Let's Pay Them

It looks like Dallas police and firefighters must go to Dallas voters to get fair pay. If you are one of the "33,000 valid signatures" they collected to force the referendum, I sure hope you are ready to go the polls in May and support their 17% pay increase. I signed the Petition, and so did our Mayor. At the time, she said she thought the people should decide. It would be wrong for her to actively campaign against the officers' pay referendum after signing their petition to put it on the ballot.

Because the salaries of Dallas cops and firefighters are tied and they are united in their effort to get their salaries up to where they should be for Dallas to be competitive with other cities in the metroplex, for the purposes of this column they may be referred to jointly as "officers".

During the Mayoral campaign, Tom Dunning frequently mentioned the large amount of money the city contributes to the police/firefighters pension plan. He used the pension plan figures to say our sworn officers are not 13th in compensation in the metroplex, but near the top.

Tell a young officer trying to feed his family that his pension plan puts him in a comparable position to officers in Plano or Addison or even Grand Prairie.

Dunning and several people on the council are under the impression that we donate generously to the officers' pension plan out of the goodness of our municipal heart. That's not the case. Rad Field was part of the team of citizens who successfully opposed the 2012 Guarantee, and he supported Laura Miller's mayoral campaign. Rad responded to a DMN op-ed that misrepresented the pension plan situation.

To: Dallas Morning News (2/9/02)

Re: Police Pay Comparisons

The City of Dallas pays more than some cities for Public Safety retirement premiums due to reasons not being explained by most Dallas City officials.

Every city in Texas that has a paid Public Safety Department pays into the Texas Municipal Retirement System. In 1984, the Dallas City Manager discovered that by paying a greater percentage of the employee's share of pension premiums, the City could save money.

Here is how that works. The City's savings occur because their contribution to pensions is based upon total payroll dollars. With the City paying a greater proportion of pension premium and the employee receiving a lower total salary (some years with no pay increase) the net result is that the City pension premium obligation is reduced. Hence, the City pays lower premiums and the employees receive minimal or no increase in salaries.

Employees then receive lower pensions, since pensions are based upon total salary. Now we know why Dallas has paid higher pension premiums than some cities. This is somewhat the old shell game in nature.

Next is the issue of the stated 56% of total City budget going to Public Safety. Keep in mind the money shuffle described above.

Dallas city officials have not been explaining to its citizens that when the Fire Department utilizes water for a fire emergency, they must in turn pay the Water Department for the water used. The Water Department pays the Fire Department for maintaining fire hydrants, but that amount is deducted from the Fire Department budget.

Police and Fire automobiles are owned and maintained by the Equipment Services Department. That is another transfer of funds from Public Safety to Equipment Services. If Public Safety could lease/maintain vehicles from an outside contractor, costs to Public Safety could well be reduced to the City and thereby reduce the City Operating and Capital Budgets.

When the Public Safety Department sells property (real and personal), the funds from sales transfer to the City General Fund. Understanding the funds transfer events above clarifies the deceptive notion that all 56% of the City budget goes to Public Safety.

The accounting scheme above resembles events on the evening news.

Instead of having City Budget debates in the Letters Department of the Dallas Morning News, it would be refreshing to the Citizens of Dallas if the Mayor and City Manager would be up front with the facts of such budgeting issues.

Radford Field
Dallas

Rad's explanation is so thorough it gives rise to as many questions as it answers. How many years have we heard that "56% of the City budget goes to Public Safety"? With Rad's explanation, it is clear the percentage of the budget devoted to public safety is substantially less than 56%.

Did you pick up on the part where the Fire Department has to reimburse the Water Department for water used when they put out a fire. The Water Department makes a profit! Why should the Fire Department reimburse the Water Department for using OUR WATER to PROTECT OUR PROPERTY?

