It's finally official. The county is facing a 55 million dollar deficit for the year 2011. And now Jeff Rader is making threats, insisting we carry more of the burden and produce more traffic citations, and then just maybe we'll see about a pay raise.
Mr. Rader seems to think we are nothing more than tax collectors with guns on our hips. He is holding over our head a pay raise with conditions. Those conditions are writing more traffic citations, thus taxing the common working man even more.
And exactly what does he mean by "we have to carry more of the burden"? Were we not furloughed 10 days in 2010? Did we not lose paid holidays? Were we not forced to work holidays for no pay? Is our pension contributions not increasing 100%? Isn't our health insurance cost increasing as much as $100.00 per month?
Tell us Mr. Rader, what burden are you and the rest of the commissioner carrying? Tell us Mr. Rader, how many furlough days did you get in 2010? How many holidays did you work for no pay? How many paid holidays did you get in 2010 Mr. Rader? How many bullets were fired at you? How many thugs were you forced to shoot to save your own life and the life of others?
And you Mr. CEO Burrell Ellis, what is your burden? Are you burdened with deciding who among your staff should get a 34% pay raise? Are you burdened with who should get a $500. per month car allowance? What about the $40,000.00 pay severance for Shelia Edwards? What about the 100 thousand dollar severance pay Keith Barker received when he was fired?
And for the rest of you commissioners. How many millions of dollars have you spent on libraries, sidewalks, parks and art centers in 2010? How many furlough days did each of you take? How many holidays did you get? Bueller? Anyone?
What about the GSU study that suggested the county government be downsized, yet the commissioners ignore it and let over 800 people take an early retirement, then turned around and hired 600 more people? What about the take home cars Mr. Ellis? You continue to cost the taxpayers over $700,000.00 per year in take home car cost. County employee cellphones costing the taxpayers 1.2 million dollars a year.
Mr. Rader, you and the other members of the commission have cut the budget on the backs of your police officers. The same officers that keep you and the citizens safe at night. You want to draw a line in the sand and say we have to produce more while carrying more of the burden? Then you go ahead and draw that line. Because we will cross that line. We will raise up against you.
If you stand over us from your elitist platform and demand more production before you consider more pay for us, if you take one more thing away from us, then we promise you one thing: The lack of production will be the least of yours and the commissioners concerns.
Click here for AJC Article
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34 comments:
Dekalb is facing a 55 million dollars short fall next year. This Radar jerk said in the AJC that he will not visit raises for county employees unitil he sees an increase in productivity. He also said we have to carry more of the county burden. Buddy I don't live in Dekalb how about the citizens of Dekalb carry their on burden. When the call 911 for something as simple as a loud music call when the only thing they have to is go to their neighbors and tell them themselves. That will save us for important calls. What are you doing at 4am Radar. Probably sleep! Im protecting buddy!
In today's AJC....Rader said he will not look at raises until he sees an increase in productivity.
“If they want to get paid more, they have to carry more of the burden,” he said. “There is no way around it.”
Maybe they could start the cuts in the CEO's office and the BOC this time...ya know...like lead from the front for once.
DeKalb County is going to hell in a hand basket all the way around. Schools, Public Safety, and a whole lot more. Time for these idiots to wake up, smell the coffee and start doing right by our police, firemen, schools, etc. People are getting fed up.
Radar was not addressing the Police. Hew was talking about ALL county employees.
And with a County short on money, a ticket slow down is a brilliant strategy. Write less tickets, County brings in less money. That solves the problem
Look at things beyond the Police. How about a Million / year supporting a County Golf course. How about privatizing the Lou Walker Center.
How about eliminating the Burrell Ellis re-election Committee running as One Dekalb.
How about eliminating some of the Cabinet Positions. It is a County Government not the white house.
Get rid of some of those and you free up money to pay more.
I said that I would never write on here ever again but its so hard not to. M outta here in 76 days....Rader kiss the dairy air I show when I drop my pants. Haaa carry the burden....No you stay and carry the burden.....What that I see on the other side????,,, o yeah its the greener grass.
And that concludes Rader's career... Will these people EVER learn?
Profiles in stupidity; Over the past two years, DeKalb government CEO and BOC has either buried their heads in the sand or alternately been doing really stupid stuff. Ignoring the GSU study. The colossal mistake of the retirement incentive. The “unpaid holidays” AKA pay-cuts for the county employees. Expanding the CEO’s staff. Giving the CEO and BOC staff raises and transportation allowances. Ignoring the good advice of the citizens and employees and generally acting like stuck-up, elitist royal jack-asses.
From the AJC article the new 55 million dollar deficit was the “clue bat” the commissioners needed to understand that a reorganization is needed immediately, that the GSU study was 90 percent valid and the county must shed extraneous and less used county facilities and functions.
