Friday, September 7, 2012

Changes In Pension And Health Insurance Coming

Be at this meeting in force!
There will be a meeting of the Employee Relations & Community Services (ERCS) Committee of the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 2 p.m. The location will be the Maloof Bldg, 5th Floor, Board of Commissioners Offices, 1300 Commerce Dr, Decatur GA 30030.
AGENDA

1. MINUTES: 8/28

2. REPORT: Human Resources & Merit System Director.
A. DISCUSSION: Follow Up on Pay and Class Study

3. REPORT: Finance Deputy Director – Benefits.
A. AGENDA ITEM: Intent to amend the Pension Code of DeKalb County, Georgia, 1962 Ga Laws 3088 (New plan for employees hired on or after May 1, 2012) (This agenda item has not been placed on the full Board agenda at this time.)
B. DISCUSSION: Continuation of review of 2011 and 2012 Risk Management (Health Insurance) Fund revenues, budgets, and expenditures and plans for 2013.

4. DISCUSSION: Board of Commissioner’s Pension Board Vacancy

5. Other items.

Normal committee meeting dates and times for all committees are as follows: County Operations & Public Safety (COPS) Committee – Second and Fourth Tuesdays at 1p.m.; Employee Relations & Community Services (ERCS) Committee – Second and Fourth Tuesdays at 2 p.m.; Finance, Audit & Budget (FAB) Committee – First and Third Tuesdays at 3 p.m.; Planning & Economic Development (PED) Committee – First and Third Tuesdays at 1 p.m.; and PWC (Public Works) Committee – First and Third Thursdays at 1 p.m. Special called meetings will be announced separately.
The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners is proud to announce DeKalbBOC.com, a website with committee information and links to live and archived committee meeting video when available. Please check either of the two links below for more information.
http://www.dekalbboc.com/

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand DeKalb going to a more modern retirement systemthey have kept it longer than others have.While it's bad for new hires, it's good for citizens and old timers since the old plan is not sustainable. Of course, you have to offer something to be competitive, take home cars would do more to boost morale and draw new officers than the retirement system does, it shouldn't but it would because very few officers stay at any department until retirement.

Anonymous said...

Uh oh....here it comes...not sure what they are cooking up.

Anonymous said...

This ought to be interesting...

Anonymous said...

You know, I wanted to use this article to inform people who have been here a short time and a long time that our pension is NOT backed by the PBGC otherwise known as Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation. The PBGC is the US govt agency that backs pensions, PRIVATE COMPANY PENSIONS, not state and local govt pensions. Local govt pensions are backed by the "the good faith and credit" of the local govt, just like they say our US dollars are backed by the "full faith and credit of the United States govt".

If state/local govt pensions fail,the state laws and regulations where this type of pension failure occurred determine what courses of action take place with those effected by the failure of the pension.
I do not know off hand what occurs in the state of Georgia in cases of local govt pension failures for those collecting pensions, those vested, and those not vested. Being that Georgia is a right to work state, it would be a safe assumption that the working man is just plain screwed if a local govt pension fails.
Hopefully someone with more knowledge on this subject can chime in and enlighten us further, but the fact remains that only PRIVATE SECTOR pensions are backed by the FEDS. Just ask someone COMPETENT that is serving on our pension board and see what they tell you.

-Anon 1118

Anonymous said...

Pension - The reason I stayed at Dekalb and the reason I'll be leaving is PENSION. I don't make what I did in the private sector but, that was okay when you figured in that the county would pay me in retirement. What I didn't make now, I would make in the future.

Our goals for retirement were based on the expectation of lieutenant or captain's pay by the time I turned in my gun. With no raises on the horizon or in the future, there is not much reason to stay. I'm better off in the private sector making a lot more money, putting money in a 401K and putting money into savings.

Tonight I posted my resume.

Anonymous said...

Anon. 8:04 - Doing what in the private sector?

Also folks, I just heard that (5) furlough days are coming down before the end of the year AS WELL AS a mandatory, across-the-board 5% PAY CUT!! Anybody else hearing this? Will this also be discussed at the meeting??

Steve Cook said...

Has anyone heard through the grapevine any info about possible medical insurance changes coming up in October?

Anonymous said...

A time-line for the DeKalb employees.
1997, Price/Water-house salary study. This is important for all to understand. This study was biased and flawed at the guidance of the DeKalb commissioners. Employees were no longer paid upon their contributions to the county, instead by their personal needs. More than disheartening to professional employees that drive DeKalb, equality of salaries was the first sign of the direction that the CEO/BOC wanted DeKalb moving towards, socialism. More on this and the repercussions later.
Three bond issues passed in “special elections”, effectively disenfranchising 90 percent of DeKalb voters and resulting in 250 million plus debt that DeKalb rulers would not raise taxes on the citizens to pay for. (DeKalb school system was drastically raising taxes at the time)
DeKalb government declines to raise pension contributions with the pension funds declining value.
Vernon Jones and Joe Stone introduce the no “pay for performance” plan.
2005, new pension plan introduced for new employees.
2008, Vernon Jones, Richard Stognar and Joe Stone convicted in federal court of “creating a hostile work environment” for employees. County makes no correction to the issues.
2008, Dunwoody citizens rebel against paying for three bond issues and receiving almost nothing in return for paying the most taxes. (socialism rears its ugly head again)
(continued next post) KenC

Anonymous said...

