III. Greater flexibility in Public Contracting
• Bidding, construction and maintenance contracting flexibility is available to a city when it
operates as a charter city.

• The proposed Palmdale charter allows us the flexibility in public contracting mechanisms
including design build process, in which the design and construction components of a
project are packaged into a single contract. Design build contracting process is a type of
process that generally saves time and money. Flexibility is also found in the following
categories: selection methodology, alternative contracting process such as job order
contracting, bidding process and the use of internal labor.

• Charter also gives the City Council some flexibility in awarding contracts to the most
qualified and suitable firm rather than the lowest and cheapest bidder, which could help
our local preferential hiring efforts.

• Allows more flexibility to purchase from local vendors to stimulate local economy and
create local jobs.

•* Requires the City to continue paying state-mandated prevailing wages on public works
projects in accordance with the State law.*

http://www.cityofpalmdale.org/events/Charter-Fact%20Sheet.pdf
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So this is the long awaited Jimbo Leadbelly Union payback? He lost out on the Union set aside earlier this year, so now he’s at it again?
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I watched an LA City Councilman by the name of Martin Ludlow go down in flames because of federal investigation involving him and the LA County Federation of Labor.

He gave them City resources, and when the feds came to investigate, he quickly accepted the job as THE CHIEF of the Federation. He still couldn’t hide. He was convicted, and was fine hundreds of thousands of dollars, and banned from office for several years. Here is an article about the case.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/02/21/state/n211230S96.DTL&type=printable

It would not at all surprise me to see the Federation try to get Palmdale officials to use public resources for their own cause…WATCH THEM.
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The chief of a powerful federation of unions and an ally of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa resigned Tuesday amid an investigation into fundraising improprieties surrounding his successful City Council campaign three years ago.

“As a result of errors in my judgment, I must take these steps to begin to accept full responsibility for the mistakes that I made,” Martin Ludlow, chief of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said while announcing his resignation at the union’s downtown headquarters.

Ludlow, who resigned from the City Council last year to take the labor job, said he was cooperating with investigators probing whether his successful 2003 election campaign benefited from a secret effort by leaders of Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union.

Investigators suspect Local 99 leaders illegally spent at least $53,000 in union funds to hire political operatives as phantom employees and pay for cell phones, computers and phone banks for Ludlow’s campaign, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Ludlow, 41, has been offered a plea deal by prosecutors that would bar him from union leadership but spare him jail time, according to the Times.

Villaraigosa, who was in Sacramento on Tuesday, had no comment, said mayoral spokeswoman Janelle Erickson.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, called Ludlow an “honorable and talented man.”

“I respect the decision he made to accept responsibility,” said Nunez.

The labor federation’s executive board will meet Thursday to appoint an interim secretary-treasurer to replace Ludlow, according to the organization’s president, Rick Icaza.
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I don’t know Roxi maybe I’m just anti union…
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A large percentage of this country’s union jobs are government. The money collected out of my paycheck gets funneled to buy elections. Mark Ridley Thomas just got put on the County Board of Supervisors that way. SEIU even got the Governor of Illinois fired for trying to buy Obamas Senate seat. And yes the Governor was at fault too. I don’t make this stuff up.
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Good night Roxi, you got me tired..

Anybody else? I was hoping for something a little more stimulating.
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Yes we voted to join SEIU, but only to get away from a Union that was corrupted in 2005. A Teamster from the LA harbor took over control of the Engineers and Architects Assoc. He affiliated us with the very shady Police Protective League IUPA 8000 out of Florida. This got us under the AFL-CIO umbrella. There was no vote. The next day all the Governers were dismissed and replaced with appointed governors. we never had an honest election after that. Ironically, the labor world is following the Wal-mart model. We are headed for only two major organizations “AFL-CIO” and SEIU. When the dust clears there will be no way for employees to change unions. You will be trapped…. google for yourself… It’s happening right now in every state…

And Roxi, did ou ever really wonder what the need for a union was with a govenrment job… think about it… my boss is a civil servant his pay goes up when mine goes up. He has no incentive to cut labor costs.
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National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2009 — Contact: Sadie Crabtree, 213-400-8845

Workers fear SEIU’s violent “shock and awe” tactics on Day One of union election

SEIU has been condemned by the AFL-CIO for using violence against other unions—SEIU Trustee with record of violence tells staff, “We gotta put them in the ground and bury them”

Fresno, Calif.—Today is the first day of a highly contested union election for 10,000 homecare workers in Fresno County who are trying to leave the Washington, D.C.-based SEIU, a union that has been condemned by the AFL-CIO for using violence in inter-union conflicts. The stakes have never been higher for SEIU officials, who are desperately trying to stop a movement of nearly 100,000 healthcare workers in California who are organizing to quit SEIU and join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

Current and former SEIU organizers have reported SEIU’s use of so-called “shock and awe” teams to incite violence, including stalking, threatening and intimidating supporters of opposing unions. With 900 paid SEIU staff from across the country in Fresno County today, workers are worried about a repeat of recent violent attacks.

At an SEIU meeting yesterday, SEIU-UHW Trustee Dave Regan encouraged hundreds of SEIU staff to “administer an old-school ass-whipping” to NUHW supporters. “In other words, what we gotta do here, my old-school friends, is we have to administer an old-school ass-whipping over the next two weeks,” he said. “I know everybody knows what means. We gotta give a butt-whipping they will never forget,” he added. “We gotta put them in the ground and bury them.”

