I have never been so ashamed of my city and my department for the way the mayor spoke about us in his press conference. The citizen's of Louisville have had to put up with his lies and for him to turn around and accuse us of scare tactics when he is the one saying that if we don't take this deal then he will have to lay off 150-200 employees?
He gave all Metro Union Employees an ultimatum, there was no negotiation. Negotiation is defined as follows:
Mutual discussion and arrangement of the terms of a transaction or agreement: the negotiation of a treaty.
The act or process of negotiating.
An instance or the result of negotiating.
Abramson never negotiated with us or with any Metro Employees. He told everyone that either they give up their 2% raises for the rest of the year or accept the furlough days. We all know the 4 crappy offers he made to the Police Officers so I won't repeat them again.
Now he is saying that in order to cut 20 million from his ?projected? shortfall that all Metro Employees will have to have ?Skin in the game!? (We as taxpayers are paying $67,000.00 a year to his personal speech writer to come up with phrases like that?) I would like to point out that we have had 'skin in the game? since March 2008 when he began charging us fees for these vehicles. All Metro Employees have had 'skin in the game? whenever we accepted 0% and 2% raises because since merger he has claimed that he was broke and then he turns around and spending foolishly on some pet project.
Download LMPD Memorandum #08-052
Remember ,that in Abramson's Office alone there are 29 positions with a combined yearly salary of almost 2 million dollars. It seems a cut or two there would be in order before you start taking away from the people that actually make the government function every day.
Recently all the Police were told what he was going to do, again no negotiation or compromise. If I want to take my Police Car home as I have done for 20 years, then now I am going to have to pay for that ?privilege.? He is basically blackmailing me by telling me that if I want to have a safer neighborhood because I have a marked car in my driveway or if I want to work off duty to help make up for the 0% raises and 2% raises that I have to pay what amounts to 4% of my salary in order to bail him out of the mess he made of Metro finances.
Abramson knows he cannot take money out of our contract or furlough any Officers so he went after us the only way he could by saying he would make us pay for the privilege of having a take home car. He said he would charge us $100 a month just for take home and $160 a month if we worked off duty. They know full well that because we are one of the lowest paid Police Departments for a community of our size that we, the business people and the community have vested interests in having these cars in the neighborhoods and at businesses.
Chief White himself has said numerous times in the past in defense of the program that if an Officer is working off duty somewhere and there is trouble there then he doesn't have to send an on duty unit. That is stating the obvious. Well today he is singing a different tune.
In his recent e-mails Chief Robert White and in his unprofessional address to the in service class today is now using scare tactics of his own:
Participation in the take-home vehicle program is a privilege and participation is not mandatory. If a member decides to decline participation in the take-home vehicle program, they shall notify their division commander they no longer choose to participate in the program by close of business December 20, 2008. The division commander will advise the officer when and where to turn in the vehicle. The division commander shall also advise LMPD Human Resources by email of the member's name and declination. If a member opts out of the take-home vehicle program, they may not participate in the
Program at a later date, except in unusual circumstances, and with approval of the Chief
Of Police.
If everyone turns them in then he will ?mothball? the fleet and sell off excess equipment.
He stated the original $30/$60 gas fee was originally intended for GAS! It is no longer about that, it is now about money. He was clear that the new $100/$160 fee is about generating money and nothing else.
He stated if you have Department issued equipment he would figure out where to store it. He gave no specifics on where that would be.
He stated it was likely that there would be some people that would have a take home due to their specific assignments such as SWAT. He indicated this would be a very select few and that they may have access to a take home only during their assigned on-call months. The car would only be available to and from work. I don't think he really knows just how much of this department is run on Officers volunteering to serve on specialty teams.
He also said that Officers will not be allowed to park in the parking garage while attending court unless they are in a departmental vehicle. This will also include Detectives who work at headquarters.
You will have access to a car during your shift. He indicated he would be in favor of an assigned vehicle but another Officer on another shift would also be assigned the same vehicle.
He said the current fee of $100/$160 is for this fiscal year. After July 1st he doesn't know what will happen. He gave no clear answer to the question of the probability of a future increase.
Most Metro Employees will be forced to give up $600-$700 of their meager pay in order to bail out Mayor Abramson who has in simple terms, thought he wasn't really spending money because it was on a credit card. Now that he has wasted untold millions on expensive privatization of Metro services and out sourced our tax collection for a princely fee and given away guaranteed metro revenues to his cronies he is asking me to pay a lot more and my budget is stretched so tight you can see through it.
Once again let me reiterate something Mayor Abramson. Almost everyone in Metro Government is willing to help in some form or fashion but you choose to deliver threats and edicts instead of trying to compromise or negotiate. You have repeatedly refused to answer questions about the budget and chosen to give us the Reader's Digest condensed version instead. I am hesitant to believe you when I have been lied to so many times. I want to know where the money is and why it was given away to in shady business deals like Cordish, Downtown Developement Corporation and Titan.
Let us not forget that his actions, while he says are for ?The Greater Good? will only result in more grievances and lawsuits like the one with the Firefighters that could have been settled simply by his admission of a mistake and immediate correction, but he in all of his arrogance told them to go to hell and now our community will pay out 20 million dollars for something he screwed up years ago and failed to fix. Once the first union employee is furloughed against their wishes you can bet there will be attorney's waiting in line to help file a lawsuit.
Let me end here by saying my thoughts and prayers go out to all my Brothers and Sisters in every part of Metro Government that are being adversely affected by this during this most memorable of Holiday Seasons. Merry Christmas to you Mr. Mayor! You have brightened everyone's holiday season by taking money away from the very people that make our community safe and every department run efficiently.