I suggest some county facilities or venues could be sold or leased to private business or civic organizations to raise revenue for the county. The Aqua-park at Browns Mill, the horse-farm at Orion Drive, the performing arts center on Rainbow Drive and the Callenwolde arts center come to mind as examples.
Where the county could probably save the most money for the least pain to the citizens and tax payer is abolish the redundant CEO’s office and go to the County manager/Commissioner form of government. (What is Mr. Ellis doing in DC anyway?) The other is reduce redundant county management and directors back to the pre-Vernon employment levels of 1999 as suggested in the GSU study.
It is time for the commissioners and the DeKalb employees to constructively engage in discussion and examination of DeKalb government. The commissioners should tour county facilities and engage their employees in constructive discussion.
D.A. James could be a great help in the process by seating several grand juries to examine DeKalb government operations and offer recommendations. I have sent Mr. James an email requesting four grand juries be seated for the purpose.
A lot of good people are going to lose jobs in DeKalb government over the next years. My goal is to make sure that it is the most extraneous and least important employees that lose their jobs. This isn’t personal. It’s business.
Best of luck, guys,
I almost fell out of my chair reading that AJC article
Are these people serious??....
“Our employees have not had a raise in three years. We’ve increased pension and health insurance. At some point in time, that creates a morale problem" -Richard Stogner DeKalb County CFO
-Hey Dick....got news for ya...that point in time for that morale problem you are cleverly predicting has been here for quite some time
“If they want to get paid more, they have to carry more of the burden,” “There is no way around it.” -Jeff Rader-DeKalb BOC-District 2
Hey Jeffrey....You smokin crack with some of the folks on Glenwood Road??
- No pay raises in 3 years
- No more checks for unused sick time
- Lost 7 paid holidays in 2010, 10% reduction in pay on holidays (aka working for free)... Then BOC changed method of payroll reduction to 32 hours of furlough time for the last remaining 4 holidays of the year
Coming in 2011
- Reduction in insurance options and increased premiums (premiums are quite high considering the amount of employees DeKalb has....Hmm...smell something hummy there")
-Monthly employee pension contributions to double
-Oh yeah...the miles on our high mileage police cars will keep on tickin
What other burdens should we carry there Jeffrey?? Do tell....Ever hear of the saying "The straw that broke the camel's back" ??
Now writing fewer tickets does effect the county's revenue stream negatively....but should someone we write a stop sign ticket to have to pay $500 for that violation?
Economic times are tough, but it all comes down to management....or lack thereof from those in charge
Expanding and building parks and sidewalks at a time like this??.....
"Come move to DeKalb County..Come open a business here...True...we have a lot of perps and crime here...we don't have enough police officers...and the ones we do have, we treat like crap.....But we do have new sidewalks, some new parks, and we've expanded existing ones"
Citizens who need our protection cant get it by calling a park or a sidewalk...They get protection from the Police and Fire Dept.
Think about it leaderless leaders
Lets get it together and attend the BOC meeting that's just before Dec 15th when the county budget for 2011 has to be submitted
-Anon 1118
I tell ya what is funny last week a memo came out that
'Each day for 2 hours a day, each watch will conduct a safety check"
Now you call it what you want but it's a road block to generate citations.
No one said they had to be long copies!!! After all its a safety check right, keep on digging your holes.
Yes I know that less money into the pot means less money coming out of the pot.
DUMBASSE'S
For me this goes back to 1992 when the County had an $18 million deficit and Lianne Levetan said, "We need to tighten our belts." One of the answers then was to stop/ slow down the hiring of officers. We never caught up from that. We now have about 1000 officers (and that number is shrinking almost daily) policing 700,000-750,000 people. "They have to carry more of the burden."???? Compared to most other agencies, we have been doing that for nearly 20 years. The average officer in Dekalb works at least twice as hard as what studies have shown he/she should be working. At one time the policing model suggested by the FBI stated that an officer should answer 4.5 calls per shift so that there was enough time for him to patrol his territory to PREVENT crime. Preventing crime is not just, or even neccesarily, writing tickets.
Then there are many situations in which we have degraded and, sometimes, dangerous equipment, ie: A CAD system that was designed and bought locally that was not intended to be used in a department this size or that handles the volume of calls we handle,cars with over 150,000 miles on them. Some of those cars will be approaching 200,000 miles shortly. There are many other equipment issues but those are not so much dangerous as lacking in efficiency such as the computers for the officers. I keep being told to check my email but I have no access to my email because the computers won't open it any quicker than 2-3 hours. haha
Then there was the debacle of the pay raises about 10 years ago. We had to fight like hell to get a raise that the BOC's own study showed we were due. And the way the raise was implimented still has the pay structure screwed up. Because of this pay raise the smart ones did not get promoted so they could make much, much more money.
