Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez today defended his "golden handshake" offer to employees, saying staff has worked long and hard to earn benefits.
"We’re proud that we did it," Núñez said during a break in the Assembly Democratic policy summit. "The quote-unquote golden handshake is one of many different options. But there are some folks that do earn over $100,000 a year, but you got to look at how long they’ve been working."
The speaker declined to address his decision to demote Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, who was ousted as chairman of the powerful Rules Committee after he challenged Núñez's pension-sweetening deal as wasting taxpayer dollars.
The offer was made to 222 employees, 13 of whom already qualify for pensions above $100,000 and an additional 12 for pensions of $70,000 to $99,999.
"You’ll never get me to say anything negative about Mr. De La Torre," Núñez said. "I think he’s a good member of the caucus."
But he went on to say, "As the speaker, I have the power within my role as speaker to decide who's a member of my leadership team."
Núñez said the Democratic caucus has spent its time on the budget and plans to introduce a compassionate budget that is reflective of state priorities on education and caring for the poor and elderly.
"Expect the Democratic leadership, with the full support of the Democratic caucus, to present an alternative budget to the governor’s budget and to put that budget before the full Legislature for a vote so that we can have an on-time budget," Núñez said.
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