Select SLT workers forfeit retiree health plan
By Kathryn Reed
South Lake Tahoe’s City Council on Tuesday approved a tentative agreement that calls for nearly one-third of the employees not to receive city-provided health benefits when they retire.
The public works bargaining unit, which is the largest of the six groups in the city, is expected to vote this week on the proposal. Still to be worked out are raises and changes to the health care plan.
Also agreeing to eliminate retiree health benefits are the at-will management workers. Altogether this represents about 60 employees.
South Lake Tahoe faces about a $40 million unfunded liability because of promised health care benefits for employees and their dependents after they retire.
“This is an important thing for the public,” City Manager Nancy Kerry told Lake Tahoe News. “How often do you see public employees say I will personally make a sacrifice? This particular group has some of the lowest paid employees in the city. That’s why I really admire them. They don’t have the resources others might have.”
Already employees hired after 2008 don’t have the same retiree health benefits. Changes do not affect current retirees. What would affect their benefits is if and when the current health plan is altered.
The city is negotiating with the other bargaining units. Kerry would not comment on how discussions are going, other than to say the city has no problem negotiating long after the budget is voted on at a special meeting Oct. 1.
At the Sept. 2 council meeting Kerry and all the department heads went over the proposed 2014-15 budget that takes effect Oct. 1. It was in closed session that the retiree health care was voted on.
The $73 million budget is about $20 million less than the current year’s budget. This is because there is less outside money coming into the city for capital projects. For instance, the $18 million on the books this year for the Bijou erosion control project will be gone next year because the work will be done this fall.
What is remaining consistent is the $32 million general fund. That is the pot of money the council has leeway with when it comes to spending. However, with that said, 89 percent of that pot of money is allocated for salaries and benefits.
The city spends about $4 million on health care and another $4 million on pensions each year.
Kerry said the state Legislature has the power to change CalPERS, but refuses to do so. Public entities may negotiate with employees for increases to CalPERS, but are not allowed to go in the other direction.
She called out South Tahoe Public Utility District, saying how that agency during the recession never had pay cuts, furlough days or staffing cuts, and now is rewarding its employees with a three-year pay hike just two months after imposing a rate increase on users.
“Maybe they could take a 9 percent pay cut and improve infrastructure,” Kerry said.
She said, that while city employees are also due a raise, it’s imperative cuts are made, too, so there is more prudent spending of taxpayer money. For the city, this is coming in the form of changes to health care for current employees and retirees.
On the negotiating table are five health plans with three tiers.
Mark Carlson, the city’s finance director, told the council if changes are not made, the city will find itself back in 2003 economic conditions. That means no reserves and no money in the bank.
If changes to health care are not made across the board, Carlson said, “expect to be upside down” starting in fiscal year 2017.
I feel very bad for the City employees that are losing their Medical benefits, The Moral around the City is at the lowest ever, and the productivity will be at it’s lowest ever.
I remember many years ago {30} when the City was asked to change the plan to a two part plan for new hires and leave the plan alone for the current employees, They said that if they did that they would not be able to hire the best Qualified people without a good Medical Plan. Wonder what they will say now?
Seems like these employees are being bullied into this, or held hostage by their employer to accept this kind of change to their hiring package. Are they being reimbursed for the contributions that were taken from their paychecks towards this benefit. Seem like the city needs to see changes for everyone, not just a few. Is nancy kerry taking a cut?
If a city is robbing their pension and retiree benefits, don’t buy their bonds. They will go under very soon after and you will lose your investment.
Nancy, you can not dodge responsibility by blaming STPUD for managing their finances better than the City. STPUD does not pay retire healthcare, that is why those employees are getting a wage increase equal to the cost of living increase. It is not their fault your Council made $40 million in promises to staff and then broke those promises.
During the public hearing for their budget STPUD said they have decreased staff by 3% through attrition and cut benefits to employees to reduce their costs. They were able to do this without layoffs and furloughs.
The City has been using strong arm tactics in negotiations for years & for years employees have made concessions under the pressure. Dare I say blackmail? To continually attempt to weasel out of their legal, contractual obligation to now retired employees is reprehensible. Those retirees relied on the contract promises made when planning their retirement. Those retiree health benefits are a form of deferred compensation based on the fact that employees gave up pay raises for years in order to pay for those benefits. The City should just suck it up, honor their pre-existing promises & quit squandering money on other new, frivolous things. You have to wonder what the financial impact to the City would be if those retirees chose to take legal action against the City to enforce that contract.
