Over the past couple of years, the commission has chosen to substantially reduce our pay, benefits and pension. They went as far as to force us to work for no pay.
Our choice of health insurance carriers was reduce to two, yet our premiums increased 15 percent. Our retirees health insurance was increased by 40 percent! This in the name of saving money for the taxpayers. But, the county over spent 5 million dollars on health insurance anyway.
We had a very good pension that we paid into. At the time, after 30 years of service, we could retire at 82.5 percent of our salary. Now the commission has changed it to 62 percent of our salary, and we can't draw it until we are 62. Now they are going to increase our monthly contributions by 66 100 percent! They are in hopes, with a preconceived plan, that paying into the pension fund will be too costly for the average police officer working the streets, and will choose to drop out of the pension plan.
In addition, the commissioners yelled “the sky is falling”, that the citizens would be left with no police or fire protection if property taxes were not raised. They also claimed the county credit rating would be worsened because the county had no cash reserves. So the commission passed a 26 percent hike in property taxes. Now we learn Burrell Ellis flat out lied. He wants to dip into the replenished cash reserve for spending, and fill 644 open positions throughout the county. A Georgia State study from last year showed DeKalb has twice as many workers as similar-size counties and called for cutting at least 900 jobs. Burrell's mental stability has to be called into question.
Burrell Ellis and the commissioners take us for fools. We have to admit, so far they are right. Last year we crippled the county to the tune of 5 million dollars because of Ellis and his antics of handing out huge pay raises to his staff, while we were being forced to work for no pay. So they furloughed us and we went back to work.
To show their gratitude, they take away 20 hours of our holiday pay. Can you say suckers!? We threatened to strike again. Knowing how powerful our strike can be, and the potential for loss revenues, the county seems poised to give our 20 hours back. And we are supposed to be grateful?! According to Chief O'Brien and F.O.P President Jeff Wages, yes.
Well, thanks for nothing!
Do the commissioners and the chief of police really want to put and an end to this? They can. It's really simple. Stop using the backs, blood and lives of police officers as a revenue generating source. The police are persons empowered to enforce the law, protect property and reduce civil disorder, not tax the citizenry! Has our entire command staff loss sight of this?
First and foremost, stop the corruption within our county government. What happened to the 60 million dollars in uncollected fines? What happened to the 50 million dollars missing from Recorders Court? Where is the uncollected business license fees between 5-7 million dollars? That’s nearly 120 million dollars that is missing!
Chief O'Brien, we have a question: Are you neglect in your duties for not opening a criminal investigation into all this missing money? No one has explained what happened to all this money. So, where is it? At the bottom of a ticket book?
22 comments:
Burrell Ellis and all of his cronies are a bunch stupid, money hungry pick-pockets who steal both in time and in funds from the county. BE two biggest wasteful divisions of the hugh department of Public Works is the culprit. These lazy, useless parasites do nothing all day long except drive all over the county from one side to another, going from one shopping center to another along with the many QUIK TRIPS, drinking beer and playing the lottery on county time and overtime for a reason that no one knows why. B.E. doesn't care about the Public Safety departments or any any other division which generates funds for the county. B.E. only cares about employing his useless parasite buddies and thats all.
B.E. doesn't care about the taxpayers who send their hard earned money to the county to pay for those losers. All B.E. wants to is run around in his white tee shirt giving two bit speeches about shit he knows nothing about for the camera.
Until B.E. and his cronies get out of office, and let someone with a hugh increase in brain power comes in, nothing will change in this dump named DEKALB COUNTY GOVERNMENT.
It has been a dump for the last 10 years with the start of V.J. and continued slowly with B.E. There is no difference between self stick floor tile and Burrell Ellis as they both lie.
Anyone who thinks the FBI public corruption detail doesn't notice the Dekalb BOC and government in general is mistaken.
Wow. One can really tell the blogmaster was pissed when typing up this post. I've never seen no many spelling and grammatical errors.
Chief O'Brien serves at the pleasure of Burrell Ellis and has a Manager in Director Miller.
The Office of District Attorney in DeKalb County could not be softer.
Was a "do nuthin" office with the previous DA.
