Hot off the presses — do they still have presses? — from Local 2076 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO in Anaheim:
County workers and residents will rally Tuesday to express outrage at County officials' plans to slash Social Services at the time they are needed most – while simultaneously redecorating their offices and retaining their raises. Funding for Social Service workers comes primarily from State and Federal money, with the County only paying nine cents on the dollar.
The Orange County Register made great hay out of the nearly half-million-dollar remodel, while simultaneously cutting 800 county jobs.
“It is offensive that County Supervisors are giving themselves raises while we go without, and beyond offensive that they are remodeling their lobby while they cut services for those hit hardest by the economic downturn,” Herman Martinez, a county eligibility worker and AFSCME Local 2076 president, says in a press statement. “The need for our services is greater than ever. The most vulnerable
residents are the last people the County should be targeting at a
moment like this. The County Supervisors continue to target some of the most cost-effective and critical programs we have.”
The Rally to Protect Social Services is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at OCEA Headquarters, 830 N. Ross St., Santa Ana.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
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