Contracts are intended to be negotiated, not imposed by the then City Manager. Whatever happened to “good faith” bargaining? Kerry hired a heavy handed lawyer who specializes in raiding employee benefits and trying to balance a budget on the backs of the employees. For Kerry to say she admires employees that are some of the lowest paid and they willingly took these cuts is a total joke. She imposed this on them and being a small group or association they didn’t have a choice. Kerry bolsters her agenda through the media in an attempt to gain public support through misinformation. The City never reveals its true financials to the public or the employee units. SLT is a remote CA. city that already has a difficult time trying to hire quality public safety employees and this benefits raid will greatly reduce the pool of professional first responder applicants. The Police and Fire department are already experiencing this problem and it’s only going to get worse. Hopefully, this will not cost a life or a very large lawsuit that would negate the cost savings imposed by the City Manager.
Thank you Nancy and City officials for making some big decisions in the best interest of the community.
It is not the City’s responsibility to ensure retirees are comfortable in retirement. In the private sector, besides my contributions to Social Security (which may be gone when I retire), it is solely MY responsibility to save, invest and plan for MY retirement. Why should public enterprises carry the burden of padding retirements?
Most people want government to operate more like fiscally sound private entities. Conversely, when they do, many of those same people lambaste the agencies for being careless and callous.
If we want our City and our South Shore Community to thrive we absolutely have to operate both proactively and aggressively. Yes, sometimes this means cuts. That’s the real world. The City and it’s services are not an entitlement program.
I desperately want to see our community reflect the amazing natural environment around us. Fiscal responsibility and improved appropriation of funds is the most critical and foundational piece of that equation.
Thanks again Nancy.
Nancy Kerry earns $14,166.53 A MONTH!!! While I think she does a good job, that salary is ridiculous. How about up to TEN THOUSAND A MONTH for the H.R. Manager. Seriously? Over paid. http://www.cityofslt.us/ (see Human Resources link)
Re SLTEXPAT comment on the city fire department, I agree. For example, take the new ladder truck that was obtained. There was no reason to order a larger truck and incur such a large cost whether it be to the city (residents) or from a grant. To make matters worse, there was no fire facility available to house the truck so they had to add on to station 2. It is my understanding that the monies to do this was obtained from the funds geared to hire additional firefighters. Oh BTW, I heard that the “new” truck was driven out here by manufacturer personnel from out of state in 4 Wheel drive thus damaging the transmission which has to be fixed or replaced. Therefore, we do not have use of the truck anyway. The reason for the truck was the anticipated building at the “hole”. If needed, the ladder truck in Douglas County could be obtained thru the mutual aid agreement. It would have been cheaper to pay for the mutual aid use than to buy a new truck.
This is an example of the incompetence of our current city council. City residents have a chance to start correcting this soon.
We moved here from Ventura County 32 years ago. At that time half of the surrounding communities were and still are protected by the Sheriff’s office and Ventura County Fire Department. Most of those communities are larger than SLT. So the question is why doesn’t the city disband and come under the auspicious of El Dorado County. It would prevent a lot of duplicate efforts and it can be reasonably inferred that a lot of money can be saved. If this does not happen we will continue to constantly hear on how poorly our city is doing regarding finances.
Aardvark, have you been paying attention to how things are going with EDC? It’s a complete mess, and I personally would be mortified to cede control of South Lake Tahoe’s destiny back to the County.
Kudos to Nancy Kerry and staff for addressing this difficult situation. The City can’t continue to function under the tremendous burden of these benefit costs to retirees. Remember that retired employees are getting health care costs covered in addition to their pensions. Health care costs of the current retirees will be continue to be covered, but the City should have the ability to negotiate/adjust the plans of all staff members including the retired employees.
The City starting and average salaries for staff members continue to average above most (if not all) industries in our community, and will continue to be an attractive option for employment. Health care options that may cost more but are still within industry norms or through the Affordable Care Act are good options to control these skyrocketing benefit costs. The City does need to act with fiduciary responsibility and address this situation.
The fiscal bleeding has to be slowed. Keep up the tough work Nancy.