The Current District Attorney is already "pandering" to the little ole bittys with his cell phone give away - A nobel program - However where in the Hell is Robert James at when :
Commissioner Connie Stokes ripes out the office furniture and takes it home when she leaves as Commissioner = What the Hell is up with that Robert James ?
and
The entire Board of Commissioners and their Staff have very expensive meals catered in at tax payers expense on BOC work days ! What the Hell is up with that Robert James ?
and
All the other issues mentioned by another ones post = Millions Upon Millions ?
So I guess what I am asking is " Where in the Hell is DeKalb District Attorney Robert James at ?
Do Your Job As DA Or Get Out !
Dark days ahead! "Katie" bar the door they a comin!!!! how far we have fallen.....sad very sad, God bless the men and women of the Dekalb County police force!
To Anonymous 11:07......If the FBI cared about anything they would have indicted Vernon a few years back. He was one of the most evil and corrupt of any previous politicians in Dekalb. Nothing was done about the rape or the other stuff that was done. And don't forget about the county attorney that alledegedly committed suicide under ole Vern. What did he know?
The list goes on and on and those in the know remember the cover ups.
Do you really think that the US attorney would go after Vern or some of the others?
We still suffer from his political crap from two terms. With no repurcussions for Vern. Will there be Justice on earth???
8-7-11 10pm
Learn to spell.
Sure you have Anon 11:25, just read a police report.
The blog writer from August 7th at 11:25 PM, must be DCSS teacher with a one track mind. That person is more interested on the various spellings of the blogs and nothing else.
No wonder the students he/she is teaching are just as stupid as the person critizing the writers of this blog.....Go back to school !!
The blogmaster has some worthy points, but on two points the BM is slightly mistaken.
First the proposal to raise employee pension contributions is just a proposal that has not gotten any traction because it is blatantly unfair to the employees. It would raise the contributions of the employees 100 percent (not 66) while reducing the county's contribution 50 percent. Since the commissioners have no issue with unfair and unjust employee policies the employees need to keep an eye on the issue.
Most of the 644 unfilled employee positions occurred when the misguided commissioners elected to offer an early retirement incentive that cost the county around 744 of its most experienced and valuable employees.
The retirement incentive was designed to terminate 400-500 unnecessary employees and close their positions. This was pure delusion on the part of the commissioners. The BOC misjudged the employee morale problem of low pay and declining benefits, a vindictive CEO convicted in federal court of "creating a hostile work environment for employees", and a board of Commissioners that refuses to even discuss basic issues with the employees.
To the commissioners the early retirement incentive offered them an easy out to the problem, in hindsight it was the actions of niave politicians who are clueless as to the dynamics of employee relations and the day to day operations of DeKalb government.
840 employees took the commissioners up on the early retirement option and much to the surprise of the commissioners there were only about 100 slackers in the group instead of the hoped for 500. About 100 positions were replaced but 644 were not, this is why Ellis is hoping to fill the positions with his proposal.
Instead of doing the smart thing of reorganizing and downsizing the county like every other neighboring government has done, making the tough, unpopular decisions of laying-off unnecessary or redundant employees the BOC decided upon the retirement incentive plan.
The DeKalb CEO and Commissioners are the highest paid in the southeast, collectively they have only made the financial crises worse. There solution at every step has been bury head in sand, ignore the issue of a bloated management and employee base, come up with the most asinine, unimaginative, unintelligent but ideological correct solution according to dominant ruling political party, apply lots of media spin to deflect responsibility of their actions, then repeat.
The reality is the county has a downgraded credit rating, core functions are degraded and a 26 percent hike in property taxes enacted because the CEO and BOC collectively have no idea about what is and isn't important in DeKalb county government.
The citizens of DeKalb County need to elect politicians who will do the job instead of offering lame excuses.
I strongly suspect that if DeKalb government quit paying its political leaders and provided them with substandard office spaces in the Tax Commissioners building, no perks or bennies, the county might get rid of the mooching slackers in the CEO and BOC and attract the leaders needed in DeKalb's current financial disaster.
Best of luck, mates!
KenC
We have nobody who will stand up for us, so we must do it ourselves. Chief OB is appointed so he aon't/can't do anything. Jeff Wiggs can only say so much before he gets a safe dropped on him. None of the precinct majors will do squat for us because they are all appointed, so who does that leave? Then you still have officers writing stacks of long copies because they don't want to get in trouble. WHAT COWARDS!!!
