SOUND THE ALARM: Is your safety worth $1.50 a month?

Take off the gloves. It’s a no-holds-barred 7-alarm disaster. The mayor is at it again, trotting out his repertoire of false information and lies.

It’s a Signal 1-7 all call for the truth, and retired Assistant Fire Chief Debbie Carlin has answered the alarm to put out the mayor’s lies.

It comes down to this: a mere $18 a year.

That’s $1.50 a month--less than a tall Starbucks latte.

$18 a year.  A buck fifty a month. That’s what it would cost each person if every Dallas resident chipped in each year to ensure the pension plan is strong enough to keep our fire and police on the streets. 

Aren’t our active and retired first responders worth that much? Isn’t public safety worth $1.50 a month?

“The Dallas's Mayor either cannot add—or he is a liar,” Carlin said. “In his letter to the public, the mayor claimed the city would be out $1.35 billion over the next 30 years to save the police and fire pension. Those numbers are not accurate.”

Here is the real breakdown of additional costs as stated in HB 3158:

City of Dallas: $626 million (11% increase)

Active police and fire officers: $1.2 billion (91% increase) plus another $1.4 billion in reduced benefits by age 80 for a total increase of $2.6 billion.

Retired first responders: Reduced cost of living adjustment going forward (and, of course, the Mayor still wants to steal back $700 million in benefits already earned). 

Of these three groups--taxpayers, active members and retires--the City's burden is considerably lower than everyone else’s burden. Plus, the city's burden is spread over more than 1 million people while the remainder rests solely on the backs of 10,000 active and retired first responders.

“The Mayor is engaging in ‘fake math,” said Sam Friar of theDallas Police and Fire Pension board. “The Mayor’s words and actions are consistent with our belief that he is willing — and possibly attempting — to kill HB 3158 and the current pension plan in order to start a new one.”

Carlin and Friar aren’t the only one to sound the alarm about the mayor. In a guest commentary in The Dallas Morning News, state representative Jason Villalba notes that HB 3158 is not a taxpayer bailout as Mayor Rawlings erroneously claims. Rep. Villalba also notes that the entire Dallas delegation to the Texas legislature supports HB 3158. 

Immediately after Rawlings’ letter of lies, Dallas City Councilman Scott Griggs publically chastised the Mayor.

“I am AGAINST this letter,” Councilman Griggs posted on Facebook. “I fear that this letter is part of an organized effort to ‘kill the bill.’ Attempting to kill the bill is shameful.”

Shameful indeed.

In an April 21 press release, State Pension Chair Dan Flynn who authored the pension bill said he was “deeply disappointed in the Dallas Mayor making allegations and spreading incorrect information that won't hold up under scrutiny.”

According to Flynn, the mayor’s “own staff gave him incorrect information based upon unsubstantiated assumptions” that  “he touted as true.”

Flynn also said the Mayor’s bullying, name calling and refusal to negotiate in good faith “lends a lot of credence to the opinion of many that the Mayor just wants to take over the Plan and drastically attack benefits by collapsing the plan. Well that’s not going to happen.”

“The city can't recruit because they have a preference for parks over police and firemen, suggesting to everyone those officers rate below dirt and grass,” Flynn said. “The current legislation raises no taxes and requires no bonds, and I have no idea why the Mayor thinks it is so.”

“I suggest he stops wasting taxpayer dollars on expensive PR firms, lobbyists and lawyers, quit claiming bankruptcy is the answer and starts taking public safety seriously,” Flynn said.

Retired Assistant Fire Chief Carlin confirms that police and fire officers are leaving in record numbers “because they can make more money and have a lower work load just about anywhere else. And City Hall is showing them how much they really don't care.”

It’s time, she said, for taxpayers and city council members to “stand up and tell the Mayor to sit down and shut up. Tell the Mayor you think Fire and Police are worth another $18 a year.”

#backthepension #peoplebeforeprojects #morethandirt #sitdown&shutup

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

City Hall Shoots Another Volley At First Responders

So the four council members on the pension board filed suit yesterday against the remaining pension board members in what amounts to a hostile take-over of the fund so the city can ultimately confiscate retirement accounts and garnish pensions for money already earned and paid by first responders.