So jason, the question remains. Why are they targeting the low wage earners benefits and not all city staff. The cuts should be across the board. These employers need to show by example and not by giving kudos to those who are actually being affected by loosing their benefits that were part of the package when they were hired. Yes, people need to organize for their own life and needs but if the employee came to this job with a particular promise from their employer and was hired with certain benefits in place its really lame for the employer to only target a few of the staff and not every one. Im sure Nancy hasnt lost anything like that. If im wrong id like to know, to see it in writing from the city, that she, too, took a cut somewhere along the line. Lead by example Nancy
Welcome to the Real World!!
Nobody is paying my health care costs or giving me a pension when (if) I retire so why should my tax dollars pay for these generous benefits to our public employees? That said, cuts should be across the board, starting with the city manager and other executives.
My husband and his brother had very similar jobs at very similar pay. His brother worked for a county government and was able to retire at 55 with 80% of his salary(!!). My husband will probably work until he drops dead on the job.
mrs. t
You ask …
“why should my tax dollars pay for these generous benefits to our public employees?”
Because our government has betrayed you and your husband and your children and grand children are now effectively slaves of the state
That said
FYI to any fascist that would like to shut me up – Though I keep my location secret I live in an open carry state for a reason.
From here it gets worse.
GBA
Ohhhh cj.
Define fascist?
Go ahead, shoot……ask me if im afraid, YAWN…
CJ won’t directly address anyone of their critics because they not interested in anything more than reciting cuntservative talking points. Go ahead and ask them about how they plagiarized the U Haul theory, and how they have been called out on why its economic basis is fundamentally flawed numerous times by people more intelligent than they are.
Glad im not working for the city. I love it when ou have the top getting top notch pay. Then turn around and watch the people who do most of the work and receive the least get screwed. It really is too bad that we have a boss for a city manager and not a leader. A leader wouldn’t have commended them for doing this she would have participated. Is she going to have lifetime health insurance?? What other perks does she get on top of her huge salary. How many hours a week is she at work break that down for hourly wage. Just like at STPUD the top people are getting theirs but the worker bees get the grief. I would love to attend the city council meeting if I could and ask Nancy some questions. As with the discussion with STPUD raises I would like to see someone post what the top city officials are making. Just remember a leader is with the group a boss looks over the group. A leader will bring a group to a new high a boss will keep the group down for control.
U-Haul theory??? … that is idiotic. u are a moron
it’s called the law of supply and demand – U-haul didn’t come up with it. They didn’t even exist when the law of supply and demand was perceived.
You can’t fix stupid. Who would want to? Better just to flush.
Cosa, CJ is not overly bright. He conflates fascism with socialism, then throws corporatist in the mix just for the hell of it. He chooses to be ignorant because he believes that makes him smart. If he actually investigated anything, he would realize that fascists hate socialist (and vise a versa) and corporatist has so many different conflicting definitions that it is simply a meaningless term. He clearly listens to uneducated radio nut cases and cannot think for himself. He is a conspiracy nutjob, who apparently hoards guns (his own admission) as he is a scared rabbit, lives in Nevada (I surmise) and afraid of his own shadow.
I on the other hand, choose not to own a gun, am a fitness freak, well educated and well read, an entrepreneur who probably pays more in federal taxes then CJ makes (but pay a lower % of my income in taxes – based on statistics alone), well set for retirement, but probably will work another 10 years plus (into my 70s) because I like what I do, own two houses in California (one in the Bay Area and one in SLT and will never move to Nevada), most of my friends are well educated professionals from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds and political stripes (reasonable people can disagree – my conservative friends are intellectual conservatives, not the Rush’s, Sean’s, Glen’s or Nugent’s – you know the gun-toting druggy who has sleep with more women than can fill a stadium – good conservative values).
While I like most folks will agree, the pension system is broken and needs fixing, I do not begrudge giving employees 2 to 3% raises. If that’s all I gave my staff would quit in mass.
Rick
fireman: You can view all city employee salaries here:
http://agency.governmentjobs.com/slaketahoe/default.cfm?action=agencyspecs
It seems the employees have a chance to vote this down and should. Benefits offered as part of employment should be continued for those employees, new hires could be offered a lessor package and this would be fair. When an employer makes promises they should be kept. It should be noted state employees under Pers have a very good retiree health care plan at very low costs and the city of SLT could offer this same plan if it isn’t part of the city package now as I am not sure what health plan they use or if they are self funded.