Back before Ted Benavides, before John Ware, before Jan Hart, we had City MisManager Chuck Anderson. He taught all three of his successors how to play the budget shell game. For years, every time we had a budget short fall, the City MisManager would miraculously find the extra money in some secret slush fund, and the council would joyously approve another "balanced" budget and never question how it happened.

Anonycop2:

Sharon, you have hit the nail on the head once again in your "27 cents a day" article. You seem to have such a knack for expressing things many of us in DPD and DFD are thinking about this city and government. In the near future the city will be putting out information to the citizens on why they shouldn't vote for the pay raise and will attempt to make us look like we are "greedy" police and firemen and that our raise will cause the city to make more layoffs in the civilian ranks of city services. We, and you also know that this is not necessary. The money is there to pay for the raises without more layoffs,it just requires better money management by the city mismanager. Even if the raise in taxes were necessary, your examples of what it would cost the average taxpayer in relation to what we spend at the 7-11 every day proves that the raise in taxes would be more "bang for the buck" to improve city services for the average citizen compared to some new arena for millionaires or other arts facility. Imagine the amount of money the city could save to pay for the raise if the City Mismanager and Chief of police were held accountable for their actions. Then a raise in taxes would likely not even be necessary. Thank you for putting some truth out there for the citizens and for providing an alternative voice against our DTB's.

Keep up the great work!

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Ralph Goin

Great story today. I hope the rumor about putting a reduction of contributions to the retirement fund is not true.

This is NOT the way to IMPROVE MORALE of your employees!

Also, why can't the city eliminate the charge to the Fire Department for the water they use while fighting fires? That should be a management/City Council decision that shouldn't be that hard to accomplish.

The Council needs to look at the BIG PICTURE! The turnover costs should be fairly easy to compute. If THOSE COSTS can be REDUCED by 40 to 50% by the 17% pay increase, and the cost of water could be eliminated, than the daily cost to the average homeowner would be less than 27cents per day, which is about the cost of one and a half cups of copy at a restaurant per week.

BIG DEAL! I really hope Lora Miller will look at ways to reduce costs to help the Police & Firefighters. This should make it easier for her to come out and support the referendum.

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For those of you who are interested, I have just been able to confirm from Mayor Miller's office that a public briefing on the fake drug cases has been scheduled for next week: Wed, 3/20, @ 9:00 a.m. in Council Chambers (6th Floor) at Dallas City Hall.

Diana Flores, Trustee, Dist 6, Dallas Community Colleges
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James Northrup:

Excellent piece on the pay raise. They earned it, they deserve, they are
going to get the raise. No more shell games at City Hall.
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Anonycop2 from www.undergroundcop.com

Wow! Sharon, you sure hit the nail on the head with this one.

You seem to have a talent for putting into words what most of us are thinking about this city and government and for spreading the word.

Thank you for your support and what you are doing to help us in this issue.

Keep it up!!
_______________

Hey, big airplanes fly, and we just accept that without question.

For the same number of years we have been experiencing the Miracle on Marilla of a smoke and mirrors balanced budget, City MisManagers have been padding the Police Dept. budget with charges like the capital write-offs that Rad mentions. The string of City MisManagers have been aided and abetted by mayors and council members who knew the numbers were too good to be true.

Knowing he had loftier political goals, you would expect Con Jerk to keep any funny numbers to himself -- assuming he even noticed something was wrong. Details are not Kirk's strong suit. (You did go vote against him, didn't you?) Steve Bartlett, Annette Strauss, et al, never challenged their City MisManagers either. For at least the last 20 years, every Dallas mayor has just moved the problem forward to the next year, hoping our house of cards would not collapse under their watch.

There has been money moving around, but it has not gone to our police and firefighters. The City MisManagers have been given huge salaries and merit raises, but not our police and firefighters.

Tax abatements have gone to billionaires, who have not made good on their promises. We make no effort to collect those abated taxes. Even with those developers who deliver something for their tax abatement, we are creating more demand for police and fire protection, but generating no new tax revenue to hire new people, much less pay them fairly.

