Now Where Are Those Chicken Feathers?

This really is a must read by Dallas Observer Columnist Jim Schutze. It shows what a travesty this pension bill crafted by State Representative Flynn really is by keeping in the clawback and the subterfuge created by Mayor Rawlings and his lobbying minions.

When calling out the city for its spending in other areas, Schutze writes: "How do you think that election would have gone? I would predict a vote of zero percent for the starchitect, 100 percent for the cops and firefighters plus dipping the mayor and City Council in tar, covering them with chicken feathers, placing them on a rail and carrying them out of town with much whiskey drinking."

Please share with your friends. Meanwhile, I'm going to go and find some chicken feathers…

#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backthepension

Another Story Of Betrayal

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

The Mayor Wants Confrontation, Not Cooperation

Editor's note: While there appears to be a step by the pension board and State Pension Committee Chairman Dan Flynn to try and come up with a workable solution to this pension mess, it's not time to sit around, hold hands and sing Kumbaya--at least not yet. We all know that the city of Dallas is quick to promise, but rarely delivers. So here is another story about a first responder that Mayor Rawlings and the city of Dallas want you to believe is greedy, self-serving and overpaid.

In the 34 years Tom worked for the Dallas Police Department, he said 36 officers were killed in the line of duty, countless were injured and some were paralyzed.

Before the creation of the city’s DROP retirement program, virtually all officers left at age 50 because they had maxed out their pension, Tom said.

“When it came time, I went into DROP at age 48 and took a reduced pension to do that. I didn't invent DROP, I didn't steal anything, I am not a thief,” he said. “I only did what the city and department wanted—for me to stay longer.”

DROP worked well for the city, he said.  It kept hundreds of officers past what would have been the normal age to retire.

“In my case, I stayed until age 56.  The city got at least six more years of service and a reduced pension amount because of DROP,” he said.

Now, Mayor Mike Rawlings and the city want to seize retiree’s pension accounts and garnish their pension checks for money already earned.

“The city and the Mayor want confrontation, not cooperation,” Tom said. “The problem is the city doesn’t want to do its part.  Had the Mayor said some time ago, ‘The police officers and firefighters of this city have always taken care of us, we will take care of them’ much of this situation could have been avoided. The Mayor wanted a crisis and spoke of bankruptcy to create it.”

“I believe that my benefits are protected by a State Constitutional agreement and by common sense,” he said. “I want to help fix the crisis. I want to be part of the solution. The city has never been concerned about the pension until it got to this point. The city needs to step up.”

#PoundOfFlesh, #savethepension, #backtheblue

Don't Let David Face Goliath Alone

Editor's note: Meet David who faithfully served the citizens of Dallas for 36 years. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, the city of Dallas and the bogus group called Taxpayers For A Fair Pension want you to believe he is greedy, self-serving and overpaid. The truth is entirely different.

David’s 36 years as a police officer took its toll in seemingly small ways.

“I worked in uniform for the majority of my 36 year career. It was my choice because I liked it,” he said. “Unfortunately, what comes with wearing the uniform is all the extra gear.”

The gun belt worn by police officers weighs between 10 and 12 pounds depending on the equipment carried on the belt. 

“You might think that doesn’t sound like a lot, but for an eight hour shift getting in and out of a cramped patrol car, it can wear on your lower back very quickly,” David said. “Factor in the late calls and the overtime worked because of the shortage of cops, an officer can easily spend 12 hours in a squad car several days a week.”

The weight of that belt “finally got the best of my lower back.  I had no feeling in my right leg,” he said.

Steroid injections and physical therapy were unsuccessful.

In June of 2016, David had his first back surgery. After weeks of being off work and $6,300 of uncovered out-of-pocket expenses, he returned to patrol.

Although the surgery helped, “as soon as I started wearing that gun belt again,” he said, “the extra weight triggered the same symptoms.  I muddled through work for several weeks--because that’s what we do--but finally had to have a second surgery.”

