I, Public Employee

In light of the demonstrations by teachers and union supporters in Wisconsin, public employees and their compensation have become hot topics in America.  Depending on where one sits, public employees can be anything from dedicated servants of the common good to recently-activated members of Soviet sleeper cells, dispatched into the streets to bring down the Republic.

As always, between the hyperbolic extremes we find a more nuanced truth.  Have I gotten your attention with the preceding paragraph? 

My name is Matt, and I'm a public employee.  I work for a city on the Central Coast of California.  I'm also an independent conservative, NRA member, Army National Guardsman, and veteran of Afghanistan.  I've been observing the debate over public employees, and I've decided to add my thoughts.

Government employees range from federal employees to state-level workers and on down to county and city employees.  I'm an employee of a city of 43,000 between L.A. and San Francisco.  I've worked there seven years now in the Public Works department.  I applied for the job for stability, and to participate in a pension program.  I'm part of a bargaining unit, which could be called a union, although it is strictly local, has no national affiliation and cannot call a strike.  I have no choice about joining although I can pay slightly less and not vote on pending contracts.  What I cannot do is to opt out and negotiate my own contract; I checked.  The city doesn't want to negotiate scores of individual contracts, they want to get people with similar job classifications in a unit and deal with them en masse.  So, like it or not, I have to join, and if I'm going to pay I feel I should actually vote.

What about pay?   Do I make twice the average income for my area?   No, I do not.  According to a study by the National Association of Homebuilders, the median income for my county is $72,500.  I make less than that, even factoring in my National Guard drill pay as a sergeant (E5).   The median home price in this county in the second quarter of 2010 was $359,000.   The only way I was able to buy a home in was by using my VA loan, and only the crash brought prices down enough to enable me to get my family out of an apartment and into a house.

My specific job is in Parks Maintenance.  I'm one of the people you see with the ill-fitting green trousers and the shirt with the dorky name tag.   I earn my pay by keeping the parks of my city clean and safe for the citizens who pay for them and use them.  Currently I manage a sports field facility with over ten acres of turf.  When I used to work downtown, I dealt with the homeless.   Picture anything that comes out of a human body and I've cleaned it up.   Try cleaning up after the guy with no legs who soiled himself and then spent the night sleeping in the wood chips of the children's playground area.  Feces, urine, blood, sputum, vomit, used condoms, broken glass, dog bites, abusive homeless screaming and threatening me; I've dealt with it all.  And when I have a young mother thank me for the cleanliness and safety of the playground, it's actually worth it. 

Read on..