Lots of finger pointing in that 41-page lawsuit at just about every body but the council members, former mayors and current mayor.

Never mind that the city created the plan.

Never mind that the city council always had oversight over the plan.

Never mind that the city (according to the lawsuit) doesn’t want to do one thing to  “to sacrifice paved streets, affordable housing, public safety, parks, and other necessities…” Oh, but they supposedly love their first responders and find the need to protect them from themselves.

Never mind that former Mayor Laura Miller’s lawyer/husband filed the lawsuit.

Never mind that the city promised those four council members that they would indemnify them to protect them from lawsuits expected and already filed by first responders who have been unjustly victimized by the city. 

Oh what deep pockets these mayors have!

Over and over again the lawsuit holds the city blameless and claims the court needs to take over the fund to ensure it’s managed property.  And, ultimately, who better than the city of Dallas to do that?

Seriously?

Am I the only one who remembers the city of Dallas couldn't even manage its role as dog catcher?

They had to call the police to step in to save them.

Someone needs to stop this madness.

#PoundOf Flesh #savethepension #backtheblue 

We Were Always There For You

Dwight survived his 27 years as a Dallas police officer despite being run over by a Cadillac, hit by a DART bus and shot at twice.

I’m 67 now, but look 80," he said. "I was proud when I was hired. Back then one out of ten who applied got hired. Even during the bad times, I was proud to be a brother in the best department in the country. I was proud that if the citizens called for help, I knew we would get there quickly and could handle any situation.”

Dwight served in Tactical, Southeast, Northeast and Southwest Divisions, Communication, General Assignments, Internal Affairs, Physical Evidence, Vice and Narcotics. He worked days, evenings and the late night shifts. He retired 16 years ago at the rank of captain.

In addition to his devotion to his law enforcement career, Dwight served as a church elder and Bible class teacher. Now in his retirement, he and his wife of 44 years, Jan, serve as Nana and Papa to  “30 or so kids at church with no grandparents close by.”

When Mayor Mike Rawlings proposed his plan to clawback money from retired first responders by confiscating their money and garnishing their pension checks, Dwight said he was horrified.

“I have been blessed with good health, and if push came to shove, I could go back to work,” he said. “I know people wouldn't be beating down the door to hire a 67 year old, but I am not too proud to do any honorable job. I know that I am the exception.”

“There are many of my generation who are broken down mentally and physically,” Dwight said. “Some are in wheelchairs, some are on walkers, and some don't even recognize their spouse due to Alzheimer’s. What will become of them?”

  

To the citizens, Dwight said he would tell them this: “We were always there for you when you needed us most. Please be there for us now that we need you the most.”

#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backtheblue #broken promises

I Never Asked For Anything Special

Here is just one of the first responders whom Mayor Rawlings wants you to believe is greedy, self-serving and overpaid.

Like many other police and firefighters, Richard has spent most of his life in the service of others. He served in the U.S Army with a tour of duty in Viet Nam, and then served as a Dallas police officer for more than 30 years. 

"I never asked for anything special," he said. "I worked 30 years of weekends, deep night patrol, missed almost every major holiday with my family, spent countless trips to the emergency rooms in Dallas for my on duty injuries."

Even though Dallas was ranked 27th in pay compared to surrounding cities, Richard remained to serve the citizens of Dallas.

He never took a "sick day," received more than 175 commendations and excelled in every evaluation. That earned him a promotion to Detective and he retired as Master Police Officer.

"For this," he said, "I  was presented with a retirement plaque which bears my badge and 13 medals and a promise of a pension check and what I saved in the DROP account that the City organized in order to retain senior officers."

Now, Mayor Rawlings and City Hall are threatening to seize his retirement account and garnish his pension check by clawing back the money he's already earned.  

"Now the only thing I have left is that plaque that’s hangs in the study in my home that I will not be able to afford to keep," Richard said. "Not only will I suffer, but my wife of 37 years who stood faithfully by my side as I served the citizens of Dallas will also suffer. Please help the first responders of the city of Dallas and save our pension system."