This time two 3-inch titanium rods were installed and held together with six 2-inch titanium screws.

And while he was fairly successful at battling his back issues, he could not win against another formidable foe: Parkinson’s disease.

For years, he was able to combat it with expensive medications.

“As with any medications, there are the dreadful side effects. I felt like crud most days, but continued to work because even after 35 plus years, I still enjoyed being a police officer in the City of Dallas,” he said.

But in October of last year, he faced one of the most difficult decisions of his life.

“I felt the disease progressed enough that even with medication, I could no longer perform my duties as a police officer, nor did I want to put my partner in harm’s way as I could not physically do the job,” David said.

After going through the exit interviews, turning in all his police equipment and signing some paperwork, David visited the pension office. 

The counselor told him the dollar amount he would received every month. The counselor also told him his health insurance premium would increase from $75 to $629 because he had retired. He is too young for Medicare.  His out-of-pocket expense for his Parkinson’s medication costs about $980 a month.

Now, the battle David faces is with the city of Dallas, Mayor Mike Rawlings and Taxpayers For A Fair Pension who want to take away his pension, seize the DROP money he earned and garnish his pension checks.

It really is David against Goliath.

#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backtheblue #DavidVsGoliath

Who's Got Their Six Now?

Editor's note: Meet Brent, another first responder that Mayor Rawlings and the city of Dallas want you to believe is greedy, self-serving and overpaid.

In March of 1972, Brent, his father and an assistant city attorney all went down to the Dallas County Court House to witness the signing of documents to allow the 20-year-old boy from Oklahoma to join the Dallas Police Academy.

“I still could not buy bullets or drink legally, but I could carry a gun and arrest bad guys,” he recalled. “As a young boy, I always wanted to a policeman. I just never grew out of it.”

He would have to wait until he was 21 before he was allowed to patrol on his own after two young officers, Officer Carl Cooke, 20, and Officer Allen Perry Camp, 21, were killed in the line of duty in separate incidents that year.

“I always felt this was so symbolic of how some very young men were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their community and the citizens of Dallas,” he said.

“During my career, I was spit on, assaulted, had guns pointed at me and was shot at,” Brent said. “Several friends were killed in the line of duty. Several friends were severely injured. I have always felt it was only by the grace of God, that I survived.”

He retired in 2008 after 36 years of service. The actions, threats and lawsuits by Mayor Mike Rawlings and the actions by the Taxpayers For A Fair Pension have completely demoralized him, Brent said.

“My job--my life--was being a Dallas police officer for 36 years, working deep nights, evenings, crazy hours, the weekends, holidays, the 1984 Republican National Convention,” he said. "I depend on the pension from the Dallas Police Department to provide for my wife of 43 years and me.”

“I felt I had the backs of the citizens of Dallas for 36 years," Brent said. "We need the city and the citizens to have our backs now.”

#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backtheblue

We Never Imagined This

Editor's note: Meet Dan who served the citizens of Dallas for 32 years. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, the city of Dallas and the bogus group called Taxpayers For A Fair Pension want you to believe he is greedy, self-serving and overpaid. The truth is entirely different.

“Of all the perils that we withstood, we never imagined that this would be one of them."

From an early age, all Dan wanted to be was a police officer. In fact, his mom still has the letter he wrote for a school assignment about his dream job: to be the police chief of the small town where he grew up.

Dan was not quite 21 years old when he hired on the Dallas Police Department in 1979. After serving for a time in patrol as a rookie, he and a female officer were tapped to be undercover officers in a Dallas high school.  It was the first operation in Dallas of its kind and tensions were high. The two young officers did an outstanding job, making quite a few arrests along the way.

Not long after that assignment, Dan became a member of the undercover world again, this time on the streets in narcotics.

“This is a position that isolates you from your friends and family,” said his wife Diane. “You don’t look like yourself and cannot act like yourself.  If you aren’t careful, it can eat away at you. He could not always go home, but instead stayed in an undercover apartment.”

