Impasse: Newport-Mesa Unified’s offer of a 2% raise is not enough, the teachers say
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Good morning! It is Wednesday, Nov. 12. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you this weekly roundup of Orange County news and events.
Clad in blue and carrying protest signs, members of the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers, Local-1794 used their lunch hour on a training day last week — when no kids were in school — to rally for at least a sliver more of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s budget pie than has been offered to them in contract negotiations this year.
Over the course of the bargaining that got underway in June, union representatives saw the salary raise proposal from the district inch up to 2% from an initial offer of .97%, according to this Daily Pilot story by Sara Cardine, But teachers maintain that simply is not enough when the California cost of living adjustment is 2.3%.
After 13 sessions without a meeting of the minds, the NMUSD called an impasse late last month.
“We just felt that was not something we could agree to,” NMFT President Rhonda Reid said of the 2.% raise offer for the teachers, which number more than 1,060. “We have some of the best educators in the county. They love their schools and their community and they’re proud of their district. They just want to have salaries where they can afford where they live and keep up with the cost of living and know their value.”
From the NMUSD’s point of view, the teachers are well compensated. District spokeswoman Annette Franco told The Pilot that, over the last four years, they have secured a collective 20.6% raise, making them the second highest paid teachers in O.C.
Under a section called “Setting the Record Straight” on its website, the NMFT’s response to that is: “True, but misleading. The state funded [cost-of-living adjustment] was 20.92% during that time period. Other districts gave the full COLA salary increases and have similar health benefits. NMUSD’s 2% salary increase offer this year is barely above inflation over 5 years!”
The district’s spokeswoman noted to the reporter that the NMUSD has substantially increased its contributions to help offset the cost of health insurance for the teachers and their families. She further said the district covers an average of 94% of employees’ health insurance premiums.
“During negotiations, the district offered an additional 1.65% to cover the cost of health insurance increases, sparing teachers from seeing $213 monthly subtractions from their paychecks beginning this month,” Cardine reports.
But Reid told her that offer was taken off the table when the union refused the proposed salary increase.
What could break the impasse? According to its website the union will support an agreement “only if” it includes the collective bargaining enhancements that had been previously settled, a retroactive employer healthcare contribution and, yes, a salary increase of more than 2%.
MORE NEWS
• Representatives of Archer Aviation visited Huntington Beach last week for a study session before the City Council on the possibility of bringing an all-electric air taxi service to Surf City. According to the Daily Pilot report, an Archer air taxi seats four passengers and a pilot, goes up to 150 miles per hour, has a range of up to 100 miles and could be used for short hops between cities. Archer recently purchased a 60,000-square-foot research and development facility in Huntington Beach.
• In other Huntington Beach news, its former city attorney, Michael Gates, has thrown in the towel on his 10-month stint with the U.S. Department of Justice, a job for which he left City Hall shortly after Trump administration 2.0 got underway. After he notified Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi of his resignation on Saturday, the news that Gates is returning to H.B. City Hall to take an assistant city attorney role began making the rounds. Such a move tees up a candidacy in the next election that could return him to the top job in the city attorney’s office.
• Newport Beach officials heralded last week the imminent start of a $22-million project to dredge the harbor to bring it back to its previous depths. The city has committed $10 million toward the work that’s being done in partnership with the the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; the federal government will pick up the rest of the tab. “This is going to be the last comprehensive dredge of our harbor, possibly forever,” Mayor Joe Stapleton said.
• Santa Ana, Anaheim and Costa Mesa have recently set up immigrant relief funds in response to federal deportation raids. Last week, the Fullerton City Council mulled a proposal to put $100,00 into a legal defense fund against deportation and to allot the same amount to nonprofits that offer economic relief to families affected by the deportations. Ultimately, it was decided on a split vote that Fullerton would not be establishing such funds due to budgetary concerns.
• The city of Costa Mesa might regulate self check-out lanes in grocery stores and drugstores, the Daily Pilot reported, after hearing testimony from store employees and community members about under-staffing in businesses that have them. There is a local precedence for such an ordinance, as the city of Long Beach in September passed the first of its kind in the nation.
• As of Tuesday evening, news that an atmospheric river storm would be bringing a four days of wet weather to California did not seem to carry much information about how O.C. will be affected, but according to this National Weather Service website page there is a slight chance of showers Thursday afternoon that would grow by the evening, with locally heavy rain a possibility. Showers are likely Friday, according to the NWS, and some rain might linger over the weekend.
