Regarding your Aug. 20 article, “Police union picks Huber, Mashburn,” voters should be wary whenever a public employee union seeks to exert control over the elected officials who determine their salaries and benefits.

A good example of this is the city of Vallejo, which went bankrupt because of excessive and unsustainable contracts with their public safety departments.

Many other cities throughout California are in financial trouble because of their unwillingness to make tough choices and their reluctance to push back against politically powerful public employee unions.

Fortunately, Simi Valley is in much better fiscal shape than most other cities.

The credit for this goes to our existing mayor and City Council, who understand the importance of managing costs in order to sustain vital services to our community.

Rising salary and pension costs are a statewide problem and something that now threatens to crowd out funding for important programs, such as senior services, graffiti abatement, homeless programs and affordable housing projects.

Being fiscally responsible requires having the courage to make difficult choices when needed. Our mayor and City Council understand this, which is why they recently negotiated modest concessions with city employees that saved jobs while preserving important city services.

Unfortunately, during last year’s negotiations our local police union chose to engage in some mean-spirited tactics, which included protests at the city’s 40th anniversary celebration, demonstrating in front of a council member’s home (and scaring his children) and running full-page ads trashing their own police chief.

It is sad to hear that POA officials now seek to “exact their pound of flesh.” Having failed in their goal of intimidating our city leaders, they are now trying to get their revenge by throwing them out of office.

The citizens of Simi Valley need to recognize this endorsement for what it is: a shameless attempt to influence the outcome of an election in order to stack the City Council with friendly, prounion candidates.

Steve Sojka, Glen Becerra and Michelle Foster have a long track record of supporting public safety. At the same time, they also understand the importance of managing the city in a way that is sustainable and fiscally responsible.

They have demonstrated the leadership to get us through difficult times, and each of them deserves your vote.
Dan White
Simi Valley