#PoundOfFlesh #Savethepension #brokenpromises

The Union Boss Lie & Collective Begging

I was listening to the Chris Salcedo show Friday and was appalled by several callers who seemed to be under the mis-impression that the police and fire pension fund was brokered (and broken) by "union bosses" who somehow finagled this deal with their political cronies.

But the truth is, this was a city hall plan from the get-go as a means to retain officers who were leaving in droves in the mid-90s. The pension plan was approved every step of the way before it even made it to the rank and file. Even the IRS had to approve it before it was implemented.

Oh, and just a reminder, there are no "union bosses" for the police and firefighters rank and file. Unions? No.  There are  fraternal associations that were formed to present members' concerns to City Hall. These organizations were also formed to protect the legal rights of their members.

Collective bargaining?

Hardly.

Try collective begging.

That is why Dallas Police and Firefighters have always had to sue the city of Dallas every step of the way in order to make city officials follow the law regarding state constitutionally protected pay and benefits.

That is why it's so important not to trust the city of Dallas or Mayor Rawlings when they trot out their solution for the pension fund. They have never, ever followed the law, much less done what is right.


#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backtheblue #broken promises

So Who Do You Trust With Your Life?

Mayor Mike Rawlings and his Taxpayers for a Fair Pension are no friends of Dallas police and firefighters.

Their mission is simple: To fix the Dallas Police and Fire Pension fund on the backs of its first responders without the city shouldering any burden.

Instead of negotiating in good faith with our police and firefighters, Mayor Rawlings has launched a formidable, well-funded attack against these brave first responders calling for the legislature to authorize a new pension system, a clawback of money already earned as well as significant benefit cuts.

The “clawback” feature garnishes money from pensioners’ checks–stealing money already earned from first responder retirement accounts. It’s tantamount to going to your bank to withdraw your money from your account and the bank telling you, “No.”

The associations representing active and retired police and firefighters have negotiated in good faith. City leaders have not. Instead, they have made an orchestrated attempt to bring the fund to the brink of disaster. To allow city leaders to gain control of the fund would be catastrophic.  The city and its leadership have shown they cannot be trusted. They have never kept their promises to their first responders regarding pay compensation and pension matters. Only the courts have held the city accountable.

Look at all the previous money spent, missing or squandered. The $420 million plus for the Trinity River Corridor Project. The $5 million Trinity River Dallas Wave and the estimated $3 million price tag to remove it. The $182 million price tag for the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. The almost $30 million in federal HUD money unaccounted for by the city.

The list is endless.

Mayor Rawlings and his cronies say the city must take over the fund because they have had no control over it. But with four city members on the pension board, the city has had oversight. City leaders approved every provision of the pension and DROP program.

And while city leaders were willing to issue $535 million in pension obligation bonds for the city’s civilian pension, Mayor Rawlings refuses to do anything for its first responders.

Rawlings wants you to believe our first responders became rich from DROP, but the vast majority do not have millions in their accounts. They merely have enough to live with dignity (not extravagantly) and pay their bills in their twilight years. In the mid-90s, the city designed DROP to stop first responders from leaving the city for better employment. DROP ensured that while the city would not pay these brave souls an equitable salary, DROP would see them through their retirement years.

Every active and retired police officer and firefighter faithfully kept their promises to the city. They answered every call. July 7th serves as a grim reminder of the sacrifices made so that the city of Dallas and its citizens can prosper.

Your first responders need your help. Now is the time to answer the call and make City Hall keep its promises to preserve the police and fire pension. Tell City Hall and Austin and that you do not support the clawback and you do not support the Mayor’s Taxpayers for a Fair Pension Plan. Tell them you support the  compromise plan from the active and retired Dallas police and firefighters groups.

With all the rhetoric bantered about, it’s probably difficult to determine the truth.

The bottom line, though, is really quite simple: Who do you trust with your life?  City Hall with its politicians and business cronies?  Or your police and firefighters?