What Nancy Kerry fails to understand, more likely fails to be truthful about in this article is that all city employee groups have made sacrifice after sacrifice over the years in order to maintain health benefits both for current employees and retirees in lieu of pay raises. Health benefits were negotiated in something called “Meet and Confer Negotiations” rather than Kerry telling the groups what it is going to be. Years ago I considered leaving South Lake Tahoe because the pay for a police officer has historically been below the industry standard but I remained since I had so much time invested into the retiree medical program. I was offered two additional years of percentage on the plan to retire early so the city would have greater salary savings for hiring new recruits at a much lower pay scale.
I stayed because a PROMISE had been made by the City. Now out of greed alone it is being withdrawn. The City refers to the medical as an “unfunded liability” situation. The City has always been self insured rather than going to medical plans so that in the years when less was used by employees the City could take that money and use it for whatever it wanted by putting the funds into the General Fund. The City has not held back funds over the years to prepare for the lean years and once again want the employees/retirees to suffer.
The City is in the black, has purchased buildings in town, continues to renovate the City but wants to completely turn its back on employees like myself who gave 25 years of our lives to this community.
Recently I received a telephone message from Nancy Kerry. She told me that the attack on the medical and dumping the retires was a vicious rumor. She said the City was looking at viable options to save money and still provide good medical plans for current and retired employees. Kerry speaks in half truths or “white lies.” The medical plans presented are absolutely absurd with deductibles so extremely high that most likely no one, unless they are on death’s door step, will ever meet the deductible.
Retirees, including myself chose to leave based on agreements and promises made.
Kerry is paying an attorney $350.00 per hour to attack the medical program.
It must be nice to be King when you make almost $200,000 a year to sit in some office rather than put your life on the line everyday.
I would like to add to my last comment that within many City groups, including the Police Department, two tier medical benefit packages and have been offered and changed over the years.
Newer employees being hired knew BEFORE BEING HIRED that they were placed into a category of a different medical plan than the employee who had city employment longevity. They agreed to those plans when being hired.
Those of us, like myself, should be allowed and promises by the City should be maintained to continue with the benefits we earned through our longevity of years of service to a City which has historically had low pay for positions.
Each tier group is a diminishing group from year to year as more people come under the coverage of Medicare which is a savings to the City through attrition.
I had left the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department as a veteran Deputy to come to Tahoe. When I retired from South lake Tahoe, the monthly difference in pay of the two SAME positions was over $1900.00 per month.
Now some will say that you “earn it” in LA but while employed in Tahoe I was involved in an officer involved shooting, on the scene of two other officer shootings resulting in fatalities when they occurred, and was stabbed once, not to mention all the fights. Don’t tell me I didn’t “earn it.” I am no hero, just a person who risked it all everyday and now am completely unappreciated for it by a City which wants to take away agreements and promises made out of greed. Simply shameful.
To Justice,
The PERS medical plan has been offered to the City time and time again during our negotiation processes. They refused it, even though it was affordable and a KNOWN cost, because in the years where medical was not used much, the City would realize additional savings to put that money back into the General Fund. The City chose not to have a known cost with a medical plan and now they cry this “unfunded liability” terminology.
Cop you hit it right on the head! Nancy Kerry needs to be truthful and quit spending the city’s money on her employee parties and bonus money!!! She throws money around like a big shot trying to sweeten the atmosphere before she $@/!? You. Pay a professional salary and benefit package a get the service as taxpayers we deserve. It is time for Kerry to step down and the council that supports her…..
Retired Cop, I’ll stick my neck out here and say the police , fire dept. and all public employees deserve every penny they get!
When the fire dept.put out the fire in the house behind me, those guys stopped it from burning down the whole neighborhood!
When there has been violent activity, a shooting(no one was injured, she missed by shooting her boyfriend in the head by an inch), domestic disputes or the crazy guy yelling at the neighbors and throwing stuff at their houses, the cops were here and dealt with the situation at hand. Calmed the loon down and he stopped yelling at his mom and the neighbors and they were on the scene quick!
Do the police and fire depts. get paid well? Yes! But I say they deserve it! .Retirement? Expensive to city budgets? Yes, espically for a small town like SLT, but well worth it for true heroes who help to keep us safe!!!
Take care , Old Long Skiis and thank you for your service.
To Justice,
It would be nice if the employees could just vote this down but Kerry is going to impose this on everyone and is why she hired a big gun attorney to do what should be her or Janet Emmett’s work to take on under salary.
The medical plan will be a $5500.00 deductible with a 50/50 medical cost from the current 80/20 plan which is what most, including Blue Cross plans are at, or in other words, the industry standard.
