MAYORS, CITY COUNCILS AND UNIONS: THE REALITY FACES US ALL

[FCTP]

After yesterday's city council meeting all of us were frustrated and mad as heck. As we stated yesterday, there are many complex parts to the issues at hand.

I may step on a few toes with this blog so bear with me for a moment.

While the City Council could have done a better job with the budget and cut more non-essential programs, their hands were tied where the real money could be found. The money that would have made a difference would be to cut salaries (like all of us in the private sector have done) and reduce some positions (as many in the private sector have done). They could not touch that because of the labor contracts they have in place.

The CATO Institute recently filed this report "State Needs More Flexibility to Deal with Unions" found at http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12171. The report starts off with:

"If you were running a failing business, would you hand out 7 percent pay raises, a two-year "no layoff" guarantee, a pledge to close no branches, and then another round of pay hikes topping 8 percent?

No private-sector business facing bankruptcy would countenance this scenario. Private-sector unions would think twice about making such demands for fear of killing the golden goose. It's another story if you live in Government Land."

As I sat in the City Council Chambers I felt as if I was in Government Land and it was so very different than the real world all of us sit in every day.

We must educate ourselves on these matters and fully understand what we are asking for. This does not give the Mayor or the City Council a pass on this budget. There was a lot of pork still left in it and they know it. However, we will give them a pass on the biggest cuts they could have made.

With that said - We ask the Mayor, the Unions, the City Council and anyone else who has a stake in healing our city, state and country to put aside their personal agendas and get to work to fix this mess. Just because something sounded good a long time ago, doesn't mean we have to fulfill all commitments. If a commitment was bad, we should not keep doing "bad" just because of a contract. The contract will be null and void anyway at some point down the road when it will be impossible to fulfill. It's happening all over the world and to think it will not happen here is to be out of touch with reality.

We appreciate the firemen and the police unions and we LOVE them for sticking their neck for us. We do not want them punished for bad policies of the past and we ask that everyone be willing to have the real conversation about this issue.

There is a train coming and its coming fast. How can the entire citizen body of Jacksonville stand together and keep it from derailing? We are counting on the Mayor, the City Council and the Unions to do their part and keep the train on the tracks without killing the city.

God Save the USA and may the great City of Jacksonville become the Bold New City of the South again.

[Valerie Sawyer]

And apparently there is a clerical union and a maintenance union (or something like) as well within the city? Is that what I heard in the meeting the other night? How many City unions are there?

[Kurt D Wullenweber]

Agreed, no-one is going after the fire or police departments, as I said non-essential and non specialty trained city empoyees. Fire and Police are essential and specialty trained employees. IT is not those departments fault that their pensions are not properly funded. It is not their fault city government has repeatedly placed IOUs in the fund rather than the money they promised. However, and here is the big however, it is also NOT the taxpayers fault, yet we are the ones left on the hook, all alone, out there hanging in the wind. Sorry folks, but the line must be drawn somewhere and I'm standing here holding one big d*mned magic marker!
We need a real, live taxpayers review committee to oversee EVERYTHING the city government tries to pull over on us, with a real, live veto power in the city government.
If we really want to work toward something of a solution, I see nothing else that will work.

[Valerie Sawyer]

I just want people to keep in mind that the City has saved millions of dollars for years by not having to pay matching FICA for these firefighters. I also want people to keep in mind that these are jobs where a person's life is on the line every time they go to work. It's the same with our military - I would never begrudge a dime they get or their pension and benefits. In fact, we need to do more for our military. I know word was sent to Randy Wyse late about getting in touch with you - I thought he had been contacted earlier, before the city council meeting, but that had not happened. I will try to follow up on that.

[FCTP]

We are not going after the fire department or the police. We want to have the conversation about how to fix this unfunded pension plan. We hope they will be able to work together to make that happen. Until they do, this will never get resolved. Valerie - we understand that the fire and police is what the city is suppose to fund through our tax dollars and we want them to do so. What happened years ago with those pensions needs to be addressed and they need to be addressed now. I met with the police union president and wanted to meet with the fire. They will not meet with us. If you can make that happen and they can help us understand their position, we want to. Thanks for standing up for them. You are a great supporter of them and we are too.

