Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Fabian Nunez Joins the Board of Zenith

Okay, for those of you who are not from California, you have missed Fabian Nunez. This guy was the Speaker of the Assembly. Speaker of the Assembly means he was like Speaker of the House in Congress. He was "termed out" of office due to term limits. Thank goodness.

He took a job this week on the board of Zenith Insurance. Zenith is a major player in workers comp insurance. Oh, and it turns out that Nunez was instrumental in passing one of the worst workers comp reform bills in the country. He gutted the system. Many attorneys refuse to take cases. Injured workers cannot get coverage. Rates are still increasing. The only winners: the insurance companies.

Okay, so passing a bad bill is not the end of the world. It happens. Even the best politicians do it. But, then he takes this job. And, he has two amazing claims: first, he says that he did not know the position was paid. Sure, and I didn't know the sky was blue. Either he is dumber than I thought or he is a really bad liar. Either way, this is ridiculous. Second, he says that this had nothing to do with his work on the workers comp bill. Really? Insurance companies are just running around offering board positions to people WITH NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT INSURANCE? WRONG! They give jobs to people who have helped them. That is how the system works.

I am tired of politicians who think the public is dumb. Nunez should have admitted he was taking the job, getting paid, and it was because of his work screwing injured workers. It is that simple. Message to Fabian Nunez: stop treating us like we are morons if you hope to get elected again! Stop thinking you are smarter than everyone else - you aren't!

1 comment:

Fitzesq said...

Just a blatant, pathetic, transparent liar.

Imagine not knowing whether or not your first new part-time "job" after leaving office pays actual big-time money?

"Company filings say that directors are paid $90,000 per year, with an additional $40,000 paid for every committee on which they serve. Núñez said he did not know if his post was paid.

"You have to ask Zenith," he said. Zenith did not return calls for comment.

But, Núñez added, "If board members get compensated, then I would be compensated, as well."

I can just see Faabian now: "Gee, shucks, gosh! You mean I'll actually earn MONEY doing this? Why didn't you tell me that BEFORE I accepted? I might not have accepted the post if I had only known I would be so richly compensated!"