“There is no normal home life,” his wife said. “When you do see your family, they don’t know who you are anymore. The chances of a deal going bad and someone getting hurt are really high. It is an assignment that takes a toll. “

Dan’s career continued and he made patrol sergeant.

“He loved working in patrol. It was his first love,” she said. “He wanted to make sure that citizens weren’t afraid. He wanted to chase bad guys.”

In his 32 year career, Dan  established the K9 bomb dog unit at Love Field.  A unit that, while he was its supervisor, never failed a TSA evaluation. He mentored many young officers along the way. He also created FIT (field intelligence teams) that supported the patrol units during major events.

He retired in June of 2011. 

“I made a decent living, so we deferred most of his salary to the DROP account, thinking we would need that money more in our later years,” Diane said. “About a year after he retired, I was diagnosed with cancer. Thank God he was retired, because he did everything and I do mean everything.  Every appointment, every surgery, every day, he was there for me.  Just like he was there for his troops and for the citizens of Dallas.”

And now, after all that,  she said, “We are being told that all the money we had saved --which is absolutely not millions --will be taken. That the pension that he thought he has secured for his family may not be there after all.”

Dan like his fellow officers isn’t eligible for Social Security.

And like many of his fellow officers,  Dan “is too beat up from the rigors of the job to even contemplate getting a new one now,” his wife said. “And why should he need to? He gave it all to the City of Dallas. It’s time for the city to stand up, man up, and stand by their police and firefighters.”

Citizens need to learn the true facts and not be misled by the propaganda being disseminated  by the Taxpayers For A Fair Pension and those who helped create this disaster, she said.

Dan and Diane's situation remains tenuous.

“Like many of our colleagues, the plan at the end of the year was to take what we needed to pay property and income tax from the pension in a lump sum withdrawal--except that option wasn’t available to us this year,” Diane said. “So, we scrambled and are scrambling to make payments, cover bills, make ends meet.”

If Diane were not still working, she said, they may have lost their home. Her plans to retire in the next five years have been put on hold.

"Frighteningly, that prospect is not off the table," she said. "What an insulting way to treat those who put their very lives on the line every day for decades.”

#PoundOfFlesh, #savethepension, #backtheblue

To The Citizens Of Dallas

Here's a letter to the editor written by retired Dallas police officer Mia Sullivan. It's a letter you won't see in the Dallas Morning News and it's a story that the bogus Taxpayers For A Fair Pension group doesn't want you to see.  

Dear Citizens of Dallas,

I know it is really confusing to read all the hoopla surrounding the Police and Fire Pension issue. What is really going on? How did this come about? Whose side are we to believe? After all, you pay taxes, you did all you were asked to do, right?

I’m speaking for myself here, but there are thousands of police officers and firefighters n the same situation I am: I too pay my taxes, I too did all I was asked to do. Our pension is like your Social Security. We pay in with the promise and commitment to have a payout when we retire. We are not eligible for Social Security from our employment with the city. The mayor’s appointees were tasked with overseeing the pension fund along with the other pension representatives. Our old Pension Board, no longer in place at this time, made some risky investments which did not pan out. The mayors’ appointees shirked their responsibility as overseers. Over the years, they showed to be ABSENT 94% of the time at the pension board meetings.

I swore to uphold the law, protect the citizens of Dallas, be part of the thin blue line that acts as a firewall between you, the law abiding citizens and those who intent to do you harm. I know the people who love me said a little prayer every day I went to work, hoping I’d come back in one piece. I missed a lot of family events. Like you, I tried to provide a good home for my family. I wanted to help my children and my grandchildren achieve goals and potentials, frequently working extra jobs to make ends meet.

