Tickets for our summer event at the Wave Waterpark in Vista are on sale through August 20. We have a few tickets left, buy yours today! The DSA has rented the entire facility exclusively for our members and their families, which means we will have a relaxed and safe event. Tickets are available at the DSA store and online at www.dsasd.org/wave. I hope to see everyone there.

Things have slowed down as we start our new contract. If you are unclear of all the details or figures, please feel free to call the DSA office to get the particulars.

I’m thankful I work in the County of San Diego. We don’t get manufactured layoff notices like Riverside County. They recently took a ten percent pay cut and were threatened with additional layoffs if they did not take larger cuts. Miraculously, Riverside County found the money after their sheriff threatened to close jails. We also don’t get massive layoffs like San Jose and Sacramento PD where hundreds of cops were laid off. Don’t mention the City of San Diego, where each financial decision is blown up into a major crisis.

The County of San Diego just gets the job done with little fanfare and little appreciation. We might not all agree, but at least we are all rowing in the same direction. We do have some local naysayers railing away against county pensions who throw out the deficit number of $1.5 billion as the end of county government. What they conveniently ignore is that the county has over $2 billion in reserves built up.

The county knows the $1.5 billion shortfall will be paid slowly by our increased contribution and is the major reason why we are only getting a one percent raise over the next three years. Most of the $1.5 billion will be made up by investment returns over the next few years. The county pension system has close to $8 billion in assets, which dramatically changes the context of the deficit.

When did we become a nation of people that cannot keep our word? I ask this question because I’m amazed at the number of people that espouse defaulting on financial obligations. When the state gets in a tight financial bind people push for the state to go into bankruptcy. When the City of San Diego had to start making some tough decisions on cuts to its budget, people pushed for bankruptcy. When the federal government reached its debt limit, we had elected officials pushing for the federal government to default and not pay bills. Leadership like this is why we are teetering at the abyss.

Everyone wants to live the high life, like they are in a beer commercial, but no one wants to pay the bill when it comes due. When did this become okay or an accepted practice? When did it become okay to stop paying a mortgage because someone wants a better deal after the fact? The Orange County Choppers defaulted on a building mortgaged in 2007 for over $12 million, because it’s only worth $7 million now. People default not because they don’t have the money, but because they want a better deal.

Remember, while there are 3 million people in San Diego County, only 2,200 can call themselves a deputy sheriff. 