Last April, Regan led 300 SEIU staff in storming a peaceful union conference in Michigan, injuring several workers and prompting AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to condemn the assault. "There is no justification—none—for the violent attack orchestrated by SEIU at the Labor Notes conference,” he said.

During the same conflict, an SEIU organizer reported being assigned with a team to mob CNA supporters at California hospitals and scream insults at them to provoke a physical response. SEIU organizers then called police and the media, accusing the victim of assaulting them.
Several Fresno homecare providers have recently reported being harassed with calls to their homes in the middle of the night by callers fraudulently claiming to be with NUHW in an apparent effort to incite false anger at NUHW in the days before the election. Homecare workers are concerned that SEIU staff may also impersonate NUHW supporters to harass workers in person at their homes.

Homecare providers have also reported being threatened by SEIU staff that they will lose their jobs or have their pay or hours cut if they vote to join NUHW, a threat that is illegal under federal labor law.
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As far as hiring illegals-I question all the special visas given to ‘white collar jobs’ in this country for “illegal but ‘qualified’ professionals”. This, I think, is an unexplored and unexposed phenomemon that needs to be addressed for what it really is – theft of American jobs – over $100K? or less-no matter.
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I weep for this community.
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Would you question a special interest group that raised 10% of all the money spent on a political campaign? How about 20%?

A labor coalition raised over 90% of the money spent to get Mark Ridley Thomas in office as a swing vote for labor on the LA County Board of Supervisors..

Check out what happened in the last LA County Supervisor’s election as reported by the LA Times.

Unions’ Campaign Fund for Ridley-Thomas Raises Fears About Special Interests

‘Independent expenditures’ outside the candidates’ control could play an increasing role in city and county elections, some officials believe.

By David Zahniser

Three years ago, campaign finance experts watched with alarm as one-fifth of the money raised on behalf of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa came from “independent expenditures,” special interests with no limits on how much they could collect and spend.

The numbers were even more jaw-dropping for Villaraigosa’s opponent, then-Mayor James K. Hahn. Although he lost his bid for a second term, Hahn saw one-third of his financial backing, or $2 million, come from such groups.

But those amounts look tame compared to the $8.5 million amassed so far this year by an array of labor unions seeking to elect state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas to the county Board of Supervisors on Nov. 4. For every $1 raised by Ridley-Thomas, those unions have raised nearly $9 for a separate campaign on his behalf, according to fundraising reports.
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The million$ of$ raised and spent in elections across this country is needed for: ADVERTISING. Advertising on tv where we get no news, just pundits.

So, is all this $$ being raised to discourage any changes in health care illegal too? All goes to ‘special interests’ – doesn’t it? Perhaps Dick Army and other former congressmen should be banned from any political involvement concerning anything in DC?
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I like where Supervisor Molina says it’s obvious the election was bought.. my seat is next.

https://caclean.org/problem/latimes_2008-10-26.php
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Unions fly under the radar because many people have had faith in the organizations. Like GOD and America, they are “Good.” Well maybe it’s time to question our beliefs.

In my union, you couldn’t find out where your political contributions were going unless you signed a card giving up your voting rights…

people.. this is normal… lawsuits are flying coast to coast… and government workers have no choice because the unions have divided up the paychecks, and made friends with the politicians.

people.. this is normal… lawsuits are flying coast to coast… and government workers have no choice because the unions have divided up the paychecks, and made friends with the politicians.
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You could quit the union & your job and go on your own.
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Just last week I sent an email to HLN about their latest show. I told them that I used to depend on CNN for objective news, now I get an angry middle-aged female comedian with an axe to grind, make sex jokes about politicians. The talking head trend was amusing at first, but now it has replaced the news.
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Los Angeles did not welcome them.

For most of the 20th century the most serious case of domestic terrorism was considered to be the bombing of the LA Times building in 1910. Twenty-one people were killed over one hundred injured.

Here’s a Wikipedia overview.

The Los Angeles Times bombing was the purposeful dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times building in Los Angeles, California, on October 1, 1910 by a union member belonging to the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers. The explosion started a fire which killed 21 newspaper employees and injured 100 more. Termed the “crime of the century” by the Times, brothers John J. (“J.J.”) and James B. (“J.B.”) McNamara were arrested under suspicious circumstances in April 1911 for the crime. Their trial became a cause célèbre for the American labor movement. J.B. admitted to setting the explosive, was convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. J.J. was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bombing a local iron manufacturing plant, and returned to the Iron Workers union as an organizer.

I think people we more prone to support the unions in the 30’s because of the depression. Don’t forget though that these unions were tied very closely to the likes of Al Capone and the “mob” during that same time period.
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To paint them all with the same brush is not only unfair but inaccurate.
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You are losing your traditional union as we speak. In it’s place you will get a mega political organization that does not bargain. it’s power comes from buying elections and bribing politicians.

By the way, I myself am an SEIU member along with almost 24,000 other City Employees. And even more ironically, I voted for the affiliation, simply because we had lost control of our local and needed to escape. Is this the best we can hope for?
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PK is also right that not all Unions are the same. Some recruits come from non-Union shops of similar skills. Their experience & skill determines their status.

You should look for a similar AFL-CIO union that includes your profession and change.

Btw, why was the LA Times bldg ‘bombed’?
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