2008 real-estate bubble created by ACORN and the Democrats collapses and creates the financial recession. (oddly blamed upon the Republicans by the media and Democrats.)
2009, county creates five furlough days for employees. CEO's office staff drastically increased with all kinds of perks unavailable to the guys and gals in the trenches. (500 a month gas allowance)
County rulers refuse to reorganize DeKalb government in face of the reported bloat and financial downturn
2009 BOC introduces the retirement incentive plan that is a now recognized as a huge mistake.
2010, first news of the new pension plan reported.
2012, Brookhaven citizens follows Dunwoody's lead and incorporates.
2012, DeKalb rulers move to implement the new, degraded pension plan.
DeKalb rulers have no clue how to entice competent recruits and candidates for employment, CEO Ellis has 166 grand to pay the new director of Economic Development and county employee salaries are about 20 percent below local government market wages.
County rulers refuse to heed the lessons from their previous mistakes, and the county is losing huge chunks of its most affluent and revenue producing citizens.
You make your own decisions as to your actions.
Best of luck guys and gals!
KenC

Anonymous said...

Ten dollars says no one will attend this meeting (it's much easier to point fingers at others for not doing your bidding).

Anonymous said...

Why do you people dont realize that the BOC/CEO doesnt care what you think. They are never going to give you take home cars and you all cannot quit and work for brookhaven.If they raise your insurance by 5% or 500% you will still show up for work the next day.5 furlough days or 365 furlough days most county employees will show up for work until there is a padlock on there door.Hell we closed down for 4days with the blizzard in 2011 and people still showed up to get back in there POVs to go home for the next 4days.Get it through your heads it is not going to get better, leave while you can and let this ---thole swallow itself.

Anonymous said...

I have this on my calendar.... so long as the kids are healthy and go to school, this officer will be there.

I'm more confident about attending this meeting than being with Dekalb in June of next year.

Anonymous said...

The Price-Waterhouse raise what a joke. Those of us who tried to better ourselves and got promoted got nothing but screwed. They told us we would make it up on the backend. Well the back end is here and those promised pay raises just hasn't happened. So I say to hell with this county. Who cares if another crime gets solved, another ticket is written, or another complaint from these stupid citizens who continue to vote theses idiots in gets handled. Im tired of hearing lets do it for Bill. Bill has got his and is leaving. Let the idiot BOC and CEO take their little asses out there and handle a call. Gannon, Rader and The other white lady are no better than the rest of the thugs. Wouldnt piss on this bunch or the command staff if they were on fire

Anonymous said...

We need to quit tomorrow and we can then party for 3 month and 9 days before the world ends. If you think about it, would it really be all that bad if you did quit, but the world didn't come to an end on 12-21-2012???

Ken C
Answer me this. I hear that the CEO and BOC along with their staff have a much better health insurance plan than we do and that their monthly premiums aren't as high as ours. Is that true? I also heard that during the last furloughs we had, the furloughs didn't apply to their staff.
To anon 7:20
Only Uniform showed up each and everyday during the snow storm and worked through it. All the other county employees that stayed home, got paid for it. You have a point, if you had wrecked your POV coming and going from work then, I'm sure the response would have been, "Too bad, so sad." Next time it snows tell your supervisor you need a ride to and from.

Anonymous said...

If they furlough us again this year or disguise furlough days as unpaid holidays, I say we all get sick on the day after Thanksgiving. It sure seems easy for them, the BOC, to furlough us or unfund our holidays which tells me that we are not important and they don't need us to work on that day anyway.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to see the Sheriff's Dept is taking down businesses selling illegal drugs and shutting them down for not having a County Permit. Come on Sheriff Brown take over P.D.

Anonymous said...

8:32PM, watch the video again. They didn't shut down any businesses operating without a permit.

Did anyone else catch Thomas Brown's stupidity? "This is a substance that has already been deemed illegal by the pharmaceutical board of the county." Who is on this county pharmaceutical board he speaks of? What laws are they passing? I didn't know you could get a state search warrant for violating a county ordinance written by an organization that doesn't even exist!