Additionally, this proposal by Kerry will eliminate Vision and Dental plans,so I guess we can have a bunch of cops who cannot see and are toothless out there.
At the last Police Christmas party, Kerry announced the City had an additional $250,000.00 extra and she decided and gave all City employees a bonus check of 2%.
So if medical cost is such a burden, why did she not utilize this money for the medical costs of this “unfunded liability” out there???
I also pose the question that when Tony O’Rourke, her predecessor as City Manager, took $500,000.00 out of the medical plan to use in the General Fund to balance it, I would strongly question whether that money was ever placed back into medical funding when the City General Fund is now in the black. For years the employee medical fund has been used as a slush fund by a City which has mismanaged its money over and over again.
This is not a matter of the City or I should say Nancy Kerry not being able to fund medical for retiree and current employees, it is a matter of her greed.
And to close, why is it that every month Kerry puts on an “All Hands Meeting” where all employees are invited to attend a luncheon and eat free pizza paid for by tax payers dollars while working for two hours thus costing not only pay rates, but medical, retirement, vacation, and sick accrual time?
LOL! Only CJ could start ranting about his closet Fascist fetishes on a blog titled “Select SLT workers forfeit retiree health plan.”
Hey CJ! You have been talking about things getting worse for a long time now, seems your clairvoyance is fading; perhaps you never had any to begin with!
Like I said above, what is nancy kerry giving up? so far no response so im guessing NOTHING.
Kerry is abusing her position, she has lied and needs to resign now 14k a year for hosting pizza party’s and bonus check get real and get a professional in there she is no where near qualified for the position. Tony o knew that and she slid in to a 200k salary to screw the employees further!!! Good bye Kerry take you bs to some other town!!!
Question:
What are all of you doing to make the South Shore community more viable and sustainable?
From the likes of your comments…nothing. Whether your agree with Nancy or not, at least she’s doing something. My guess is, your contributions are relegated to this blog.
Were all of you this pissed off when the casinos cut their benefits to employees? Funny, I don’t remember reading so much slanderous material.
If you want entitlement programs, vote for higher taxes and, dare I say, use fees like…parking meters!!!!
I would gladly pay Switzerland-rate taxes for pristine infrastructure and economic sustainability for the South Shore community.
It’s time to be constructive.
To Jason,
Retirement medical and current employee medical is not an “entitlement” as you referred to it as being. It is a negotiated benefit which has been maintained for years by the employees who gave up pay raises for many years to maintain a benefit which Kerry now wants to take away. No where on the table has she offered to even pay just the current employees with pay raises to SUSTAIN the same level of medical benefits. She will claim it is to off set the cost but it will not cover it even for the first year. She has offered the groups pay increases over the next three years which do not even come close to covering the premium costs that a working family will be saddled with.
To the retirees, she claims that we get cost of living each year and wants all to believe that covers medical costs. Lets see, my cost of living increase this year was 87.00 per month.
For a family medical plan to sustain similar medical as I have now is a cost of about $500.00 per month. Do the math.
Kerry wants the public to think she is caring for and helping the employees and retirees but she plays a shell game.
The point here is that agreements (promises) were made to workers who gave their life to this City and Kerry wants to take it away. As I said before if the medical cost is such a burden then why did she come up with an EXTRA $250,000.00 of City TAX REVENUE money and just give it away to employees based on their gross wages earned for a year?? This is where the mismanagement of the City has come into play over and over again. Naturally each City Manager claims they cannot be responsible for their predecessor.
Have you ever heard of Destiny 2000?? That is when the employees basically bailed out the City due to the City’s lack of financial responsibility.
Retired Cop, you are right we should pay all of that. unfortunately we will have to cut Fireman and policeman as well as street maintaince, parks and recs, snow removal to pay for it. Or maybe we should just declare bankruptcy and have the courts put new numbers in all contracts, that maybe our best option as Calpers and medical costs are killing the budget. Yes definitely pay for employee benefits’ first and fire another third of the city work force.
Trying to live within one’s means is a challenge that those of us in the private sector have to face all the time! When we have less revenue than anticipated coming in, we just deal with it. We can’t complain if our Cost of Living Increases are not actually all that much. In fact we don’t get them all the time. And even in some years have to deal with genuine, true cuts. Not just less of an increase than hoped for.
So I don’t know what Ms. Kerry was doing handed out bonuses to everyone just cause at that moment there was some spare money lying around?
