Looks like we may have corrected our technical snafu for now. Just in in case you missed Burrell Ellis trying to answer "The Tough Question", here it is for your entertainment.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
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24 comments:
Mr Ellis and the members of the BOC,
Your guys have completely missed the point on the pay issue among DKPD Officers....it has nothing to do with having to work holidays....hell most officers have no problem working holidays. The issue is working for less money. A furlough day actually leaves less officers working on a particular day...meaning less coverage for the citizens of Dekalb County. You politicians are so out of tune with what is going on and the environment that you have created among the officers in this county. The problem with moral is every bit you fault...
If you want to take the holidays from us then do just that..take the holiday...don't cut our pay and still require us to work....just cut the holiday out. Why does it have to be a cut in pay or a furlough day....just take away the holidays...period....if you're scheduled to work that day then work at your normal rate of pay....if it's your normal off day then it's your off day....but if you decide to take the day off because it's a holiday then you take it knowing that you are taking the day without pay....don't try to force this crap onto us....let us do our jobs the way we do it best ...by serving the citizens of Dekalb. Don't try and short change the citizens and screw the officers that the citizens depend on when they need to call 911....I know that this word is not politically correct for a politician but find it in your hearts to do what is MORALLY right....do right by the police officers of DEKALB COUNTY POLICE...
enough said!!
For those of you with Attention Deficit Disorder - here is the short version of below - join the FOP and get involved/active.
For the rest of you, please take a few minutes to consider this.
Here is (part of) the problem. The police and fire department are lumped in with all the other county employees. This is why when they have to make a decision to give PD/FD raises, they have to consider the entire county otherwise it wouldn’t be “fair”. This is not the same in a lot of major counties/cities across the nation. The PD/FD are separate because we have unique jobs that require us to be treated differently. They have separate pensions, separate pay scales and receive raises outside of everyone else because the job and its stressors are uniquely different than say, the librarian or the office clerk (or media relations chick). As a matter of fact, I am sure that the PD/FD are the only two departments who have to fill out paperwork telling the county how they would like to be buried in the event they are killed in the line of duty – and they want to treat us as the same. I would bet the CEO’s secretary or the Media Relations puppet doesn’t fill out these forms.
Officers, we need to organize. Getting together and bickering about our situation on a blog is good and has some impact. It also provides for good daily humor to see the BOC/CEO mumble and stumble over their moronic decisions and then point their fingers at each other.
Get an application and join the FOP. Pres. Wiggs is doing a fine job and sticks his neck out so you and I can sit here in anonymity and complain about what the FOP is not doing. Last time I checked, he is an officer with responsibilities like us all.
The FOP is a MEMBER run organization – hence, the membership is responsible for what is going on, not just the President of the organization. Go to the meetings – www.dekalbfop.org - and show your support and get involved.
Joining the FOP alone is not going to solve any problems. We must collectively get together – organize – and show the clown brigade in Decatur that we must be heard and treated differently than the rest of the county employees. Not that we are a better class of people, but that our job has greater inherent danger and different requirements than all the rest. It is a hard pill for the politicians to swallow, giving an entire bloated government of 7000+ people like DeKalb, a 1% pay raise. If we were separate, a 1% pay raise (or more) to the 1000 or so PD is a much lower financial hit and a lot easier to justify.
Think about it and get involved. Trust me, there is nothing that can happen to us if we organize.
Atlanta should have taught us all we needed to know about furloughs. Remember the police shortages that were going on and how upper brass inadvertently admitted several beats were unmanned at times. Everybody from the private to the public sector is feeling the pinch of doing more with less. DKPD like any other PD has no problem with making due, hell they already do. Look at those cruisers. When making budget priorities, the county must cut unnecessary spending. So if that means a few people are going to lose personal assistants, some are going to have less spending money and heaven forbid many will have to use their own personal cars to commute to work, then so be it.
Now that DKPD is confirming what we already knew about tickets being about revenue and not about safety, lets see how the county scrambles to plug holes in its budget since their playmoney is not coming in. The county is going to try to play hardball and bring in the Georgia State Patrol. I'm willing to bet on that. But with the contractual obligation to patrol highways in Atlanta's city limits and the drug watch in Douglas-Carroll counties, the state may be reluctant to send more troopers to metro Atlanta.
Put my check to FOP in the mail today. Dropped out two years ago...sent them the $85 for reinstatement.
Legal defense fund on the next pay check.
If Ellis and the commissioners have the ability to manipulate their budgets so they can give raises to their employees, they should be able to take that same skill set and do it for PD.
No holiday pay and no raises = no long copy citations!
To those constantly pushing the FOP on here I think organization is obviously a good thing. However, the ticket slowdown was initiated by myself and other officers, not the FOP that is only NOW jumping on the bandwagon when some success is visible. Lead or get out of the way.
They do miss the point. Instead of cutting out the holiday pay, do an across the board 7% from the yearly salary so I don't get screwed in certain months. Also, my office is understaffed and I'm covering the workload. Does this mean I get a 34% raise??? Wake up Ellis, we all are sucking up the mess yall created and your staff can also.
To the poster that says he started the ticket slow down and the FOP has just jumped on the band wagon. YOU SIR ARE A DUMB ASS. The FOP has been working behind the scene from day one. Jeff Wiggs has been trying to get the BOC in negotiation, for sometime now as has our Chief. So you just keep writing the warnings and leave the peace talks up to the ones who know what they are doing ok pal, a certain amount of diplomacy is need with a big stick.
Yeah diplomacy has worked so well here in Dekalb. Grow a pair and stop fooling yourself and others living in a fairy tale. "Behind the scenes" is exactly what we don't need now. The time for talk is over and has been for some time. The only thing left is for the BOC to correct these issues or continue to get zero $ from PD.