They got a search warrant for a business and went in with guns drawn because they were selling illegal K-2 in plain sight, right there on the counter next to change box?? They had to send in undercover agents to buy stuff that wasn't even hidden? It was out in the open? Wouldn't it have been easier and safer to just approach the owner in uniform and tell them the stuff was illegal and they needed to stop selling it?? I guess that wouldn't have made for an exciting drug bust news story!! Congratulations on your big drug bust! I think I counted about 10 baggies of K-2!

Anonymous said...

Two Meetings to Attend:

1)Employee Relations & Community Services (ERCS) Committee of the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners

When: TODAY
Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 2 p.m.

Where:
The Maloof Bldg, 5th Floor, Board of Commissioners Offices, 1300 Commerce Dr, Decatur GA 30030

2)DeKalb County Pension Board

When:
Thursday, September 13, 2012, at 9:30 AM

Where: In the Board of Commissioners conference room on the 5th floor of the Manuel Maloof Administration Building

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:32 I made some inquiries on the health benefits, and the answer I got was no, all health benefits are available to all the employees. Some cost more than others but all are available to the employees. I also inquired about additional benefits available to political staff and was informed that the only additional benefit available is the “gas or auto” allowance and that is now limited primarily to departmental directors.
Personally I am preparing for the downfall of DeKalb government and the county renegotiating my pension for penny's on the dollar after the county declares legal bankruptcy in the next decade.
I would love to be able to give you guys and gals encouragement about DeKalb government's future, unfortunately I can't. My county contacts are more hopeful of DeKalb's future, about the only thing going for DeKalb government at present is the statute requiring a balanced budget.
What I do recommend is placing as much cash available in your 457K retirement accounts as possible. (this is your personal account and the county can't raid it) Hint: Try an experiment, take 100 bucks a month from your pay and deposit it into the 457K account and watch at how much your take home pay decreases. My experience was that it was negligible. (457K's are not taxed until withdrawal) Raise your 457K contributions as high as possible with your available income. Larry Rothermel and GEBCORP can assist, I am a client. Larry's email address is:
larryrothermel@gebcorp.com
Do not place your faith in DeKalb government's retirement system.
I strongly advise you guys and gals grab all the training you can get, and move on.
DeKalb's political leadership is stuck on stupid, you guys and gals deserve every break you can get.
This sux mates!
KenC

Anonymous said...

9-10 7:32 - you poor idiot. Why in the hell are you asking KEN C a question like that ???? A bitter retiree who only wants to drag you all down, who pretends to care about you but is USING you to clear his own agenda. GO DIRECTLY TO THE SOURCES WHO ARE THERE TO ANSWER questions like this. His lack of understanding of the big picture is disturbing. His blanket disses truly disturbing. Circumstances, policies, and procedures change, and you are hurting yourself by relying on such an unreliable source.
As for Price-Waterhouse, from personal experience, a bunch of blood-sucking leeches. Just consider yourselves lucky the Gold Club is no longer in business, but you might want to check out the other "Gentlemen's Clubs".
Ken C - if you say "guys and gals" one more time, I'm gonna find you so I can slap you upside the head.

Anonymous said...

I think most, if given the option, would prefer to invest in their 457 rather than Dekalb's pension. We were told a couple of years ago we would have the option to opt out of the ridiculous pension contribution requirements and freeze what we had if we were vested.

Anonymous said...

Personally I am happy with the pension(at least for now). At 2.75% nothing else comes close to it. Yes there is a chance it could go south but that is a possibility with any plan. You have worked hard, I hope you will get your 10 years in and draw that check til you go 10-42, but you gotta do what's right for you.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:27. Bitter! Hargh! I am fighting off the women and trying to stay reasonably sober! Now if you want to see someone really bitter I suggest you look at Vernon Jones, Sherry Sutton/Barnes, or perhaps my ex-boss and ex-director who resigned for unknown reasons last year and discover the definition of the word “bitter”.
Actually I am pretty damn happy and have some new interests, that while not politically correct, are perfectly legal and sharpen the mind, the eye and my reactions, and a hell of a lot cheaper than skiing.
What I am trying to do is prevent DeKalb government going totally off the rails and declaring bankruptcy.
Anyone stating that DeKalb government losing huge revenue producers like Dunwoody and Brookhaven is “good-government” needs to examine their motives and ideology.
As for myself, “If your not taking flack, then you aren't on target”.
Best of luck, mates!
KenC

Anonymous said...

Ken C Rocks!

Anonymous said...

Ken C knows the score and I wonder if the BOC from Jones to now feels the sligest guilt for what they did to a formerly great Dekalb county?

Anonymous said...

10:20pm... the 2.75% is nice but, 2.75% of what I make is not much...if you've been here less than 15 or 20 years, there have not been enough raises to put you near the top of your level's pay scale..... the Captains, Majors, Chiefs and the veteran sergeants and some MPO's are the only one's sitting pretty.

I got 4 and 4.5% raises under the merit system (my evals were good evals) but the standard 5% was not something I remember or think was still in effect when I started.

