An amazing thing happened today. No, I mean REALLY amazing! The Miami Herald finally published something that didn’t make me grit my teeth, snarl and throw the paper to the ground in disgust. Today, however, was different. The Herald published a timely article on the problem with public pensions, entitled Municipal pensions a bonanza for employees, a burden for cities (http://www.miamiherald.com/
Of course, you just knew this blog was coming, didn’t you? This article just reiterated what many residents in North Miami Beach have been saying for years that our employees’ pension plans are going to break the city, and The Miami Herald just confirmed that they’ve been justified. I am not going to go into another spiel about what has become the topic of the day, but if you have not already read this article, I implore you to do so. Right away, if possible.
I would like to bring out a couple of salient points that the article makes and how it relates to the City of North Miami Beach. Right off the bat, the reporters launch into the story of a City of Miami Beach employee, Pamela Kindle, who made $60,000.00 a year answering 911 calls. The article states:
“Her $60,000-a-year job would provide a modest pension for retirement, but Kindle wanted more. So, she launched into a “marathon” of overtime, racking up an extra 50 hours of work a week during her final two years on the job. When she retired in 2002, Kindle did so with a $150,000 taxpayer-supported pension. Yearly increases have pumped up her pension to more than $182,000…By the time she reaches her mid-70s, the city’s pension fund will have paid her $4,074,000 in her golden years…While amassing her multimillion-dollar windfall, Kindle paid $119,823 into the pension fund during 25 years on the job.”
So, let’s see if I understand this. This employee worked for 25 years and earned approximately $60,000.00 a year, but she will retire with a pension of $182,000.00 a year. Come again? Even crazier is that she has contributed less than $200,000.00 to her pension, but will reap over four million dollars – nearly all of it from taxpayer money.
I dare anyone in the private sector who makes $60,000.00 a year to tell me that they can look forward to retiring that nicely.
The article then states, “The deals were agreed to by elected officials in negotiations with politically potent employee unions — especially police and fire unions, whose members face the biggest risks but enjoy higher pay and better benefits. During the real estate boom, there was plenty of money for pay raises and perks, even as employers in the private sector were ratcheting down health benefits and phasing out traditional pensions in favor of self-funded 401(k) plans.”
The article also goes on to explain that almost no one escapes the blame for the current situation, starting with Governor Jeb Bush who “signed a bill that made that money contingent on improving benefits for first-responders. The Republican governor had promised to back the bill after winning the endorsement of the Florida Police Benevolent Association and Florida Professional Firefighters Association. The law also stated that any increase in police officers’ and firefighters’ pension contributions must buy them greater benefits. Bush’s predecessor, Democrat Lawton Chiles, had vetoed a similar bill in 1998, citing the potential cost.” There, now you have another Bush to blame for something.
The Miami Herald rightly blames both the politicians and the unions for these lavish contracts, which were mostly entered into before and during the flush years of the real estate boom. Many of those politicians (although certainly not all of them) have since been voted out. The elected officials in those heady days were mostly career politicians who depended on union donations to get re-elected, so they basically gave away the farm. To use a tired expression, what they did was “kick the can down the road” and hope the economy would continue to enable them to fulfill the promises of these outrageous contracts. Boy, did they misfire!
This fiscal irresponsibility is the main reason we have four council members in North Miami Beach who initially ran for office to put a stop to the bleeding of our tax dollars. In 2009, when the real estate bubble had finally popped, Councilwoman Barbara Kramer and Councilwoman Beth Spiegel knew there was a problem with the city’s budget, among other things. Having NEVER run for office before, they decided to step up to the plate and do their civic duty. Of course, they still had to contend with a complete idiot for a mayor in Myron Rosner, and an even more incompetent city manager in Kelvin Baker, so not much in the way of reform was accomplished in their first two years in office. By their second year, however, it became increasingly clear that something was rotten in Denmark, which caused Councilwoman Kramer to refuse to vote for Baker’s budget for the 2010/2011 fiscal year.
We are all painfully aware of the fiscal mess that the newest members of the council, Mayor George Vallejo and Councilwoman Marlen Martel, have inherited. I must also mention that neither of them ever ran for office before, either. For the first time in probably decades, maybe even the history of North Miami Beach, we have four members of the council who are not beholden to any special interest group. Even though both Barbara Kramer and Beth Spiegel ran for the second time last May, neither accepted money from any special interest, nor did they raise inordinate amounts of money for their campaigns. Ms. Kramer raised less than $10,000.00, and Ms. Spiegel raised less than $14,000.00. First time candidate, Marlen Martell also raised under $10,000.00.
