If two wolves fight, which one wins?

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Dear John,


You already know the ancient wisdom — generally attributed to our Native American forebears — that begins with a kid who asks his dad, “If two wolves fight, which one wins?” The dad answers, “The one you feed.”


In Anaheim, Happiest Place on Earth, home of MLB’s Los Angeles Angels and the NHL’s Ducks, the wolf that wins is both. It’s only the public losing out.


In May, the FBI produced evidence it says proves a group of Anaheim insiders used the city’s power to advance their personal and professional interests. The head of the local Chamber of Commerce, Todd Ament, has already pled guilty to fraud; he’ll be sentenced this fall. FBI wiretaps have Mayor Harry Sidhu bragging that he was able to sell Anaheim Stadium at a steep discount to a real estate developer (including Angels’ owner Arte Moreno). Sidhu has resigned his city hall post. And as revelations pile up and grim headlines continue daily, the scandal — revealing its nonpartisan reach — has led to the resignations of a prominent Republican consultant and a high-ranking state Democrat official. Sidhu and the consultants deny any wrongdoing.


Missing in all this — until a Thursday night CPC townhall — was the wolf that no one seems to have noticed: the city’s powerful government unions. Throughout the feeding frenzy in Anaheim, government union leaders rallied their members and spent their campaign cash to support first this insider and then that insider. We revealed for an audience of 100 local officials, activists and reporters, that even two city hall officials rightly hailed as reformers were, in fact, often supporters of these unions. They relied on them for indirect campaign contributions and rewarded them with enhanced pay and benefits — and then ([link removed]) the wolfish union leaders turned on the reformers too ([link removed]) , siding with what the FBI calls the “cabal” that has run the city for decades.


In one instance, former mayor and good-government guy Tom Tait admitted last night that he approved a massive 2001 retroactive pay hike for cops and firefighters. Also on the panel, CPC senior fellow and former state Sen. John Moorlach told the audience that Tait’s gift to the public-safety unions now threatens to tank Anaheim’s finances. Jose Moreno, Tait’s ally on the council, denied being an insider — even as we showed that he gladly accepted the support of government and private-sector unions in his years as a local official.


In Anaheim, both wolves were fed, and as in “To Serve Man,” that memorable 1962 Twilight Zone episode ([link removed]) , the wolves dined upon a delicious meal of man, the people of Anaheim.

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National Employee Freedom Week kicks off Sunday.
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National Employee Freedom Week ([link removed]) (August 14-20) kicks off this Sunday, a national campaign to raise awareness among public-sector union workers that they can leave their unions.


The nationwide effort seeks to empower workers by informing them of their rights and alternatives to union membership, and provide the resources to help individuals opt out of their union.


Union membership has declined steadily since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus decision, where the Court concluded that governments can no longer require their employees to join unions as a condition of employment. Nationally, union membership dropped to 10.3 percent of the nation’s workforce last year.


California Policy Center announced recently that it will invest $1 million in a new campaign to help hundreds of thousands of government employees in California understand their constitutional right to drop their memberships in government unions. The Center’s campaign has already helped 21% of the state’s public employees leave their unions, driving government union membership in the Golden State to its lowest level since 2000.


“We’ve got good news for the men and women who work at every level of government in California — state, county, city, schools and other districts: leave your union, save hundreds of dollars per year, and keep your employee benefits. That’s the law,” said Will Swaim, president of the California Policy Center.


Added bonus: lower union membership means less dues to fund the unions’ massive donations to California politicians and far-left causes that aren’t supported by the unions' membership, which is as ideologically diverse as the general population.


“The exodus of 300,000 workers from California unions has already deprived the state’s government unions of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars annually,” added Swaim. “That’s a major dent in the money union leaders use to control governments at every level throughout California.”


To learn more about opting out of your union, visit mypaymysay.org ([link removed]) .


** Parent Training: How to file a Public Records Act request with your school district
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Transparency should be fundamental when it comes to anything related to our children’s education, but sadly, in California, too often parents are kept in the dark about the curriculum that is being taught to their children and school activities that advance radical political ideology instead of education basics. From teaching Critical Race Theory to extreme gender politics, California teachers’ unions are pushing an agenda to indoctrinate kids into “woke” politics in our public schools.


How can you find out what your children are learning in school?

Join us Tuesday, August 23 at 5:30pm in Orange, CA for an in-depth discussion with expert Christina Sandefur, Executive Vice President at the Goldwater Institute. Learn how to file a Public Records Act (PRA) request with your school district to access the information that every parent is entitled to know about what’s being taught to your kids! Light dinner will be served.

Location:

4100 East Walnut
Orange, CA 92869

To RSVP, contact Rebecca Holz, director of CPC’s Parent Union, at r (mailto:[email protected]) [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .


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Virtual Event: The School Bond Scam - How to ensure ballot initiatives benefit our schools not special interests
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Every election cycle, California’s teachers’ unions push school bond measures on local ballots under the guise of desperately-needed funding to fix dilapidated local schools and keep kids safe. In reality, these bond measures, passed by well-intentioned voters, create union slush funds that go straight to political consultants, Wall Street investors and others who collect high payouts — while many promised school improvements are never made.


What many voters don’t realize is that they (and their kids) will be paying off those borrowed millions — sometimes hundreds of millions — through higher property taxes and/or sales taxes for decades.


Join Parent Union on Wednesday, August 24, 2022 from 6:00-7:00pm via Zoom for a discussion on the ABC’s of school bond measures featuring Susan Shelley, Vice President of Communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and Lance Christensen, Vice President of Education Policy and Government Affairs at California Policy Center and candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who will explain:

* Why school bond measures matter and what they really mean for voters and taxpayers


* What can be done to stop the teachers unions’ school bond scheme


* How voters and school board members can ensure that proposed bond measures are used toward improving schools and helping students instead of lining the pockets of special interests.



To RSVP, please contact Rebecca Holz, director of CPC’s Parent Union at [email protected]. (mailto:[email protected])
SUPPORT CPC ([link removed])
New Podcast ()
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** Radio Free California #237: L.A. Noses Ahead of San Francisco in Demolition Derby
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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Rick Reiff, editor at large of the Orange County Business Journal, joins CPC President Will Swaim to talk about why Los Angeles DA George Gascon may avoid the fate of San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin. Listen now ([link removed]) .

More from CPC ()


** Union Sponsored AB 5 Hits Independent Truckers
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CPC senior fellow Edward Ring examines the impact of union-backed AB 5 on California's independent truckers. With half of the state's 70,000 independent truckers expected to quit or leave the state, California’s ports will lose business and all products delivered in the Golden State will cost more. The winners? Big labor and big business. The losers? Everyone else. Read the article. ([link removed])


** Average Pay for Manhattan Beach Firefighters is $328K
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Negotiations between the Manhattan Beach Firefighters Association and the Manhattan Beach City Council drag on, but the reality is that the Manhattan Beach firefighters are far from underpaid. Edward Ring explains why the union's rhetoric is the same old hot air. Read the article. ([link removed])

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ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER

The California Policy Center promotes prosperity for all Californians through limited government and individual liberty.

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