The city of Dallas told me they would reward me with a retirement, and even offered an investment opportunity to keep me on the job. I listened and did that too. Trust is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

Well, it appears that the city is not wanting to uphold their side of the bargain. And why should they? I upheld my promise and served for 32 years, but I am retired now, it’s time to forget about their pledge to me and all those who are no longer serving actively. So here is the New Plan: Let’s convince the citizens of Dallas that those retirees really don’t deserve what they have earned. Let’s put it out there that they are greedy and only worried about themselves. Let’s tell the citizens of Dallas that all we really want is to save the officers from themselves and start a new pension for the ones who are still working. And to make it more believable, let’s ask previous city leaders to get behind us (after all, they didn’t do what they promised either, and they wouldn’t dare oppose this move, lest they’d be thought responsible for not doing their duty while at the helm…)

Well, like I said, trust is a wonderful thing. I saw and felt your response last summer when we grieved our fellow officers. I saw your heartfelt care and concern. You KNOW that we, unlike politicians with agendas and political ambitions, are here with you for the duration. We are not going anywhere. We are your first responders. I have faith in your ability to see through all the political hay being made. Do this one thing for us: STAND BEHIND US! Make sure the city keeps their end of the bargain. The “Save the Pension” propaganda put out by the city would keep us out in the cold!

--Mia Sullivan

#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backtheblue

Will The Real Millionaire Please Stand Up?

Editor's note: Here is another first responder that Mayor Rawlings and the city of Dallas want you to believe is greedy, self-serving and overpaid. And, no Mr. Mayor, unlike you, Ben is not a millionaire.

Ben left the department just shy of serving the city for 31 years and just before he turned 55. 

When he left, he was not a millionaire as Dallas City Mayor and millionaire Mike Rawlings would lead you to believe.

Ben doesn’t live extravagantly. When he retired, he was only in the city’s DROP pension program for four years and nine months. With some planning, Ben and his wife figured they could supplement his basic pension with a $1,500 a month draw from DROP until they could reach her 65th birthday and Medicare. Then, the hefty premium from the city insurance would drop and they could survive on his basic pension and her social security.

Now, the city and Mayor Rawlings wants to confiscate Ben’s DROP money and garnish his pension checks.

“They have forsaken the retired Police and Firefighters who gave much to the city during their careers,” Ben said. “I am not and never will have a million dollars, Mayor Rawlings. Your statements about us begin greedy are false and incorrect.”

Because they have been “led down a path of untruths by the present city administration, council and others in the city,” the citizens of Dallas don’t realize the financial disaster their first responders will face.

“I will lose my home,” Ben said. “I will not be able to pay my bills, and I will not be able to take care of my totally disabled son who cannot take care of himself.”

That leaves Ben with only one question: “Hey Mayor, you want to help take care of us since you are a millionaire?”


#PoundOfFlesh, #savethepension, #backtheblue

He Shouldn't Have To Beg

Editor's note: Here is another first responder that Mayor Rawlings and the city of Dallas wants you to believe is greedy, self-serving and overpaid.

Mike never flinched from gunfire.

In 1991, he and another officer were shot when they responded to a robbery call where a family was being held hostage. 

Doctors removed a .45-caliber bullet from his right hip, and to this day, he said, “I can always tell weather changes.”

He returned to patrol because “I had to get back and work with my co-workers who pulled my butt out of that shooting range.”

To Mike, being a police officer was “the best job ever. Your fellow officers are your second family for life.”

In 2001 and again in 2004, Mike faced gunfire, answering two shooting calls involving bank robbers. For his actions, Mike received The Medal of Valor.

“No police were shot in either of these, thank God,” he said, “as shots were fired literally all over the city.”

After 34 years, the second generation police officer retired in 2011. One of his sons is still a Dallas police officer.

In May of 2014, Mike was diagnosed with ALS.

“That’s a hard pill to swallow,” he said, “but my wife and I put our big pants on, and we've plowed ahead. Now, we hear our pension that the city helped set up is in trouble. We don't get social security and that has kept me from receiving disability and qualifying for early Medicare.”

“I'm not gonna beg for anything we haven't earned,” Mike said, “but my wife and I need what was promised.”

#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backtheblue #DPFP