Mayhew comments Presentation to Elected Officials 4-8-13
Bill Mayhew, 1870 N.Sherry Dr.,Atlantic Beach
A while back I received a letter from a retired employee stated in effect that he believed that I
thought all government employees were lazy and that I did not like them.This is not true. I may
be a little jealous but I don't begrudge employees anything they receive through the bargaining
process. In fact, I wish I had a lifetime pension. I am frustrated with the management of this city
that has not adequately addressed these problems and negotiated fair deals for the tax payers.
The steps being proposed now are a good beginning and I congratulate you on that.
As we go through life, mistakes are made and have to be corrected.The old saying that "the
road to hell is paved with good intentions" is true here. Whoever adopted these plans surely
had good intentions; however, a decade of disastrous financial results clearly shows that big
mistakes were made and need to be corrected. Rosy assumptions about the future are one
thing, but hard facts are hard facts.
Our pension problems are not lust isolated cases.All over the U.S. cities and states have come
to realize that defined benefit plans haven't worked. Several cities have had to resort to actual
bankruptcy proceedings where even employees already retired have taken big hits to their
retirement incomes, and many, many more cities have had to consider such action before their
unions would cooperate. No one wants this to happen. No wonder union membership has
fallen from 33%of workers is the '50's to 11.3%last year.
I'm sure you've also heard the old saying that "if it's too good to be true,then it probably is".
Here again the promise of life-time pensions based upon rosy projections, plus Social Security
on top of that wherein retirees are freed from any of the investment risk in life are simply too
good to be true. Why should government employees be freed from such risks when most of the
rest of the workers have to shoulder it? (I would certainly except the military from this question
due to their extraordinary sacrifices.)
But, and it's a big but,the basic problems with the existing plans and participants have not been
adequately addressed. It is these plans, not future employees that have driven us millions of
dollars in the hole.The existing plans should be "frozen" and all employees offered defined
contribution plans, or the benefit formulas should be reduced to sustainable levels and the
plans coordinated with Social Security which is commonly done. If the police union isn't willing
to cooperate I would again urge you to investigate the feasibility of farming the police function
out as has been so successfully done with the fire department. In fact I would urge you to make
such a study regardless of the pension situation. If we could save millions of dollars and not
need a new police building at all think of the great things that could be done with an extra
million dollars a year, perhaps tax rates could even be lowered.—Thank You.