I joined the FOP two weeks ago. It is the weapon that will win this war.
I am actually very pleased with this answer and the answers the commissioners gave for justifying the raises they handed out. They all said that they made cuts and moved money around so they could give their people raises. Great!! That's exactly what we're asking you to do for us! You've demonstrated that it can be done! If you can do it for your people, you can do it for us!
Reduce the budget in the CEO office.
That's why he gave raises.
Reduce the budget in the Public Safety Dept.
That's why we did not get a raise.
Ellis reduced the budget in the CEO's office by paying some of his people out of different cost centers. This takes the money from other departments and pays his people. The Public Safety Director's pay for instance comes from the police budget even though he is over police, fire, recorder's court, ME's office, etc. and he is on the CEO's Executive Staff.
Why are you stuttering when answering Tony's question, Ellis? It's because you are WRONG and got caught with your hand in the cookie jar!!! Corruption HAS no good answer you jerk!
I noticed that he was "cornered" at the community meeting.....So how did the "community meetings" go?
I have kids to take care of and can't get away, so I can't attend.
Keep up the warnings!....
So long as they aren't talking their way into a long copy, remember.....times are tough, everyone deserves a break.
wish you all would have listened to those of us who saw through Ellis before the election. As a commissioner, he had an opportunity to support a tax increase to insure merit raises for PD and voted against it, I mean, abstained bc he was in the running for CEO. And don't forget he created the PSD position at $250k that comes from PD. I hate to say I told you so.
Thank you to all of those who protect and serve. PLease be mindful when you cast your votes.
I haven't heard of anyone losing jobs over at the CEO's office, except Sheila and she resigned. I believe the five employee's that Mr. Ellis is referring to were in fact never employed by the county. Mr. Ellis states “We’ve eliminated five positions within the CEO's office and then we made some salary adjustments." Mr Ellis wanted a budget increase of one percent and more employees for the CEO office. I think that is the cuts he is referring to. No real cuts in staff, just pay raises hidden under "adjustments".
I see the BOC is keeping their mouth shut on this issue also.
Accountability: The CEO has it in his mission statement on the CEO's homepage but those are just words. Accountability is just for the guys in the trenches. We get canned or suspended when we frack up, and DeKalb citizens keep on letting these losers get away with it. True leaders are accountable for their actions. DeKalb CEO and BOC ignore the issues and attack the reporters. Is this what goes for leadership in DeKalb government? Dumb question, I know....
I don't care who is running and who is elected they are all the same. Until we get protection and some muscle from Collective Bargaining powers we won't be recognize, respected or dealt with fairly.....PERIOD...Why do you think they keep that power out of our reach...Wise up boys and girls...Hit them in the purse strings..That's all they know MONEY.
Warnings or Warrants but continue to do the great job you do. then they can't break it up
Publish this comment.
@anon 7:41
Thank you so much for initiating the ticket furlough. You are commended for your efforts to make things better. Is that all you got? This a part of the overall problem. From my experience this is what will happen with this department. We will get some crumbs from the CEO's plate and they will steal it from us another way - (higher contributions to pension and insurance) and the officers will go away happy and then disassemble. When that happens other important issues to us will go unheard of except for the grumbling in roll call or to each other on the side of the road. That is where we, as a collective group, through our representation -FOP- will continue hammering the commission/police chief for the things we need to do our job effectively and safely.
Now, if you don't think the FOP is currently doing enough. Join and get your fellow officers to join. Go to the meetings and get yourself on the ballot and voted in as President, etc. It's a really easy process and you don't have to worry about campaign contributions. Then you can steer the FOP in the direction you think it should go. Put up or shut up! Im betting you will shut up.
Dear DeKalb Citizens,
How important is your public safety to you? Is it worth a small $20.00 annual investment? Is that a sacrifice you are willing to make? Or is it a sacrifice you expect of your public safety personnel to make on top of their willingness to sacrifice the risk of their lives doing what they love to do to serve and protect you?
Please feel free to comment but better yet, voice you comments to the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners and CEO.
I certainly agree with you that historically this has been what happens at DKPD. I applaud your initiative as well and from your writing can tell you are probably not anonymous at all and are involved hands on via FOP or one form or another. However, I as a supervisor am not afforded that luxury but do what I can. The next wave via state charged warrants only excluding county ordinances will require all supervisors assistance in that they must allow officers time to obtain such. This is the battle that could win the war. As you say, "put up or shut up." The obvious problem is that now we will be requiring the assistance of "company men" if you will. Though I would not have made the choice of depending on appointed pay increases, a lot have made poor personal financial choices and their true moral character is about to be exposed. There WILL be some casualties in this war but from where I'm sitting, you are either for the right thing or you simply aren't. I pray EVERYONE will make the RIGHT choice.
anon 1.. there is no FURLOUGH day.. we all still have to clock in and out for 80 hours!
Citizens of Dekalb....
Just for the Record, here's how all this works.
There are no furloughs (a day spent at home without pay or working a second job to make up the difference....) and
There are no holiday's spent at home without pay.
When we have a furlough - we work the full 80 hour week, but see a 10% reduction in our paychecks for the two week time period - when a regular county employee is furloughed, the department closes for the day, they don't come to work and they don't get paid.
When there is a holiday - we work holiday. In the past, they gave us a "banked holiday" that could be used like an additional vacation day.
NOW... we work the holiday, get the "banked holiday" and see a 10% reduction in our pay checks. WHETHER YOU WANT TO BUY IT OR NOT, THE COUNTY IS SELLING YOU A VACATION DAY.
Regular employee...their department is closed for the holiday and they no longer get paid for that day.
The county's policy for NO PAID HOLIDAYS as is applies to us.... Public Safety will work and be forced to BUY a vacation day.
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