Justice: It should be noted state employees under Pers have a very good retiree health care plan at very low costs and the city of SLT could offer this same plan if it isn’t.”
I was on the County’s plan for many years into my retirement but the costs went up EVERY YEAR and my PERS COLA every year is less than that. I finally was able to rid myself of this county (rip off) plan after it went to over $750 a month out of pocket for just me.
Somehow I don’t think PERS would offer a better plan.
Are you on the PERS plan if it’s so good?
City employee groups wanted to go flat for three years to hold onto a mediocre 80/20 plan with a 1250 deductable, vision and dental. This is the same type of negotiating that has gone on for years. Save medical…
Hopefully at some point the employees figure out that they should purchase their own insurance.
There is absolutely no reason an employer should purchase health insurance anymore than they should be purchasing my cars or food. It is irrational and economically destructive.
I’m trying to stay out of this, at least for the moment, until the truth washes out. But, for Moral H’s benefit, the City employees were offered this health insurance package in the 80s in lieu of trying to keep salaries within shouting distance of cost of living increases. The employees accepted it, and watched their salaries drop from the bottom 20 percentile of State agencies to the bottom 5 percentile. And no one complained because retiree health insurance seemed a good proposal.
Everyone realized that the City Council was simply looking for a way to defer funding for the management of the City in favor of being able to finance their own packages.
What no one realized, and it wasn’t the employee’s responsibility to track it, was that the City Council would never fund the liabilities it had accepted. They figured out a way to save money, but their greed (even before the greed of our modern-day financiers)caused them to simply stop paying their internal bills.
There are folks on the current City Council who claim to have been unaware and have no recollection of how this all came about. I absolutely guarantee that their signatures appear on the Memorandums of Understanding that they approved, and the employees were convinced to accept.
Instead of attacking and disabling employees and retirees for slamming the City budget, the council folks need to look down the dais for the guilty parties, and quit getting bullied by the City Manager who is simply following in the footsteps of the thug who mentored her, and whom she replaced.
I guess that’ll have to do until I’m actually ready to reply to this political kerfuffle.
All this shareing of thoughts and opinions is good dialogue but the question is still there and unanswered. Has Nancy Kerry taken any cuts to her benefits? Its a simple question and has yet to be answered. If she is so determined to do the right thing by her employer and has no problem cutting the benefits of the low wage earners, than she better pony up too. Right now id say she has very little to no intregity. What say you Nancy Kerry?
Here is an article about when Nancy Kerry’s contract was approved: https://www.laketahoenews.net/2012/09/s-tahoe-council-city-manager-reach-contract-agreement/
She has not taken a raise since then, though the council has offered it.
LTN staff
Lower quality services, higher taxes and fees, duplicity with already existing government services, constantly dissatisfied and complaining employees, now excess money and bonuses and parties while the streets continue to crumble away.
End the nonsense and constant bickering and inefficiency. Dissolve the city now.
Steve-would you prefer that the ElDo County teabaggers run our town?-and you don’t know what dissolve means-try smaller words
The city has a reserve fund and has not touched it it continues to grow. The health care plan is adequate and retiree medical is not busting the budget. The medical self funded account is at 5.6 million. If the budget is not broke don’t try to tear it apart. There was 250k extra last year that was given as bonus cash. Reinvest this money into the health fund if it is not sufficient. Kerry is ripping apart the retiree plan because she does not have the tenure with the city or a vested interest in the community. To be competitive public safety positions offer quality medical plans and benifits after retirement, a public safety job usually retires the person at 55 requiring about ten years until Medicare kicks in. The job takes its toll on a body that’s why retirement is offered earlier.
Governments have over promised lucrative benefits for too many years and we’re stuck paying for people like these cops and firefighters whining about why they have to retire at 50 on retirement incomes twice that of our average local. I’ve lived here all my life and watched these cops claim this same argument, laughing it up about what it’s like to retire young when I’m working until 65 or maybe 70 just hoping I might have enough to make and pay for these taxes that you’re living on.
And don’t tell me I don’t get, I hear about the real story from my uncle whose a retired cop. You guys got it good, real good.
Wages twice of the average local, compare law enforcement wages in Tahoe to the rest of the state, yes lower but living in a beautiful place. The wages and retirement are standard. A journeyman salary for a professional. I guess you could hire a bus driver to fly a jetliner or a security guard to police your city! Why don’t you strap on a weapon and stand a post! I’d rather you just say thank you…do thirty years of graveyard weekends and holidays, be willing to die for someone you don’t even know. So you had great days off and holidays with your family, sleeping at night with the family. Retire at 65 cruising easy life. The only problem is you are a wussy!! Too scared to hit the bricks like your uncle.
