Legislators Talk Education, Employee Benefits

Members of Fountain Valley's legislative contingent were on hand Friday night at the Center at Founders Village, answering questions from constituents as part of the Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce's 30th annual legislative reception.

Republican State Assemblyman Allan Mansoor joined representatives for State Sen. Tom Harman and U.S. Rep Dana Rohrbacher, as well as county supervisor John Moorlach and Fountain Valley Mayor Steve Nagel.

After brief introductions from each member of the panel, the legislators fielded questions from four prominent businesses. The first came from Rainbow Disposal, which wanted to know what lawmakers planned to do about AB 222 and other regulatory bills affecting the state's businesses.

"We clearly need to reduce regulations," Mansoor said. "Regulations are stifling businesses in California. We need to do everything we can to make California business-friendly."

Next up was Hyundai of America's Zafar Brooks, who challenged the members of the panel to solve the state's educations problems, which include a high school dropout rate of higher than 50 percent in many of the state's largest cities.

"The real problem is that we have a public employee union system that has strangled education," Moorlach said. "It's more important to get wages than it is to get supplies into the classroom. We have to change the paradigm. It's time for another revolution to provide good education to our kids and our grandkids."

Bernard Stroppa, speaking of behalf of Rohrbacher, said that the congressman supported vouchers on the federal level and didn't rule out supporting the elimination of the Department of Education.

David Truong of Mimi's Jewelry addressed concerns about public safety in the face of tough economic times, and asked Nagel what measures the city was taking to maintain the quality of its first responders. Nagel responded that the city's employees had already agreed not to take pay raises, and that the city had implemented to two-tier retirement benefits system and frozen 22 jobs.

"We want to continue to provide the same level of service that we've become  accustomed to in Fountain Valley," Nagel said.

Members of the audience were also encouraged to submit questions to the panel, many which focused on benefits for public employees. Mansoor, a former deputy sherriff, said he would support the elimination of collective bargaining for all public employess, while Moorlach's stance was considerably more subtle.

"The private sector gets it," he said, referring to layoffs and pay cuts in the face of theeconomic downturn. "The public sector needs to catch up, or they're going to see layoffs. Something has to move."