I am so furious and fed up with the County (the CEOs and BOCs)pushing their lack of management and operating skills onto the employees that I can't even think of the other issues and situations that have brought us to this point. The point I am wanting to make is that this department has been being dragged down for many years and I, for one, am tired of being told to give more of an effort for less equipment, pay, benifits, etc. when all we keep getting in return are worse working conditions and more threats. Now they are threatening lay-offs. ("We need to reorganize. We need to talk lay-offs. Everything has to be on the table this year,” Commissioner Elaine Boyer) With the exception of our last pay raise, verytime we have been in this position before we have given in to the County. We need to be resolute in demanding to be treated fairly. I am not a lover of a Union but this maybe an answer to our situation that needs to be revisited but whether we have a union or just resolve ourselves to an action, we need to hold firm and be of one mind.
Are you seriously complaining about libraries? I usually find your rants interesting, but that seems a bit low, and, to say the least, ill informed. Library funding has been cut to a fraction (literally) of what it was just a year ago. Library employees are experiencing the same furloughs, unpaid holidays, and increases in insurance, etc. that everyone else is. If you are referring to the money being spent on bond projects (buildings), then you should complain to the citizens who voted on the bond that funds those projects, which happened, what, five years ago?
What ELSE could they take from us? It's as though we all have parttime jobs working there as it is.
Take time to get all the facts,
Commissioner Boyer has been asking for and pushing for cahnging the form of Gvernemtn for several years.
That is what she meant by reorganize and everything is on the table.
Sometimes illogical and uniformed rants feel good but do little to influence anybody.
Instead of coming to the BOC meeting when the Budget is presented,(thought that is agood isea too) stage a demonstration or a series of demonstrations over at the 330 Building. That is where the budget is created.
This is where the decisions are made of who to fund and who to cut.
What departments are suffering and which departments are a things we cannot afford to to anymore.
Talk about the IT department, talk about the tax assesor's office who has software that is not compatable with other systems in the county.
This is more than job cuts, it is about restructuring priorities.
Having commissoners do what is good for the entire County and not just their district.
I did not care for Vernon all that much, but one thing he said, ( may not have meant it) "One DeKalb."
Give me a County Manger anytime. One that is a businessman first and formost.
The audacity of you Mr. Rader. For so many years now, we have been underpaid for the work we do and now you say, "If they want to get paid more, then they have to carry more of the burden...There's no way around it."
I've got news for you, sir, we have been carrying more and more of the burden year after year and all we have received in return is less and less. There is no need to restate all that has already been said. It's well known by now and no secret. Personally, I have been "always loyal" to DeKalb County busting my ass and risking my life doing more and more for the citizens of DeKalb County and the Board of Commissioners for well over ten years now. Yet, the longer I remain "always loyal" the more poor I get. The problem here is that you along with the other Board of Commmissioners and the CEOs have instituted a new standard that you all feel is acceptable. Well that, SIR, your new standards are sub-standard and unacceptable.
Shame on you for making such an arrogant statement you elitest-minded jerk!
"AL" (Always Loyal, though you might know me in the future as "OWL"...Once Was Loyal)
Give me a take home car and not be on call. This would save me the money that I have suffer due to no raises and furlough days.
Why are just a certain few rewarded with a take home car? Free car and gas what a perk.
Take home cars-
* They last longer because an assigned car is better cared for.
* Officer are more productive by virtue of being available for a longer period of time..ie they're not waiting for cars, they're not loading/unloading cars...etc
* There is a greater police presence ...officers are visible while in transit to or from work.
* Off duty officers are more visible because you can't miss a police car parked out front.
* Off duty officers are able to transport their own prisoners.
Rader...you want more productivity? Here's a way to boost productivity and cut the costs associated with training new officers to replace the trained, experienced officers who are leaving.
The BOC shouud be made to see the value of already trained experienced ( and content ) police officers instead of having to always recruit and train new officers or deal with the resulting bad attitudes that our BOC generates. But really, those in government who were not real police officers will never understand will they?
Are we supposed to "carry more of the burden" for all County employees?? What are the other employees doing to "carry more of the burden?" What measure is used to determine their share? So I guess this "carry more of the burden" threat means if we do we will be the only County employees to recieve a pay raise. As if that would happen. Apparently, we have been the work horse for all County employees.
Hey Rader, why should we bust our ass and write more tickets so you and the BOC can keep on spending like there's no tomorrow???? Reduce the size of government and stop wasteful spending. It doesn't make sense for me to bring in revenue and still get furloughed.