COURTS
• Here’s an update on a recent item in this newsletter about the pitfalls of relying on artificial intelligence. In it, I linked to a City News Service story that mentioned defense lawyer William J. Becker Jr. had been called out by a judge for filing court documents that cited as precedent some nonexistent, AI-generated legal cases in a defamation lawsuit brought against his client by former NFL punter and Edison High School coach Chris Kluwe. Last week, the judge fined Becker $2,000 for the AI gaffe, CNS reported. Further, Becker “must include a certification that his legal citations have been checked and are accurate and the judge directed the court clerk to alert the state bar to consider any appropriate action,” according to the reporting.
• After having pleaded guilty to four felonies, including wire fraud related to a retail cannabis scheme, former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce chief executive Todd Ament is expected to be sentenced Friday. According to this TimesOC report, federal prosecutors have asked a judge to sentence Ament to a single day in jail, or time served, because he cooperated with the FBI in its major political corruption probe in Anaheim.
• Mark Phillip Oster, a former AYSO soccer coach from Huntington Beach, was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for having hidden a camera in a place he knew an underage girl in his care would disrobe, and persuading a second child to send him nude photos of herself. In his plea agreement, Oster admitted posting images of child pornography to a website on the dark web.
PUBLIC SAFETY & CRIME
• A bus carrying dozens of adults and teenagers back to a church in Santa Ana from a three-day retreat in the San Bernardino Mountains rolled over and crashed on State Highway 330 just before 9 p.m. Sunday. At least 20 passengers were hospitalized with injuries, according to The Times.
• About six weeks after she and a teammate on the Cal State Fullerton women’s soccer team were hit by a truck while riding electric scooters in Fullerton, sophomore Lauren Turner succumbed to her injuries Friday, CNS reported. The Titans athletics department is expected to host a candlelight vigil in her memory at 5:30 p.m. today at Titan Stadium.
• A Fullerton police officer passing by as he returned from dropping off an inmate at the O.C. Jail intervened Sunday when he saw a man in plain clothes pointing gun at female driver in Santa Ana — only to find out the armed man was an ICE agent. The incident, The Times reported, “raises concerns as it joins a growing list of cases of masked and plainclothes agents being mistaken for criminals and vice versa.”
• Huntington Beach police reported that a man was arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting another man Sunday afternoon in a residential area southwest of Beach Boulevard and Warner Avenue. The victim was identified as Ryan Daniel Ennis, 42, of Anaheim and the man who was arrested is Luis Angel Mireles, 28, of Santa Ana.
• Whiting Ranch Park Wilderness Park remained closed as of Tuesday while park and wildlife experts investigate mountain lion sightings that were reported by visitors on Nov. 4. In one of the incidents, a pair of cyclists filmed one following them along a trail. “This is super out-of-the-ordinary behavior,” Cort Klopping, a Fish and Wildlife spokesperson, told The Times.
LIFE & LEISURE
• My colleague Sarah Mosqueda scoped out the Thanksgiving pie offerings at various Orange County locations — including some whipped up in a home kitchen by a “cottage” business — and provides all the sweet details in this feature article.
• Mosqueda also interviewed chef and restaurateur Viet Nguyen, who has just opened QUA Contemporary Chinese Cuisine in Fountain Valley. Nguyen is founder and chief executive of Kei Concepts, which has other O.C. restaurants in its portfolio, including Súp Noodle Bar, Nep Cafe, Kei Coffee House, ROL Hand Roll Bar and the recently opened Vox Kitchen at South Coast Plaza. He says QUA is his most personal project to date.
CALENDAR
• “Yo Gabba Gabba: The Super Art Friends Show” is on view now through Dec. 12 at the Brea Gallery, located at Brea Civic & Cultural Center, 1 Civic Center Circle, Brea. Gallery hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. General admission is $3; Brea residents and children under 12 are admitted free.
• The classic drama “Inherit the Wind” is on stage through Sunday, Nov. 16 at the Drama Lab Theatre on the Orange Coast College campus, as part of a special social justice series of plays. Tickets are available online only at occtickets.universitytickets.com. General admission is $15, while tickets for students and seniors are available for $10.
Until next Wednesday,
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
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