I was looking at council candidate John Leos’ campaign website and saw this promise:
“I pledge to decline the City car allowance, medical benefits and pension.” – John Leos
Except for the car allowance part (and good for John Leos on that count), that’s like a non-smoker promising to give up cigarettes, or a teetotaler promising to give up drinking.
Leos works for the county probation department. He already has a government pension: 2.7% at 55 (which is far better than what most Anaheim voters can look forward to getting). He already has medical benefits through the county.
In other words, Leos is promising the taxpayers he will not to double-dip — which is good as far as it goes, but kind of the minimum one would expect — and in light of is existing county pension and medical benefits, an essentially meaningless promise.