Your resume’ lists you as a founding member of the Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) and Eureka City Councilmember 2002 to 2010. Appreciate all that.

Currently RCEA rates surpass PG&E rates. One big reason for this is the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA) fee RCEA customers pay to PG&E. Since inception, RCEA customers have paid $118 million in PCIA fees.

During your time as councilmember, 2002 to 2010, Eureka City Hall was increasing its pension debt. Eureka City Hall started paying down its pension debt in 2015 with a $900,000 payment.

Currently, Eureka has a $4 million budget deficit and a yearly pension debt payment of $7.5 million in 2026, with debt payments of $7.8 million in 2027, $8.1 million in 2028, $8.4 million in 2029, and debt payments continuing until 2040. From 2015 to 2040 Eureka City Hall will spend around $150 million on pension debt.

We have a debilitated private sector. 22.4% of Humboldt households are enrolled in CalFresh (double the state average). 6.2% of Humboldt’s full-time workers live in poverty (triple the state average).

Please set aside the rhetoric and show us the arithmetic and explain how this community can overcome the hundreds of millions of dollars being taken out of the community due to these California Government monetary policies.

— Patrick Cloney

Response

Jeff Leonard

Thanks for your question, Patrick.

True, the City contributions to employee retirement benefits are sent outside of the county to CalPERS, who invests the funds into a stock portfolio.

Would you have the City stop providing retirement benefits? Would you want City employees to become welfare recipients when they retire?

Local government is a major employer in Humboldt County. The City of Eureka alone employs over 200 full-time employees. We are one of Humboldt’s largest employers.

This is a good thing – our community needs good paying jobs. The statistics you provided about people living below the State’s poverty line only underscores how badly we need living wage jobs. City employees can retire with some sense of financial security, allowing them to continue contributing to our community.

Like any private sector employer, City of Eureka salaries have a positive impact on our economy, helping support our local business community.  The critical services provided by City employees are 100% worth the investment.

Inevitably, retirement contributions from both the private sector and local government flow out of Humboldt County. We need to increase the money flowing into our economy to balance that equation.

Here’s the good news: the City has brought big dollars back into our community. Downtown housing projects brought in over $150 million alone, good news for the contractors building those projects. Tax dollars flow out to Sacramento, but the City of Eureka works aggressively to bring them back.

You mentioned RCEA? Another local government agency aggressively seeking opportunities to bring money back into our community. The organization has leveraged grants and rebates to complete energy-saving retrofits for local businesses and residents. These retrofit projects lowered energy bills and provided jobs for local contractors.

RCEA is helping stop one of the biggest streams of money flowing out of Humboldt - our monthly PG&E bill.  RCEA helped develop the solar microgrid at the airport, directing a portion of those monthly payments directly into our economy.

RCEA supported the Offshore Wind project, which was being funded by a $400 million Federal green energy grant.  The project would have brought a major private sector employer to Humboldt and a couple hundred new jobs. The project would have produced plenty of power for our community.

Sadly, the President recently spent $1.2 billion replacing the green energy grant with fossil fuel projects. We had a chance to keep 100% of that monthly PG&E bill in our community. Instead, we’ll be sending more money for oil to Venezuela and the Middle East.

 

 

Are you a candidate? Log in here.

... or post a press release.