Creative Commons/James Durkee

A group of city-employee unions filed suit in Superior Court yesterday to keep Proposition B, Public Defender Jeff Adachi's pension and benefits measure, off the November ballot.

Proposition B would require current city employees to contribute more toward their pension and benefit costs. Adachi says that the measure will save the city $170 million annually, and that it is necessary to stave off these costs claiming a painfully large share of the city's budget.

The unions have been arguing that Prop. B places too heavy a burden on the personal finances of city employees. In their new lawsuit, the unions charge that Prop. B was improperly and deceptively drafted and ask that a judge order city Director of Elections John Arntz to keep Prop. B off the November ballot.

The suit also names Adachi and Craig Weber, an accountant who served for two years on a city civil grand jury investigating the pension-fund issue. In the final weeks of the grand jury term, which ended June 30, Weber served as treasurer of Adachi's ballot-initiative effort. In response to previous complaints by the unions over his dual role, Weber has said that he did nothing wrong, and that he had asked the city attorney's office and the presiding Superior Court judge for permission before joining Adachi's effort. 

Darcy Brown, the media-relations representative for Prop. B, disputed the union's claims. "Every step to get this measure on the ballot in November was followed and sanctified by The City Attorney, the Department of Elections and the over 77,000 people of San Francisco who signed the petition," Brown said. "Measure B is about pension reform and enabling the city to develop an independent funding stream so that we are not reliant upon one-time, quick fixes in order to fill escalating budget deficits, preserve vital city services and protect jobs."

The battle over Prop. B grows more vitriolic each week. The union press release announcing the suit this morning was entitled, "COURT ASKED TO REVIEW ADACHI’S DECEPTIVE EFFORTS TO MISLEAD VOTERS COURT FILING DOCUMENTS SHOW THAT ADACHI DEPLOYED A CLOAK OF DECEPTION TO CONCEAL, WITHHOLD AND MISREPRESENT CRITICAL INFORMATION FROM VOTERS IN ORDER TO MISLEAD THEM INTO SUPPORTING HIS ANTI-HEALTH CARE BALLOT MEASURES."

So far, the unions have called for a criminal and civil investigation into Weber's role, accused Adachi of tax evasion, and pilloried individuals who contributed funds to get the ballot initiative rolling in the spring. The measure's biggest financial backer, Sequoia Capital's Michael Moritz, has been vilified by the unions repeatedly as a "billionaire" and a "speculator." Tonight, service-employee union members are being asked to demonstrate at Moritz's Pacific Heights home, where the union says he is holding a fundraiser for Prop. B. 

The invitation to the demonstration reads: 

Mike Moritz, a billionaire speculator and the financier of the Adachi Charter Amendment designed to make health care unaffordable for City workers, is having a party for his rich friends at his mansion in the toney Pacific Heights neighborhood to raise money for the campaign.

Come and tell them it is not OK to take health care away from our families. Bring your kids