Editor's note: Here is another story about a first responder and his family. Mayor Mike Rawlings and the city of Dallas continues to paint police officers and firefighters as greedy, self-serving and overpaid.
This could be a story about John who gave 28 years to the city of Dallas before he retired.
Or this could be a story about John and the endless sacrifices he made for its citizens.
Or this could be a story about John and how he was betrayed by Mayor Mike Rawlings and the city of Dallas.
It could be, but it isn’t.
This is a story about his son Joe.
Joe was born six weeks early in the summer of 1991. Despite his early entrance, he was otherwise healthy, John said.
“About the time he turned 2, my wife was noticing significant delays in Joe’s ability to communicate as well as some of his motor skills,” he said. “After months of testing, Joe was diagnosed with autism.”
At that time, an autism diagnosis was very bleak, he recalled. “We were told to begin saving immediately because we would eventually need to institutionalize him. It was a harsh time for our family.”
“The financial strain was immense,” John said, “and the therapies were very intense. We were blessed to have not only our family, but also our police family. They looked out for me on many an occasion when I was exhausted from the long hours of work and taking care of Joe’s needs.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, the city’s insurance didn’t pay for speech therapy for anyone under any circumstance, he said.
“We had spent years paying out of our pocket for these expenses at a rate that a young police family couldn’t support. Doing without his therapies wasn’t an option for us because our child was our priority,” he said, “so we found ways to live very modestly and cover the costs.”
“After decades of hard work on all of our parts, but particularly Joe’s part, he has made major advances,” John said.
Joe earned a college degree and works full time.
“However, because of his communication difficulties, he is under-employed and still lives with us,” John said. “When DROP came along, we decided this would be a great way to ensure his future care. Without his DROP money, Joe’s care will suffer after my wife and I are gone. He is a fine, hard working young man who deserves a chance at a decent life.”
Now that money and his son’s future care is in jeopardy because of Mayor Rawling’s threat to seize DROP money and take back money already earned by retirees by garnishing their pension checks.
“I worked hard for the police department and made many sacrifices to financially provide for my family,” John said. “I missed major milestones of both of my children --milestones I was told to never expect my youngest son to achieve. I sacrificed and worked hard in exchange for a pension. It’s time for the City of Dallas to honor our agreement.”
#PoundOfFlesh, #savethepension, #backtheblue
2 comments:
This Officer’s situation is a sad indictment of Mayor Rawlings and our City Council Members disdain for Police Officers and Firefighters. If there were no other responsible alternative solutions to the pension’s underfunding, I would agree with the Mayors recommendations, but there ARE alternatives. The Mayor and his supporters in City government know no shame. Take a moment to investigate how other cities have addressed their police and fire pension problems. Dallas is not alone. Many other cities are dealing with this issue. Dallas is the only city that decided to put the onus on the backs of the pensioners by reducing earned benefits, freezing their life savings and denying access to their funds. This is shameful. The Dallas Police Department is now in crisis. Officers are leaving in large numbers and recruiting has become very difficult. Officers are leaving because their pension fund is under attack. The City of Dallas will pay a price for the Mayors lack of judgment. This particular Officer deserves access to his money in addition to an apology from the Mayor.
This is truly outrageous. When a person chooses public service over any other career they literally give up much of themselves and forgo more money in the private sector. Their families suffer monetarily and time away from their family member. Social Security has financial problems now because Congress borrowed from the fund and has not paid back the fund. Publis servants deserve what was promised to them and if you reduce pensions for new public servants you won't get the quality of workers that you have now. I don't know much about the city of Dallas but was impressed recently by their stand on several issues by standing for what was right. They need to reevaluate this issue and do the right thing no matter what it takes. You cannot mess with public servants pensions. They deserve their duly earned pensions.
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