers. The tone of the article makes it sound like classroom teachers are receiving huge salaries and huge pensions. The real educators – classroom teachers – never receive pensions like those described, even when they possess a doctorate.

– Michael H. Berkowitz, Folsom

'The game is on'

I commend The Bee for revealing the "legal thievery" going on within our state's education system. I had to laugh when Rich Zeiger states, "You can't change the rules in the middle of the game. That's a moral and legal imperative."

I wasn't aware that this type of incident is a game, nor did I realize that you can't change the rules in the middle of the game these so-called public servants are playing. Why can't the state go after these abusers?

Perhaps our Legislature can act so we can go back and seize a portion of these huge pensions. That would be the morally right thing to do! The game is on. I am tired of the big ones getting away.

– Mike Nelson, Galt

Obligations unsustainable

Re "Public pension vitriol is in fashion – and unfair" (Viewpoints, July 10): Unfortunately a great many civil servants may be unswayed by the economic realities of our current economy, just as many private sector employees are slowly adapting to job losses, reduced standards of living and continued losses to 401(k)s. At issue is that the pension obligations are unsustainable and we cannot continue to cut our state's safety net to provide for pensions that were established during an economic bubble, without proper oversight and without regard to economic adversity.

– Patricia Preston, Orangevale

Welcome to the real world

Re "Faces of the Recovery" (Forum, July 10): It sounds as if government worker Jessica Brandt was more interested in a "safe" job as a "public service" employee than she was in being accountable and productive. After being thrust out into the private sector she is realizing there are expectations and now has to "look at what the client needs, how to produce that the most efficient way." She can no longer spend time getting to know her colleagues and thinking about the bigger picture – whatever that is, perhaps retirement and her pension.

Welcome to the private sector world, Ms. Brandt, you know the real world that foots the bill for "public service" employees while they are getting to know their colleagues.

– Sue Horine, Mountain Ranch

Helmets save lives

Re "Anti-helmet brigades might need to get their heads checked" (Stuart Leavenworth, July 10): I have written an article and testimonial of a recent personal experience where wearing a bicycle helmet saved my life.

Studies have shown wearing a helmet can reduce your risk of a serious brain injury and death during a fall or collision because most of the energy from the impact is absorbed by the helmet, rather than your head and brain.

While there are many excuses people have not to wear a helmet, the word accident means an unexpected, unplanned, undesirable event which occurs suddenly and by chance, often without warning, and usually causing harm or damage.

– Lisa Hardin, Granite Bay

LaMalfa the welfare king

Re "Tax pledge ties lawmakers' hands, except when it doesn't" (Forum, July 10): Dan Morain's question for GOP legislators on what does or does not constitute a tax could also be expanded to include welfare: When is welfare not welfare?

Easy answer. When it's collected by someone who bills himself "a conservative Republican in both word and deed."

That would be my state senator, Doug LaMalfa, who has collected almost $4.7 million in federal farm subsidies over the past 15 years. While assuring his constituents he's holding the line on tax increases at the state level, LaMalfa has had no qualms about collecting more than $300,000 a year in subsidies from federal taxpayers.

Remember the days of welfare queens in Cadillacs? Welcome to today's welfare kings in 4x4 pickups. And, they're "real conservative" ones at that.

– Richard W. Bell, Grass Valley

Higher ed legacy abandoned

Re "Cuts to higher education pose a threat to the state's future" (Viewpoints, July 10): Pat Brown must be turning over in his grave. His master plan for higher education, his legacy designed to make college accessible to every young person who had achieved admission, has been abandoned by his son and the Legislature. How shortsighted our elected officials have become. It's an embarrassment.

And those legislators who refused to allow California voters to decide for themselves if they want to invest in the future of this state by extending taxes have no right to look in the rearview mirror and ask what happened to California. Connie Conway, who never earned a college degree, apparently doesn't care if others earn them either. Ted Gaines, who went to a private university out of state, also fails to understand the value of a premier public university system.

– Ellen Wong, Sacramento

Take the train? No thanks

Re "High-speed rail project's fiscal track questioned" (Capitol & California, July 10): It's like S&M for travelers: a good option if you enjoy pain and humiliation and spending lots of money.

We've looked into riding Amtrak a few times in the past few years – to Los Angeles, or along the coast, or up to Washington: Get on the train, switch to a two-hour bus transfer, back on the train, arrive at 2 a.m. The entire trip ends up being two to four hours longer than driving, with an ETA plus or minus two hours, and more expensive than flying.

And this is on the cheap trains, where they know how much money they're already losing. Just imagine.

– John Chase, Rocklin

A closer look at DeMint's mission from God

Re "GOP senator recounts struggle to reshape party and 'save freedom' " (Forum, July 10): So Sen. Jim DeMint says he is fulfilling a mission assigned to him by God to save freedom, prevent bankrupting the future and pull the nation back from a moral abyss. Too bad God didn't contact him during the Bush administration.

Since DeMint condemns President Barack Obama for trying to impose "European-style socialism" on the United States, then God must be a Republican. But if he's the Christian God who sent his son down to Earth to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and comfort the afflicted, isn't it widely accepted that Europeans in general are getting much more bang for their health care buck than we Americans?

DeMint should require that every Senate Democrat be present next time God pays him a visit so that they, too, can benefit from His guidance and change their profligate ways.

– Joe Grady, Placerville

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