To get our public safety officers their deserved 17% raise, City MisManager Benavides says it will cost $60 Million. I don't know why we should believe him about the time of day, but he's the one we are stuck with and he's got the numbers. So, we must accept that number. So what?

Do you know how much it will cost you if we approve the 17% pay raise? About $100 a year or 27? a day.   What a bargain! How much do you spend at 7-11 everyday? I usually plunk down at least $3 for a slurpee and bagel, etc.

Tim Dickey says he's going to pin a $100 bill to his shirt and wear it like a campaign button to show how little it will cost any of us to do the right thing by our police and firefighters. That's not $100 a person -- it's $100 a year for an entire family. Now, my family consists of 2 dogs and way too many cats -- but that's another story.

Isn't protecting your family and home worth $100 a year?

How much do you spend on your security system a day or a year? What good does it do to have an alarm system if there are no cops or firefighters to come to your aid? Or, the only ones who show up are so incompetent they cannot or will not help you? That's where we are going. We are not getting the brightest and the best police recruits because our starting salaries are too low. Of those we do recruit and spend a fortune training, we are losing many officers in their second and third year -- just when they are really becoming good at what they do.

Don't be penny wise and pound foolish.

Voting for the police referendum will cost you more money in taxes than you paid last year -- but you will know at least $100 of your hard-earned money is going directly to our police and firefighters -- rather than in some dark hole. If your home is valued at $100,000, your share will be slightly less than $100.

Let's keep it rounded to $100 per $100,000 valuation. How is that a hardship? Why should police and firefighters risk life and limb if you are not willing to pay them a decent salary? Would you put yourself in harm's way for a salary that is substantially less than you could make in another city just a few miles away?

If you had any sense at all as a public safety officer, you would take your training and experience and go to a city where there is less crime, better schools for your kids and where police and firefighters are appreciated.

Here are some comments from "undergroundcops.com":

Look what's coming up. The Park Cities arts crowd will spend a lot of money to push for us to approve millions for another performance hall. It's not like 3 out of 10 Dallas taxpayers ever attend events at the Meyerson or the DMA, but we all get to pay for the maintenance and upkeep on those buildings.

One proponent of the new performance hall says bond money should be used for it because all Dallas citizens will use it. Baloney! All Dallas citizens will get to pay for the Park Cities arts crowd to use it. The majority of Dallas taxpayers will never attend a single event in that facility.

Put that in perspective, if you and a date, spouse or friend attend just a couple of events at the Meyerson -- there's your $100 to give our officers their 17% raise.

Or, take a couple of friends to dinner, with drinks and desert, and you have already gone over your $100 to give our officers their 17% raise.

We are talking about 27? a day. When was the last time you bought a candy bar for 27? ?

There are so many law enforcement openings now for our brightest and best to go after. Why would they stay with us if we are not behind them?

It is so sad to be having this discussion 6 months after 9/11. Some days, it seems like it must have been 9/11/90 -- so much has happened since. But, it was only 6 months ago that all those men and women in public service in NYC went to their deaths trying to find and assist civilians -- civilians who almost all made a lot more money than the police and firefighters -- civilians who almost all had easier, more comfortable, more prestigious jobs than the police and firefighters.

Do you think our police and firefighters are not just as brave and selfless?

Other than the animal shelter, no new bond sales for anything until our cops and firefighters earn as much as their colleagues make in Addison or Ft. Worth. No concert halls! No luxuries until we "pay our police what they deserve".

Gosh! Where did we hear that catchy phrase recently?

Dallas cops and firefighters deserve a 17% raise. They need to get going with their referendum. They need the Mayor to get behind them. They need help from us. Will you volunteer to help them get their message across? Get in touch with me via sboyd@BoydServices.com, and I will relay your name to their campaign.

With all they do for us, can't you spare 27? a day?