Compare that to career politician Myron Rosner’s raising of over ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS, more than twice what his opponent raised, and he lost anyway. His debt to special interest groups is astronomical! Yeah, that was money well spent, huh?
Career politicians Phyllis Smith and Frantz Pierre raised almost twenty thousand dollars each to keep their seats against their non-politician opponents, not to mention some dirty tricks played by at least one of them.
Councilman Philippe Derose, who has been a sitting council member the longest, made sure he didn’t have an opponent, via the court system, so he didn’t have to campaign or raise money. Mighty convenient, eh?
Now the job of fixing the budget mess, including the outrageous pension promises made by previous administrations, has been handed down to this city council, most of whom did not contribute to the financial disaster that we are facing. Four of them get it. I actually thought for a while that Phyllis got it, but it appears now she is pandering (and jump starting her 2015 campaign) by voting against the budget. I hope she reconsiders this stupid decision by Tuesday night when the second reading and final vote on the budget is scheduled.
Derose and Pierre will most likely vote no for the obvious reasons.
The responsible thing that this council can do is pass this balanced budget so that the State won’t come breathing down our necks. Then, they need to take the bull by the horns (the ones in Phyllis’ office will do nicely), and continue to pare down the expenses, stop the bleeding, and reform the unsustainable pension problem.
The UNION is going to fight the council tooth and nail to save their goodies. Led by UNION president Mike Pons, they will use every political talking point at their disposal to keep every last penny of taxpayer money from being wrested from their greedy little fists. It’s up to the people we elected to represent the best interest of the city to stand strong and not fall for the UNION’s tricks.
The Miami Herald ended its article with the following:
To observers like Bill Werther, a University of Miami business professor and labor mediator, it’s no surprise that most elected officials are reluctant to challenge the municipal unions.
“The people responsible for the fiscal discipline of the government budget are also the people who are relying on the political support of the people they’re providing these benefits to. So you have an inherent conflict of interest,” Werther said. “The problem is: Who’s representing the interest of the taxpayer?”
We already know that Mayor Vallejo, Councilwoman Kramer, Councilwoman Spiegel and Councilwoman Martell are representing the interest of the taxpayers. Let’s see if the other three will finally do the same.
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
wow 20k by Phyllis ? and 0 by my dad.. hey not too bad eh… though its a shame money can win you an election.. good ‘ol common sense is gone.
Bert did a pretty good article in the Herald today:
READER FED UP WITH UNION TACTICS
North Miami Beach is going through the very painful process of adjusting its budget to reality. Cities all around us have been doing it for years and still are faced with gut-wrenching decisions. We are two years behind the curve and have accumulated total liabilities exceeding $ 140 million, counting pensions and bonds.
We elected a council which promised to attack the problems. That unions would not be happy with the proposed cuts is understandable, but the vicious personal attacks by the police union are over the top. Over the last couple of months they have taken over the budget process, trying to bully council and manager to give them free rein and take money from other organizations to prop up their bloated, ineffective operation. Yes, they got away with it in the past, but we have hit the limit.
The mayor, manager and council have made time available to the union to make their case, to the extent that the mayor gave in to their request for a 20-minute presentation which no resident would ever get, and allowed them repeated time to talk, always exceeding the three minutes residents are held to. The thank you was a vicious, disrespectful attack by Officer Pons in front of TV cameras, accusing our mayor of trying to stifle his right to free speech. False!
Nasty, derogatory law enforcement website attacks against individual council members demonstrate the union’s true character.
These actions clearly show their attitude to our city; many are out-of-county mercenaries with little commitment to our city. On Aug. 23 threats were made as to the “service” they will deliver if they do not get their way. It is time we face reality. This department is beyond redemption and outsourcing a la Miami Lakes needs to be considered.
Bert Kehren, North Miami Beach
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/15/2409169/reader-biscayne-park-budget-questions.html#storylink=misearch#ixzz1YMagSzv9
Its mind boggling, but true. The police officers claim they pay 11.1% of their pensions and sound pretty annoyed they have to do so. We taxpayers in the private sector have to pay 100% of ours, and still pay for the officer’s 88.9% of his pensions.
Now they promise to go on a “Go Slow”. That means absolutely no reaction in many sections of the city. If the water department promised us dirty water and reduced pressure, we would fire them. If the sanitation department promised they would do garbage pick up at their on leisurely time, and not pick up all of our garbage, we would also fire them and outsource. The police promised us very little action they would be taking. Why do we have this $20 million department dictating to us, they will treat us like a step child and still have them working for us?
