Endorsements: Part 2

2 — YES

Currently, when an L.A. police officer or firefighter hits the 25-year mark at the department, his or her pension benefits max out — one reason why so many uniformed personnel leave the city’s employ at that juncture. Proposition 2 creates a new deferred pension arrangement that, at no extra cost to taxpayers, makes it possible for these pension funds to continue to accrue after the officers and firefighters hit the big two-five. This will enable the city to retain a greater number of its most experienced workers — who surely deserve more than silver nozzles or nightsticks for serving their city for a full quarter-century.

LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOND PROPOSITION

A — YES

Over the past several years, L.A.’s community college system has begun to come back. Course offerings have improved, enrollment is up and will continue to rise. The physical plant at L.A.’s nine community colleges, however, is decades-old and badly in need of repair. Proposition A is a $1.2 billion bond measure that would go to air conditioning and new wiring for classrooms, constructing new technology centers, and building libraries and labs. As with the LAUSD’s Proposition BB expenditures, an outside oversight committee will monitor the colleges’ expenditures to ensure they go only to the specified projects, and that the work comes in on time and at cost. L.A.’s community colleges are the pathway for many working-class students to CSU and UC campuses, or to jobs in skilled trades. With Prop. A, those colleges will better serve the 110,000 students who go there now, and the thousands more who will follow.