[Joan C. Hall]

While I agree, to a certain extent, that the Councils hands were tied as far as the big money issues are concerned, I also feel they could have stood up to the forces that be. What would have happened if they voted no? Maybe we could have started to derail that train. We have to start somewhere. When you say we are counting on the Mayor, the City Council and the Unions to do their part I hope you're not referring to the present regime. We know how they feel and what they are incapable of doing. We need new leadership and the sooner the better. If we're not careful they will get an extra 6 months to turn the knife . The City Council approved asking voters to move city elections to fall 2011, roughly five months later than currently scheduled. Their rational is to give the new members additional time to review the budget before voting on it. Maybe if they started working on it as soon as it was available and seriously did the job they were elected to do They'd get something done. Waiting until 2 or three weeks before the deadline isn't my idea of working on it so how will giving them 5 more months accomplish anything? The only thing it does is extend their term in office which is not something we should allow. I don't know how this referendum will be introduced in the November elections but we had better seriously vote it out. They will probably tie it in with something we really want and then we will have to decide to give up our wants in order to make a statement. We do that in our lives everyday even though the government and unions aren't familiar with that concept.
It's a shame that the government uses the firemen, policemen and even the teachers to threaten us every time they want to raise taxes. I admire these people but feel they are not looking closely at what their unions are doing. Who is really benefiting the most from the deals the union is making? Is it the members or the union reps themselves?
I'm retired since 1989 and I haven't had a raise since then. I didn't leave my employment with a 90% pension. The little Social Security I get helps and that too didn't get a cost of living increase because according to the powers that be the economy is stable. I'd like to know what planet they are living on. Everything has increased even postage which is supposed to go to 46 cents as of today. But don't worry about it maybe we'll just eat hot dogs and beans for the rest of our lives, if we're lucky, so we can pay for all the art and fluff the city wants. That is if we don't loose our home for our inability to pay the rising property taxes

[Valerie Sawyer]

I am with FCTP on anything except going after the fire department. Many of you already know how I feel about this. I will not go after any group of people whose sole purpose of existing is to protect me and my property. We want bright young people to join this department and risk their lives and futures, but we don't want to pay them anything. Our FD takes lower pay than other departments for the purpose of being able to have a little extra in their pension. They do NOT draw any social security when they retire. Our FD is the 15th busiest FD in the NATION, yet is 148th on the pay scale. There are many other things we can go after in the City budget before we go after our police & fire pensions. And as for the comment about the fire boat........ we live in the "River City" and on an ocean - but you don't think there is a need for a fire boat?? See, it's comments like this that leave me just shaking my head.

Again, I love you all and I am shoulder-to-shoulder with you on anything else, but I will recuse myself from this debate and this fight. I see it from a completely different angle and cannot and will not in good conscious attack these people.

[Daniel R. Carr]

Is there a City/State/Federal requirement that we have a fancy brand-new fireboat? See my post elsewhere on the ning site for the picture of JFRD's new toy sneaking up the river yesterday. If this wasn't an embarrassment, why did it not arrive with much fanfare, boat parades, speeches, etc. ??
If it wasn't a boondoggle, why is it such a secret? It should be a source of civic pride, right?

[Kurt D Wullenweber]

Great blog, Billie! The entire government, from local, to county, to state to federal is UNSUSTAINABLE and it's high time the unions begin to understand this. I think the first step in dealing with this situation is to start demanding competitive bidding for ALL non-essential government entities. There is no reason Kelly Girl or any other staffing company cannot supply non specialty trained personnel, at a fraction of the cost we now must absorb. Everyone in the private sector must compete in the open market to provide the products and/or services we sell, and it's high time we take the governemnt services, we pay for, into the same market place. The day of government employment being poor pay but with good benefits has been surpassed by, in my opinion, illegal unionization with paygrades and benefits far outstripping the services provided. Nowhere in the private sector do mediocre skill levels return the compensation we see for the terrible service we receive from our government entities.
It's time to not worry about hurting anyone's feelings, because it is quite evident they show no remorse for the ride they are taking on the taxpayer's backs.

[Glenn Lord Sr.]

Right Mike, as would the 12 million tax dollars Peyton gave away to supposed developers that walked away and did absolutely nothing. The Police and Fire Unions have had an overly strong political voice in Jacksonville and that has to change. True we all appreciate the job they do but when they hold us hostage in troubled times it is time for the overboard influnence to end. Someone has to say it, they work for us not the other way around. Employees that put themselves ahead of the company and the profit of the company find the company broke and out of business. With City governemnt we will find ourselves broke if we do not stand up to the bullies that seem to have more influence than we do. Personally I think cutting spending in the other places that hurt was necessary at this point and the Council failed us miserably. No excuses no tax increases!

[Sherry Wonsey]

It is a slap in the face to all of the citizens of Jacksonville!! So many of us can barely make ends meet... now higher taxes, and coming soon higher JEA costs!! I will sell my house at a loss then move to Clay County where the folks taxes have lowered. Shame, shame, shame on our Mayor and several of the members of our City Council. They have not listened to "we the people" and nothing good will come from their refusal to hear our voices.