Anonymous said...

To 8:27PM in reply too:
"Ken C - if you say "guys and gals" one more time, I'm gonna find you so I can slap you upside the head."

I'm not KenC but I would just love for you to come try and find me and slap me up side my head.....guy or gall or in between...whatever you are. You would feel some of the the love from JT I and Fred B taught us to show idiots like you! The love that kept us alive and kicking long enough to be a thorn in your side. We know what it feels like to be raped by DeKalb County government so dont try and convince us that it was really about thier "love" for us cops! Should we ever trust them to take care of our pension so we wont die destitue? I dont think so.

Anonymous said...

It never gets any better in Dekalb. I expect them to get into our pension some how, some way.

Democrats pillage and destroy.

Anonymous said...

2 quick points,
NO ONE showed up at the ERCS meeting except 1 lone fire firefighter
Second
Ken C got his full pension and was nothing but a low to middle IT guy. If youo think he is the expert at anything but writing in this blog, you all need to have your heads examined.

Anonymous said...

Hey Ken C if you know so much why don't you show up at a Pension Board Meeting or an ERCS committee meeting to find out what you really do not know.
As for you idiots defending this guy maybe you should o your own homework instead of relying on this dope.
I have been doing this for 20 years and while I hate what is going on, bile that comes from his mouth does no one any good.
Take your lead from the friggin' bus drivers for crying out out. They are a smaller group, make less money with fewer benefits and work for an employer that is more than twice the size of DeKalb. Yet they actually are trying to DO something.
Ken C is like the raging radical in the back of the crowd screaming for a fight, but is no where to be found when the fists start to fly

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:11, some good questions to me.
First I don't operate well in a meeting that I have no input to. I cannot imagine anything more infuriating than listening to a bunch of guys and gals with few that have the employees best interests at heart, and powerless to dispute them in debate.
Second I am not going to drive 60 miles to be disrespected. I can do that right here with just a couple of key-strokes.
DeKalb rulers and management do not listen to people like you or me, unless we contribute big bucks to their campaigns.
Personally I find the situation repugnant to everything I stand for. Thanks for allowing me to clarify my position.
Best of luck!
KenC

Anonymous said...

Any truth about the 5% reduction in pay?

Anonymous said...

To 10:19, 12:18, and 4:11,

Ken C. is a stand-up guy. I worked with him in another department. Why don't you guys stop writing tickets for the CEO/BOC who doesn't care about you guys and is going to furlough you for five days and reduce your pay by 5% and increase your health insurance by 18%. What a bunch of fools you are to attack the one guy that has always had the inside track on the rumormill. Wow, why don't you organize and attack the real enemy. You are all hiding behind your ticket books so you might get a take home car which the BOC/CEO will never give you because all of you are just an ATM machine for their free for all spending projects. The rest of the county is abusing their sick time and annual leave time and having a party while you guys are concentrating on your junior officer who shows up one minute late. What a bunch of small people you are. Why don't you stop bitching and get with the program and stop going after Ken C, who has been the only one that has provided accurate information about the inner workings of this ****ed up form of government.

Lloyd ProGroup said...

Governments broke. Unfortunately, As time goes on you can expect the employees to receive less coverage and then be asked to "chip in" to help pay for it.

Anonymous said...

Hey, my ticket book did get me a take home car. Don't know why you guys keep complaining. 15 a day and all the free gas you need. Part-times not a problem, you too can apply always on call and never been called out!

Anonymous said...

Keep drinking the koolaid anon 4;58PM. You are part of the problem and the reason why no one will probably never get a raise. You are the poster child of selfishness and probabably an unqualified brown knoser.Keep writing those tickets what a fool you must be with the little egoe that the white shirts allow you to have. But owe wait you are not part of the CEO/BOC so you will get all of the pain of the furlough days and rise in the pension contributions and higher health insurance. At least u will suffer with the rest of us. But you get a take home car for being pimped out by the BOC/CEO for being there ATM machine. What a team player and a fine example of dekalb leadership, ME, ME, ME its all about Me and ofcourse the BOC/CEO and there staff who are exempt from the rest of the sand box rules.

Anonymous said...

Holy shit, Chief Williams? the second most racist/ghetto person on the planet. Yes that is exactly what we need.

Gets into a domestic where she shoots at her live in boyfriend, no J2, no proper investigation, nothing!!

Let me get in a 87 with my spouse shoot my duty weapon at her and see how that goes.

Say what you want about tebo, yes he made some poor decisions as a chief, but he always stood up to the CEO and fought for shit for us. Granted Magic busses didnt work out.

The County needs to shop outside of DeKalb County and get a Chief that has no one inside of his pocket, and doesnt owe anyone favors. A Chief that will make decisions based on what is right, and not who hes friends with.