Monday, April 10, 2017

Mayor Rawlings & His Plateful of Lies

It’s time to stop playing nice and quit inviting Mayor Rawlings to the pension solution table especially after he back peddled on promises he made at the April 3 state pension hearing.

Mayor Rawlings has become a liability. A stumbling block. A non-negotiator.

He reminds me of an obnoxious restaurant patron who orders something, eats it and then complains about paying for it.


Well, here’s a bit of news for you, Mayor Rawlings: This ain’t no friggin’ Burger King. You don’t get to have it your way, and, when you renege on promises you make, you should be barred from your place at the table.

At the April 3 state pension hearing on HB 3158, everyone agreed that the proposed funding floor was essential to stabilize and save the pension. 
In fact, Mayor Rawlings even asked State Pension Committee Chairman Dan Flynn if he could return to testify to “clarify something.”

Here’s what he said two hours, 24 minutes and roughly 40 seconds into the hearing testimony:

“We believe in a floor. What we are committing to right now, the hard dollars--even if we have less officers--we would keep in. It’s the lack of the ceiling that we are concerned with. So the floor--if anybody is worried about the floor--OK right now we’re planning on spending that money.”

Flynn wanted to make sure and re-iterated that Mayor Rawlings was not concerned about the funding floor in the bill, but about what the mayor characterized as an “open ended ceiling.”

“We just don’t want an open end, “ Rawlings confirmed.

Without Flynn’s funding floor, the pension can’t be saved. It’s that simple.

Four days later on April 7, Rawlings sent Flynn a letter saying he wanted to change and decrease that funding floor knowing full well that such a change would not only jeopardize the pension fund but would be catastrophic for the fund.

Dallas Police & Fire Pension Chairman Sam Friar warned state lawmakers last week about Rawlings plan to kill the pension.

“I absolutely believe their plan is for this pension to fail,” Friar said about Mayor Rawlings and the city of Dallas.

Friar was absolutely right.

If we are going to save the pension, it’s time to set the table without Mayor Rawlings, so that the promises made to the city’s active and retired first responders can be kept.

It’s time to set the table without Mayor Rawlings so we can move forward to an equitable solution and finally serve the citizens of Dallas and ensure public safety instead dishing out a plateful of lies.


#backthepension #peoplebeforeprojects

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