(This article was originally published on the Freedom Foundation blog on March 5, 2014, written by Glen Morgan, while he was the Property Rights Director at the Freedom Foundation. The original article posting was deleted by the Freedom Foundation in 2017. It has been reposted here exactly as it was originally written. Some links no longer work and some original images are no longer included in the article)
March 5, 2014
Chants of, “Hey-hey, ho-ho, Valenzuela’s got to go,” could be heard several blocks away in Olympia Monday evening as union members picketed the re-election kickoff of Thurston County Commissioner Karen Valenzuela.
Valenzuela drew the wrath of the public-sector union when she voted to eliminate a handful of janitorial positions represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) – a move expected to produce minor savings for taxpayers in response to county budget shortfalls of about $6 million.
The problem, as AFSCME sees it, is that the jobs are simply a drop in the bucket compared to the $6 million budget gap the county is attempting to close.
The Freedom Foundation has been pointing out the abuses and shortcomings of the current crop of commissioners for years, and it’s gratifying to see the union finally coming around.
It isn’t like any of the Thurston County commissioners have ever shown themselves interested in cost savings in the past. Ironically, this AFSCME protest and the Democrat Party kickoff event were also the fifth anniversary of Resolution 14205, signed by Valenzuela, along with Commissioners Cathy Wolfe and Sandra Romero, which obligated the taxpayers of Thurston County to pay $44 million in bonds.
This debt was incurred to build the famous empty jail (also known as the Accountability and Restitution Center), which still sits abandoned almost 4 years after the money was spent and then-County Manager Don Krupp reported the facility ready to hold prisoners.
According to Thurston County’s 2014 adopted budget, the interest and principal payments on the two jail bonds (2009 and 2007) account for at least $3.2 million of the annual budget. The annual maintenance (power, security, water, maintenance, heat, etc.) for the long-empty structure costs the Thurston County taxpayers approximately another $500,000 per year.
The money that continues to be lost from just this one boondoggle every month (about $331,000) dwarfs the potential savings from changing the county’s janitorial staff.
The empty jail is hardly the only example of county incompetence. Before the empty jail was built, the county paid millions of dollars to acquire an old fish-processing warehouse as a possible new jail location, but that plan was scrapped. With no real plans to use it, County Commissioners still spent another $4 million to upgrade the building. Today it serves as storage and the parking lot is now a homeless camp called Camp Quixote.
The Thurston County Commissioners apparently never run out of ways to squander other people’s money. Sometimes they waste grant funds on projects that never get audited, like the “Hope House” in Tenino – giving away $40,000, with nothing to show for the money. Sometimes, they fritter away staff time and resources on overly complicated, harmful and destructive critical areas ordinances (611 pages of indecipherable pseudoscience) and pocket gopher habitat plans.
And even when the Left’s favorite county commissioners are burning through taxpayer money, they’re also chasing tax dollars away. Most recently, in spectacularly inept fashion, they burdened Ritchie Brothers with enough harmful ordinances and unhelpful staff obstruction that the profitable heavy equipment auctioneer left the county and moved a few miles south to Lewis County, where the $1.2 million of annual sales tax revenue it generates is more appreciated. This is sales tax revenue that is never coming back to Thurston County.
Dozens of smaller businesses have left town or shut down as well, with little concern from these commissioners. In fact, the central Planning Department (which includes the euphemistically titled “Resource Stewardship”) appears to operate as though its primary goal is to deny businesses and home owners the ability to live or thrive in Thurston County.
Yet somehow, these commissioners found a small pot of savings by geting rid of their lowest-paid workers? Thurston County gives its upper managers more money in raises than they will save by dumping the janitors. What’s the real story here? AFSCME and the Freedom Foundation may never see eye to eye on privatization and outsourcing, but in this one case, we can both agree something is wrong with this picture.
Yet, AFSCME has endorsed and funded the campaigns for all three of these elected officials. All are far Left-Wing Democrats.
Monday’s protest, while it may signal trouble in leftist paradise, is not just an example of AFSCME recognizing that the Thurston County commissioners are incompetent. These commissioners have laid off AFSCME members before, and they will certainly do so again in the future.
A “Letter of Concern” was circulated at the protest, with many local politicians signed on, stating, “This decision is bad for our Party (sic) This decision has caused deep fractures in our Democrat Party…” It appears there was a lot of concern about how this incompetence would reflect on the local Democrat Party.
Notable is that Commissioner Wolfe (former Democrat legislator from the 22nd District) took the same vote as Valenzuela, but she appears to be getting a pass from AFSCME. Commissioner Romero (also a former Democrat legislator from the 22nd) was the lone holdout who voted against dumping the janitors, but many have speculated this was just an effort to get AFSCME to take an active role in an internal feud that has been brewing between Romero and Valenzuela.
Rumor has it that AFSCME has promised $40,000 in campaign donations and support to any Democrat willing to run against Valenzuela (Republicans need not apply). So this is really just an intramural battle between Democrats; everyone else is just a spectator.
While I spoke to several protesting union members off the record, they were instructed to not speak on-camera with the Freedom Foundation. However, despite the differences between AFSCME officials and the Freedom Foundation, it’s good to see that we do share a small patch of common ground. We both believe Thurston County should start cleaning up the substantial amount of waste in local government. We can both agree that Karen Valenzuela’s priorities don’t make sense. Finally, we can all agree that Thurston County Commissioners are making quite a mess of things.
The real question AFSCME union members should ask themselves is whether their union bosses and organizers are really spending their forced dues money wisely. Should they continue funding politicians like the Thurston County commissioners (including Valenzuela) who have proven to be so inept? Is it wise to encourage and fund political leadership so incapable of managing the county that union workers are losing their jobs?
Thurston County Commissioner Valenzuela speaks to union protesters at her kick-off.
They funded her election and re-election as Commissioner, but recently seem to recognize her incompetence.