Its easy for someone like Kerry to stand there and say that we don’t deserve retiree health. She is not entitled to it because she was hired post 2008. She also makes $85 an hour and does not take care of her own health. A large part of the local 39 are also post 2008 employees so they are only giving up the decent health plan and going to the least amount of health coverage that is allowable under the affordable health care act. And they are getting a raise to offset the cost of buying up. The public safety side (regardless of your personal opinion of them) have the most to loose. Our firemen and police officers cannot work until they are eligible for Medicare. It is impossible for a police officer or firefighter to physically be capable of doing their jobs at that age. Now I know you’ll say “they knew what they were getting into when they started”. Your right, they did, and they also knew that they were promised health coverage when they were eligible for retirement so they could afford to retire at a early age. Very few police or fire fighters retire without some type of disability. Few actually make it to full retirement age. The current vesting schedule protects the city so if they don’t work 25 years they don’t get the 100% that Kerry keeps throwing out there to make it sound so outrageous. Most work between 15-20 years at most and earn way less. And an even smaller group are the pre-2008 employees that actually have this benefit. Its easy to be a “team player” when you don’t have anything to loose. Go team SLT!
Would like to see the real numbers, unfunded liability? A scary word but what is the real percentages you are right on, most retirees have 20 years with a city and are paying a huge portion of the medical insurance. The medical for a retiree in lieu of pay raises was an option voted on and approved by council year after year. The court recognized this as deferred compensation. The city is going to get sued and be responsible for damage to the health fund they have been abusing.
Regardless of whether you agree city employees should have health benefits or not paid after retirement, some long time employees put in years for the city with the expectation and promise their health benefits would be in force when they retired. To have these health benefits disappear will affect the lives of many city employees. How would you feel to have the rug pulled out from under you with 5 maybe 10 years to go before retirement? Some employees will need to continue to work for many years past what they had originally planned. I would recommend to the employees affected to contact an attorney to weigh their options. Most attorneys offer a free consultation. Find a good out of town attorney city workers and fight this huge injustice against you. It’s absolutely your right to fight for your rights. You may just win!
‘U-Haul theory??? … that is idiotic. u are a moron
it’s called the law of supply and demand – U-haul didn’t come up with it. They didn’t even exist when the law of supply and demand was perceived.
You can’t fix stupid. Who would want to? Better just to flush.’
Actually in the case of U Haul it is logistics and the supply and demand part of your bogus theory is reversed. On their own site U Haul explains their rates, and why it is exactly opposite of what you plagiarized. Using bad sources that you don’t even understand or are to lazy to verify is a special kind of stupid. If I am stupid, you are a single celled organism.
Grow up people and stop the name calling. It just makes you all look like idiots. Go be mean and childish somewhere else.
Kathryn Reed, LTN publisher
Dental and vision insurance is a waste
of money. If retirees had those benefits your teeth were cleaned twice a year with xrays for approx $250. If a cavity is caught in the 1stages it is approx $100. Retirees have no excuse to have poor dental. It is cheaper to pay the dentist then it is for the insurance out of tax payers pockets. Tax payers should not be paying for your childs braces or insurance for your family the rest of your lives.
Pine. If, “tax payers should not be paying for your childs braces” then the City negotiators should not be making agreements with workers that they cannot keep.
No one is going to take your rules seriously when you allow blatant racism and whine about calling morons morons.
Re-read Reloman’s comments.
They are the reality that has to be faced. PERIOD.
18 months ago I read an article in the SJ Mercury news about how much of their budget was going towards the retired staff. I can’t remember the exact figures but this example isn’t far off what they then reported to keep SJ solvent.
2011 City workforce was 1/7 of what it was ten years earlier, and their current budget had grown considerably.
Contracted retirement benefits was the culprit. The non-workers, many who had retired in their fifties, were exhausting the budget.
We all know the story, some folks in our society got really good employment packages. One city used another city as the “going rate” to employ and keep “qualified” help.
Politicians turned to the unions to get elected, in turn they approved these non-tenable packages.
The rest of us just got bent over.
Thank you Nancy Kerry for being fiscally responsible. You are a great city manager! You made a very tough call. You always do what is best for the city.