Collaring Public Employee Negotiators/PAC Managers OR Collaring Citizens in Blaine

Last week, two petitions were submitted to the City of Blaine, which, if there are no insurmountable regularities, will either be approved by Blaine City Council as written, or will be approved or rejected in a February 2015 ballot initiative put to the citizens of Blaine.

This is interesting. Novel. Amusing. Even threatening. City and County officials have been tasked with processing two petitions that cut to the core of their group identity and vocational remuneration.

The Bellingham Herald gave a news report Saturday on these petitions. “Blaine voters may consider measure to weaken city employees’ unions.” It was a basic article, basic news reporting. Or was it?

I see a number of questions that were not answered.

1) What union or unions serve Blaine city employees?

2) Are all Blaine city employees unionized?

3) Are collective bargaining agreements in Blaine negotiated behind closed doors, with terms buried to all but the most persistent researchers? Or are these agreements an open public process?

4) How do Blaine City union agreements compare to those, say of Lynden, or Ferndale, or Bellingham?

5) What percent of Blaine city employees approve their union’s political contributions?

6) How many citizens live in Blaine?

7) What percent of that number is 500 petitioners?

8) Do residents of Blaine (and Whatcom County) disapprove of levels of public sector service under unionization?

9) How hard was it, how many hours did it take to accumulate these signatures?

10) Has the public perception of unions changed from champions of the underdog to body guards of privilege and nepotistic politicking?

11) Should unions for public employees have more limitations than other unions?

12) Do all public sector unions nobly avoid collusion with elected legislators who ratify their contracts?

13) Who is Freedom Foundation?

14) Why would they have boilerplate initiative language for these petitions on their website?

15) What marks Freedom Foundation’s relationships with unions in Washington State?

16) What marks Freedom Foundation’s relationships with conservative activists in Whatcom County?

These questions were not addressed by the Bellingham Herald Reporter. In depth, balanced reporting takes time, which is money, something the Herald seems to be in short supply of these days.

I would make some additional observations.

1) The two largest employers in Whatcom County are Western Washington University and the Public School Boards. Public sector union engagement is a central issue in Whatcom County.

2) A ballot result in Blaine is also a referendum on the public sector unions serving these larger entities.

3) I know a number of public sector unionized employees who are happy to take their pay, yet highly critical of levels of service, political priorities and management collaring brought about by their union’s contract agreements.

4) This is not a little issue.

Who should be collared? Unions? or Public sector employees? or Citizens? We may see what Blaine voters think.