According to today's CJ Deputy mayor Johnstone, public safety chief retire courier-journal The Courier-Journal it would seem Abramson is being deserted by more people everyday. Are they leaving because of what is reported in the mainstream media or because they realize things are getting ready to come down right on top of Jerry and they want to be gone when it does.
Some will continue to use the argument of the retirement setup being changed and that seems to be the most used excuse.
Take for example that Jane Driskoll retired using this same excuse. Jane Driskoll as we know was in charge of finance and administration. I am waiting for that to be the official excuse for the delay of the CAFR.
Stay tuned for that one.
Noteworthy is the fact that Johnstone is the one retiring though Summers IV would have been the most likely candidate IMO. Of course Summers and Abramson are joined at the hip and have been forever. Many believe half the decisions in the City are made by Summers and Abramson pushes it. Who knows. In all honesty who really cares. Abramson is the man in charge and has the accountability anyway.
Interesting from the article though. Take for example this one:
The departure leaves Abramson with only one Deputy Mayor, William Summers IV. When he began as metro mayor in January 2003, he had four deputy mayors.
Noteworthy here is the fact that Abramson is now down to one Deputy Mayor as he should have been all along. Further stated was this:
Abramson said other members of his staff, including Summers, will pick up some of Johnstone's duties. Why has this not been done before now? How much further downsizing can we do? Plenty I assure you.
So now those that were under the auspices of Johnstone will now answer directly to the Mayor? Don't hold your breath that this will last long. Abramson does not typically like the day to day duties, unless they are photo ops, relying instead on someone else to spin the problems he creates instead of dealing with them himself.
Further announced was the retirement of Kim Allen.
Also this week, Abramson announced the retirement of Kim Allen, the director of the Department of Public Safety. Allen, 52, oversaw the fire departments, emergency-medical services, the Emergency Management Agency, the Corrections Department, the Metro Crime Commission and the MetroSafe emergency-communications system.
Interesting that Kim Allen supposedly had all this experience to bring and we have so many problems with public safety today. Charged with overseeing the public safety aspects of government one would think that experience would have helped alleviate the problems we have had in recent years. Guess this shows the experience really did not matter in this case.
Allen had worked for Abramson since the merger in 2003. Before that she was on the staff of the city-county Crime Commission for 14 years, including serving for more than a decade as its executive director.
Before the merger, she served as director of the Kentucky Criminal Justice Council for four years.
I also wonder if perhaps the retirement system itself should be overhauled. Seems 52 years old with somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years is awful young to retire on the taxpayers dime.
How many of us have that opportunity? remember we are not talking about a private employer here but a public paid one.
That is a discussion for another day.
In the meantime looks like 2 more political appointees are leaving Abramson. It does seem like rats deserting a sinking ship lately doesn't it?
Saturday, January 3, 2009
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Could another reason for the delay of the CAFR be that the mayor and his administration are taking extra time to "cleanse" the report of anything that could make them look bad?
ReplyDeleteYep Steve that is why I pointed it out in the other article yesterday. We shall see soon I hope.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
I am still of the belief that since this Mayor cannot produce a CAFR that there should be a state and IRS audit of the entire city government finances
ReplyDeleteExcellent points all. I refuse to believe that the change in the pension system is that big of a deal - as it is only going from high 3 to high 5. A couple of more years at essentially the same salary, compared to the increased pension/insurance you get for more time in the system, would more than balance out, I would think.
ReplyDeleteHere's a thought, though, despite the fact that KA spent all the time in Criminal Justice (doing what, I do not know) - yet the one public safety agency she did NOT oversee was ... ta dah ... the POLICE DEPARTMENT! The police should have always been under public safety.
It is a shame that politicians can retire with the same "Hazardous Duty" pension and benefits as Police/Fire/EMS workers. That is why the system is collapsing.
ReplyDeleteThink about the double dipping aspect. What is the incentive to retire early for a couple of bucks more a month. I mean if you are making 100k a year like Johnstone is and you worked a couple more years wouldn't you have more money in the long run?
ReplyDeleteWould you make an extra 100k after an estimated 20 years of retirement on your pension alone?
Not usually and therein is the rub. Take Jane Driskell for example. She just retired and is now a "special consultant" to the Finance and Administration department doing essentially the same thing she was doing when she "retired."
It would seem to be a nice way to get a taxpayer pay raise.
They aren't retiring with full pensions unless they do 27, they are simply retiring "early." So no, they don't get the full benefits. Which makes it even more suspect ....
ReplyDeleteThe pension rules are the reason. You can retire with full benefits after 27 years. For each year you work you get 2.2% of the highest 3 years salary if your age plus your years of service equal 75.
ReplyDeleteFor each year you work you get 2.2% of your highest 5 years of salary, which is usually your last 5 years.
If you age plus your years of service equal 75 or more then it will be based on your highest 3 years of service. December 2008 is the last time this option is available, thus all the retirements.
Now calculate into that the 10% cut the Mayor made all the directors take. That would reduce this year’s income, so even more of a reason to retire.
Now if you don’t know this already, you don’t have to work all those years, you can “buy” time into the retirement system.
Time is bought two ways; first you can turn in sick time, one for one. Each day of sick leave that you have not used can be converted into retirement time. There is no limit.
In the past city employees could convert vacation time to sick if the reached the maximum number of vacation days (60). Directors use to do this all the time, thus they might have a year or two of sick to hasten their retirement. Example work 25 years, have 2 years of sick leave, retire with 27 years of service.
On top of the sick leave you can also buy “ghost time” Ghost time is paid by the employee. You can buy up to 5 years, so it would be possible to buy 5 years of time, convert 2 years of sick leave and retire after only working 20 years.
Note that you have to work at least 20 years before you can use bought time. The price of the bought time depends upon how much you make. I know of people that have bought 5 years of time and paid almost $50k for it, but it increased their retirement so much they made their “investment” back in 5 years, after that it is all profit.
Remember this rules are all outlined by the state the city can not change any of these rules. God forbid Abramson get a hold of these funds!
Yes, I know all about state retirement, I work for the state, but I'm not sure that either of these individuals took advantage of any of these options. I suspect it was more the combination of the cut - and the likelihood that in two years, they'll be out of a job. Allen, in particular, didn't seem to have anything to look forward to in the future - no job in the wings, so ....
ReplyDeleteIf either come back into city government, it will really get interesting.