To anonymous 7:14 PM: you say all people have to do instead of calling into 911 a loud music call is to go to that neighbor and tell/ask him or her to turn the music down: how would YOU like to go to a known drug house directly across the street from your paid-for home and ask them to do anything????You got to be kidding! We can't even get any one interested in this (the girl there has been arrested 42 times and plead guilty all 42 times in DeKalb Co. alone) from the police dept..and you think we good honest citizens should approach someone in this house??? that could be a good thing..then you'd probably have a "50" or"51" which certainly would get us some attention to this on-going problem and hey, we don't live in any of the war zones in DeKalb of DeKalb..we are directly behind 34....any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. And FYI, all of my friends and neighbors support officers 100% and I, for one, have talked with Ellis, written letters, and done everything within the law imaginable to try and get him to listen to you people and the public as well. Stay safe..we really need all of you officers.
The BOC doesn't care about experience. All they see is an officer that costs them more than a newly trained academy graduate that doesn't know squat.
Pension tabled to reduce from 2.75% /yr to 1.25% and all transfers out of uniform suspended until at least Jan 1 due to max exodus of officers to other agencies. ...NICE
Carry more of the burden? Are we not carrying enough of the burden already through increased call volume having to be handled by fewer officers due to furloughs?
We are shouldering a huge burden already...much heavier than anyother department. Where exactly in this increased workload are we supposed to find time to go out and write more citations?
And another thing, why is it that whenever there are financial problems in this county, the BOC and CEO seem to jump on PD for not writing enough tickets as though we're supposed to be the sole source of revenue...why is that...is it because they've historically been able to threaten us and twist our arms over writing tickets?
Well that dynamic has been altered to a point where that will never occur again. Stand up against these thugs any way you can.
It's not us failing to carry our load, it's the political elites failing to use the county's money responsibly.
The last poster has really hit the nail on the head - What has failed us is our leadership. The morale is failing because of leadership, etc. It is not the hard times that make people feel down, but the lack of leadership and the two class system this county has: the few and the favored of the CEO & BOC vs. the rest of us.
The county is full of people put in place by the CEO that are hidden within other departments' budgets (watershed, parks, transportation, etc.). Mostly these people do nothing but get a big paycheck and take up space. They have no idea how to perform the job classification they are in because they have zero experience and mostly they do not even care to learn. They also take up budget money that could be used to pay existing employees that actually perform work. I work with three such people in my office area. All are recent hires, make 30-40% more than me and have the same job classification as me and do nothing but take personal phone calls all day. How does the CEO think that impacts morale in my office? Any guesses Stogner?
The so called leaders are selfish and short sighted. They are ignorant fools that think we will always suck it up, but I am out of here in two months. I simply will not be insulted anymore.
It is really sad to see things go this way, but it seems to be the truth and they really do not care. Very sad, just very sad to see this place go down like this. I tried to help and make suggestions and do the right thing, but I am exhausted fighting with these idiots.
I work, unfortunately, close enough to the CEO and the BOC to see that it will only get much worse before it gets better. My advice, if it is at all possible for you, is to move on and not look back. Do not try to help fix things, they don't want it. Trust me on this.
Amen to that! Let's end the silly spending. We had a good run, tax dollars were pouring in but that time is over. DeKalb County must take personal responsibility just like every small business does by living within their means.
Matt
<a href="http://www.selfstoragedeals.com/dekalb_il" title="Self Storage Dekalb"
Absolutely stunning and arrogant. Dekalb County's elected officials are the bottom of the barrel. Inept and incompetent self-interested losers. Come to your senses voters, get these clowns out of office.
I implore all county employees, especially the police officers, choosing to leave DeKalb County to publicly present your resignations to the Board of Commissioners at one of their meetings and read aloud your resignation letter. Each person gets three minutes during open comments. Open comments is allotted thirty minutes. Show the BOC how many of you are leaving and tell them why. They need to hear it.
We need to organize a Blue Flu they can not write you up for calling in sick for one day. It will shut down County Gov and maybe make them realize how much they need us. I am calling on the blog master to come up with a date and let the word get around.
Funny how Rader wants more production while at the same time my watch commander came to roll call and told us not to enforce traffic violations on Oakdale Rd. per Raders request because somebody was having visitors over after a funeral.
Hell Rader, that would have been a perfect time to increase production, kick your constituents while their down just like you do us
If Rader wants more productivity, we should give it to his neighborhood. Every violation you see, long copy. Get your pennies out to check tire tread.
Oh, now Rader wants us to be sensitive to or for him. F off!
Our Major comes in roll call, lines officers up facing the wall for inspection, insults us, then leaves the room. I guess this is how they build morale at Dekalb.
Good idea. Hey blogmaster, give us the boundaries for Rader's district and we'll show him "more production" like he's never seen before.
Well I respect someone having friends over due to a death in the family. I guess everyone needs to call and let the Chief know that their street will ignore the laws for the day.
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