When the process becomes the substance
Increasingly, the procedural rules of the MMBA are being used to prevent public agencies from making needed changes in the way they do business.
Increasingly, the procedural rules of the MMBA are being used to prevent public agencies from making needed changes in the way they do business.
The advent of Assembly Bill (AB) 646, which requires fact-finding after a bargaining impasse, has revived the wage/benefit comparability analysis in the public sector.
For public employers in California, this has truly been an “annus horribilis”—a “year of horrors.”
While mandatory fact-finding may further public agency understanding and goals, it’s exactly what local government didn’t need in this era of shrinking budgets.
Even though the public is increasingly interested in the workings of government, the news media simply can’t convey the issues and problems in the depth necessary to enable the public to make informed decisions.