CalPERS this morning voted to invest in public-private projects, so-called "PPP" deals that blend private companies and big government bucks for things such as roads, water projects and bridges. The policy allows investments in those kinds of projects, but requires that the "transactions have no more than a de minimus adverse impact on existing jobs."
The Professional Engineers in California Government last week had threatened to sue CalPERS over PPPs, because, it says, such projects outsource of their jobs to private firms and offer a poor return on investment.
But after intense eleveth-hour talks, CalPERS and the union on Friday reached an agreement on "language for the proposed policy (that) will ensure that the members' jobs will not be outsourced to private firms when investing in public-private partnerships," a union spokeswoman told the State Worker.
To read the specific section engineered into the policy, click here and look for the underlined passage under "Domestic Public Sector Jobs."
Or get a cup of coffee and read the entire 27-page policy here.
Did CalPERS cave in? The American Council of Engineering Companies of California thinks so. You can read their letter in response to our blog report by clicking here. The key paragraph:
This "restraint of trade" is not in the best interest of the taxpayers who will eventually be forced to foot the bill, nor is it in the interests of Californians who expect the highest efficiency, most fairness and the highest returns from their tax dollars and their retirement investments.
What do you think? Is this an example of a union protecting its members at the possible expense of other CalPERS members' retirement? Or is the union right and correctly acted to keep its members' contributions to the fund from going to investments that would put state engineers out of work?
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