Friday, January 25, 2013

Open letter to representative H Mosby. chairman of the DeKalb legislative delegates. Representative Mosby.

As you probably well know DeKalb government is in a continuous state of financial crises.
Much of the crises was created by the DeKalb CEO and commissioners with three big bond issues, Greenspace I & II, and the library bond issue. 


The bond issues were passed by "special elections", as a legislator you have to be familiar with the concept of a "special election". Special elections were created for a specific purpose. Extraordinary events like a political leader dying while in office. The DeKalb CEO and commissioners deliberately abused the "special election" to ensure the passage of the bond issues and effectively "disenfranchised" 95 percent of the DeKalb citizens who would not turn out or vote for a single issue as the bonds. When DeKalb's political leadership understood the bonds had to be paid, instead of raising taxes on the citizens, they looked to DeKalb employees to pay for it. CEO Vernon Jones initiated the infamous no "pay for performance" program. 


This was a bad joke on the employees to pay for the bonds, since then the county has curtailed retirement and health benefits for the employees to pay for the bonds. It is more than interesting to note that political staffers were exempt from the "pay for performance" plan and received five percent yearly salary increases while the rest of the employees at best could only receive a 3 percent increase.

DeKalb employees received their last "across the board" pay increase in 1997. Then the BOC chose to give the raises only to the lowest paid employees and not the professionals and supervisors that actually make the county work. In 2013 the next "across the board" raise has been proposed. The commissioners are again proposing the same formula as 1997. Only the lowest paid will receive a raise.


The problem is that it is near impossible to hire quality and qualified professional and supervisory employees because their salaries are 10-15 percent below local government market wages.
I worked 25 years in the DeKalb IT department. I was a network engineer. We could not attract and hold qualified network engineers because of the low salary. When I left my replacement was much less qualified than myself, and had to be hired as a high priced "temporary consultant" due to the low salaries.


That is the employee salary situation.


Let's move on to the real problem with DeKalb government.The CEO form of government does not work, never has and never will. DeKalb is the only county in the state of Georgia that uses the CEO form of government.


What the rank 'n file employees have discovered, is that they are underpaid, for the political staffers and politicians, the salaries are high for the work produced. Example the low-stress easy position of Economic Development director position recently hired in at 186 grand. While my boss, IT director, an important and high stress position receives only about 125 grand. Basically DeKalb government has two tiers of employees. Highly paid political staffers and low salaried rank 'n file employees that are totally demoralized by the lack of pay and political leadership that will not listen to their concerns.


The cities of Brookhaven and Dunwoody did not just magically appear. The citizens of both finally got fed-up with DeKalb government political leaders refusing to listen or represent them. They realized they were the citizens paying for most of the three big bond issues and receiving virtually zero for their taxes.


Do not trust me on this issue. Have your staff do the research on the bond issues and where the projects are located. Talk to HR director Benita Ransom on the salary issue. Look at the cost and staff of the CEO's office.


Best regards,

Ken Choate

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

You express the same old tired opinions over and over again in a rambling unsubstantiated manner. Do you honestly think this whiny letter will accomplish anything? You just like to stir things up and leave it at that, as if you are attention-seeking rather than solution oriented. Follow through, man! Go to the Capitol, meet face-to-face - do something besides complain and play victim!

Anonymous said...

Not even close to accurate. Bonds are a line item on the tax bill. The bonds are paid with dedicated funds. They aren't paid from the general fund which pays most salaries.

Anonymous said...

To my brother's and sister's in blue.....Don't walk away from Dekalb County, Run. The place is broke and has been so since Vernon. It will not rebound in your careers. They the citizens of Dekalb, for the most part are indifferent to public safety, you are a necessary evil. They do not value your good work, ethics or service. So walk away my friends you are too good for the place.

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:01
Let me ask what you're doing on this blog? Are you an officer who sits back, reads it and complains. Do you go to the meetings and voice your opinion. I don't know Ken C but give him credit for trying to do something. Much more than a lot of others complaining on this blog.

Anonymous said...

Dekalb is a joke.Your open letter is a waste of time. Whats the difference between your open letter and trying to explain to a perp in the southside why he shouldnt burglerize his next door neighbor? Nothing, they both fall on deaf ears. As good as dekalb use to be when I started, it cant be helped at this point.Dekalb has full blown aids and theres no cure. God help us all.

LoFlyer said...

Anon 6:36! Thanx!
Guys, if you haven't noticed the reason I post 3/4 less is my position are known to all.
Anon 7:01,
Produce the evidence that the bond issues raised DeKalb government taxes significantly between their inception and 2010.
Produce the evidence that employee salary raises and benefits did not significantly decrease in the same time frame.
Produce the evidence that the CEO form of government is efficient and works.
Explain to me why DeKalb CEO Ellis requires two administrative assistants, a appointment secretary and at least another dozen staff, and the entire top floor of the Ponce building?
Continuing on.
I have other initiatives working, I prefer to keep them private until completed.
You will probably see something shortly. It will probably end up a fiasco.
Representative Mosby has not replied. This is not unexpected. It takes several days for political staffers to analyze. I do not expect a reply.
I haven't given up on DeKalb citizens and employees by a long shot.
Be safe out there, mates!

Anonymous said...

Vernon says: Stand by for an important announcement regarding the senate seat. All I can say is God help this nation. Surely we can all get together and fight this narcissist. Many of you know about the truth and we need to keep it readily available so that we can expose him for what he did to Dekalb!
Evil persists when good men do nothing! It is like the cockroach that you can't get rid of. Be safe guys, hopefully it will get better oneday.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure why some are villifying Ken here. Yes, he repeats his argument - because it falls on deaf ears. Why should he be the only one to stand up in person? Where is the union rep? Where is the local news' 'investigative' reporting? Why doesn't anyone in a position of real authority ask the tough questions of Burrell himself? I sent my spouse off each day to protect the thugs of DeKalb, knowing that they don't care about him or those he works with. The county is a cesspool, and with the 'leadership' going from crooked to worse, I have no hope it will get better. God bless all DeKalb police officers - stay safe.

Anonymous said...

$125,000 is low pay?! Seriously? WTF

Anonymous said...

Benita Ransom isnt going to give up any info to incriminate Burrell! Hr brought her here.