He oughta know it's illegal. That's a storm sewer. If it fills with gas, I pity the person who lights a match within ten yards of it....
I am currently an out of state Officer and just started to FTO a new Officer that came from the Dekalb Police Department with 7 years experience. I asked him recently why he had left his previous department and all he said was "dekalbofficers.com...check it out." All I can say say is "WOW!". Ive spent the past two hours looking at dozens of the previous blogs and "going ons" with your county and department and I cant believe the things that the county is doing to you all. The current county I work for goes above and beyond(including raising tax with little resistance from the county residents) to make sure all 600 sworn Police Officers have everything they need, including yearly merit increases, take home units,low retirement contributions etc. I totally understand that the economy is very red every where but it seems that a county should always prioritize public safety and keep public safety employees happy no matter what it takes. From an outside Officer who has had no clue where Dekalb County is until now I dont blame anyone from seeking employment else where. Just my two cents...stay safe and thank you for the good training that it appears you contributed to one of our new Officers.
I'll take "DeKalb County Irony" for $800, Alex!
The answer is:
Lee May and Stan Watson are complaining about a one cent MARTA sales tax to pay for improvements to rail lines in north DeKalb because south DeKalb doesn't have any rail lines. They say it is unfair for south DeKalb to pay for improvements elsewhere in the county.
Anyone? Anyone? No one? The response we were looking for is, "What is the reason we have a city of Dunwoody?"
We also would have accepted, "How many millions of dollars did Dunwoody pay in county taxes over the last decade that went to south DeKalb?"
Hypocrites!
Blog Master you are right on the money, but as others have stated, Chief O.B. hands are tied. If he fights them to hard, they will replace him with another outsider. We get stuck with another Tebow clone. We have to stand up now and not let them destroy our pension and run us off. We need to unite now! If wqe wait for them to make the choice for us, we are SCREWED.
where is megan from the ajc? the ajc sucks now! they never write anything besides what burrell and his crew tell them. lame. none of the media care about anything no more besides cheating teachers in atlanta. they need to come see that it ain't just alanta. there is cheating going on all over dekalb, in the schools and the especially the POLICE DEPARTMENT and county government!
Thank You -Blog Master- You are a possible savior to this sinking department.
This is the only way the truth gets out to everyone.
Anon 11:49 - glad you said "allegedly" committed suicide cuz "allegedly" is DEFINITELY the operative word.... Hope someone reopens that case.
Where is Megan M. from the AJC? I honestly have no idea, however I do know she received anonymous threats, had her tires slashed, was followed by suspicious cars, etc. on several occasions. Most likely due to stories she did on DeKalb as she was the DeKalb reporter.
I also got the feeling she was being pressured by her bosses to shelve stories that would have brought up too much dirt on Dekalb politicians. This is only as guess on my part, but it fits my observations of what happened.
Not sure where she is now, but hope she is well.
-JW
That's all Dekalb understands is illegal maneuvers and bullying tactics so give it right back to them.
Good Lord, I've heard less whining from my kid's pre-k classroom. Several points (the pension contribution, the health benefits, the merit raises) made here were valid and should be addressed. However, how much crying do we expect anyone ( command staff, BOC members, citizens) to listen to before they write us all off as a bunch of malcontents?
We complain no one fights for us, Chief O'Brian and Jeff Wiggs go to bat over the holiday pay issue. From what the blogmaster says, it appears their efforts are making some headway. Our response as a whole? Is it a thank you to anyone? No. Is it a rise in BOC meeting attendance? No. Is it a rise in FOP membership? Nope. We cry and complain and say that's not good enough. How many of the bitchers on this blog have done ANYTHING to improve the situation?
Now there is talk of another "ticket slowdown". Great. That's worked so well in the past. Did it ever occur to you that some of the citizens, who our only real support, are blaming these slow downs for the higher taxes in the county? Furthermore, how many slugs are using the "slowdown" as an excuse to sit in a parking lot and stream netflix or read? I'd bet if you pull stats there are more than a few guys whose citations have dropped to 0 but their warning tickets and arrests have stayed the same, or dropped as well.
I'm not saying there are no problems here, there are plenty. I am saying instead of adding to them, we should try to be part of the solution.
Can an employee pull his pension money out and choose not to contribute anymore?
Post a Comment