We do not need more than 100 officers for this city of ours either. We did just fine with less than 100 officers under Chief Loizzo and the crime rate was dropping like rotten mangoes off a tree.
Unfortunately in this trimming to live within our means, most of the lazy officers we will be keeping and letting go of some of the ones who really do the work. We need to put GPS tracers on the vehicles and monitor they actually work and not be hiding in the parks and donut shops outside the city.
Warmest,
Mubarak
Again Mr. Kazan, as I’ve said before your reverence for Linda L. is misguided and ill informed. You say that crime was falling under her leadership and I’ve told you before that is because she would send out “task forces” on overtime to combat whatever problem there was. This was her solution to every problem; throw overtime money at it. Do I need to explain again how overtime monies contribute to the pension problems?
The former Chief did not have the luxury of throwing money at problems; he came into the job as the economy was going south and LL fled north to retire- again I might add. Mr. Kazan you rail on about “double dipping” employees yet your idol (LL) was a double dipper; retired earning a nice pension and getting paid as Chief. I don’t see how you can support someone who epitomizes the problems with pensions we face today. But there you go; extolling the virtues of LL yet again. Maybe some day you will discover that LL was not all she was cracked up to be and because she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime to combat crime she is part of the problem with the pension to this day. Increasing salaries with overtime increases the pension someone receives. It’s a simple fact that you constantly overlook.
As far as a “Go Slow” (I’m not even sure where you get that phrase) but to base your opinion on the statements of 3 or 4 officers versus the other 100 is just childish. Just because those few make a statement doesn’t mean it reflects on the organization as a whole. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face; this typifies that saying.
See you Tuesday Mr. Kazan. Maybe this time you can actually speak unless of course the Mayor decides to go with the one minute rule again of which if Rosner had done that at a council meeting YOU would be leading the charge screaming for his resignation. But because the current Mayor did it- not a peep from you. In a way, it’s nice to see someone finally muzzle you from speaking your nonsense.
With the warmest regard sir.
“The police officers claim they pay 11.1% of their pensions and sound pretty annoyed they have to do so.”
-It’s not a claim jackass, it’s fact. Also we agreed to pay 11.1%, no one is annoyed with it but you.
“Now they promise to go on a “Go Slow”.”
-Who claimed this? I beleive one person maybe two made a comment about that on leo affairs which Steph brought to her blog. So one or two people is now “they”, but then again, I don’t expect anything different from you. Your a jackass who lives with his mommy and never has anything nice to say.
“That means absolutely no reaction in many sections of the city.”
-No, probably just your street.
“We do not need more than 100 officers for this city of ours either”
-I think Chief Gomer with 25 years of law enforcement can decide whats best for this city. It’s obvious you know nothing about this career except how to complain about it so leave it to the experts please.
“most of the lazy officers we will be keeping and letting go of some of the ones who really do the work.”
-So you assume laziness with the amount of years on the dept. Again, you obviousley know nothing about the police department and it’s officers. By your thinking you should leave your job too. Another jackass statement from the jackass himself.
“We need to put GPS tracers on the vehicles”
-I’d love to see the news headline for this statement of yours. “NMBPD lays off 17 officers to purchase cameras and GPS for all their vehicles”. Hello were in a budegt urgency jackass!!!
“and monitor they actually work and not be hiding in the parks and donut shops outside the city.”
-It’s kind of hard to hide in a donut shop or park. For one were in uniform so everyone knows were there. Our marked units kind of gives us away too, kind of hard to hide with a marked police car subliminaly shouting “the police are here”. I’m confused as to how you think we can hide. The only place that I can think of is maybe the police station. There you expect to see police cars and everyone looks the same.
Lazy officers? 99 percent of this PD is dedicated to serving and protecting the residents. We are all trying to stay positive through this mess. Negative comments against NMB officers are a slap in the face. How many times are you going to repeat the same thing? We get it! Put Gps, video, recorders in the cars. Maybe then you will realize what we do. Who hides in parks? Speaking of “rotten mangoes”, let’s use them to make mango-lime drinks. These negative comments only add to the problems. A lot of things will be changing soon, I hope one of the changes is peoples attitudes. Just remember, “The only difference between a bad day and a good day is your attitude”.
Chief Linda Loizzo by far the best police chief I have ever met. She did not create double dipping pension schemes. Blame those who created it. She also was looking for jobs elsewhere, genuinely. We were fortunate to have her as our police chief. Maybe she can make some more dough teaching some of those she left behind, how to serve and be respectful to their community,….something lacking today in society.
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