Our City Employees
News Conference September 3, 2009
This election will be quite a heated race. There are two insiders who were supporters of each other now battling heavily against each other. Reports already are saying there is a lot of hard ball being played by the two against each other. It is a case of two of the same pack, with the new lion trying to push the old lion out.
It also rumored that two other insiders are contemplating getting in this race. It should make for great reporting!
I noticed that one candidate is promoting a transparency in government concept, something that one reporter called me and commented about, noting that I had said these very same things about a decade ago. I was quite honored by the imitation, albeit 10 years later. I expect to hear more of what I have championed over the years. Unfortunately, the issue I am speaking about today has never been championed by anyone on council, and it has gone far too long without addressing. Today, it is time, and I expect it will change the tenor of this race because it is an issue upon which the balance of our city hangs.
No matter how qualified I may be as a mayor, no matter my wisdom, ability to govern, vision and other qualities, nothing happens if I do not have a good team beside me. Council may be the heart of city government, but our city employees are the life blood of Columbia. They carry out what council legislates. A heart is useless if there is no blood, and council is useless if there is no one to carry out their decisions. Our city employees are critical to running a good city efficiently and effectively. They have the ability to make our city strong, safe, healthy and of good service to our citizens by carrying out their jobs properly. Or they can cause much havoc if they do not. City employees are vital for all we do.
Yet, for far too long we have ignored their needs. Instead of providing them with the tools and equipment they need, instead of living up to the promises we have made to them, instead… our elected officials have spent money with abandon on speculative projects that have consistently lost money, not kept an accounting of our finances for years in violation of state law, and run our city into financial ruin. As a result, our city workers -- those who have not lost their jobs entirely -- have had their insurance reduced or eliminated, no promised salary increases, hours cut, comp time eliminated, and needed equipment not supplied.
When many of our city employees were hired, they were promised certain benefits such as comp time, holidays, guaranteed salaries, retirement and insurance. Many, if not most, based their decision to work for the City of Columbia because of these benefits. Yet now, even though many of our city employees have EARNED those promised benefits over many years, they are being taken away.
This is -- can I put it more diplomatically? No-- immoral. To have a person put in 20, 25, 30 years or more, expecting protection in his old age, discovering that he or she has greatly reduced or no insurance and lost other benefits at retirement despite the employment promises, is unconscionable. He has given something he can never get back: his time and his life. He cannot get another job elsewhere and regain those benefits at retirement age.
But that is what it appears our council expects our employees to do. My mother worked for the state because she knew she had guaranteed insurance and retirement benefits. She felt secure and was willing to work for less than she could have elsewhere because she trusted government to provide at retirement what was promised. With the medical needs she had in the last 7 months of her life, if she had not had that safety net, she and I would have been living in an abandoned car somewhere out in the woods because the cost of MRIs, ICU, rehab, operations, tests and medicine is astronomical, far more than any assets she had.
As a city, if we are to recruit and retain the best, we must provide guaranteed benefits and deliver them as promised. If we do not, we will have high turnover due to poor morale, lack of trust and other agencies offering better conditions to our most competent and efficient employees, much as they are doing now. Our police department had a 20+% annual turnover, our city employees have had a serious morale problem for years, and many jump ship as soon as they can. How many times have I heard from other police agencies how they recruit from our ranks, costing our city much additional expense to train new employees? Fortunately, because of the efforts of our new chief, Tandy Carter, it appears the turnover has subsided. But if council does not support him in the promises made to new recruits, we will again see extremely high turnover, and exorbitant recruiting and training costs.
City council has made far too many financial mistakes, running our city to the brink of bankruptcy. Not only has our financial situation been ignored and vendors paid 2, 3, even 4 times, but the retirement and employee insurance funds have been ignored. Now we find council has exhausted the reserve funds, but have been surprised with the increase in insurance liability, one which council cannot pay. So council decided to eliminate these benefits instead. City employees are angry as they know that they are paying for the mistakes of council. They are also angry because council is trying to make them appear to be the problem. Yet it was council that failed to keep track of city budgets. It was council that failed to keep up with the insurance fund. It is council that exhausted our reserve funds, leaving nothing to pay not only benefits but base salary. You may have noticed the furloughs everyone, even including firefighters, were forced to take, potentially putting our citizens in jeopardy.
As mayor, I will afford our employees the respect and dignity they deserve. I will constantly work to get guaranteed benefits for our employees, ones contractually guaranteed. I will push for lock box status of these benefits, to be administered by a guaranteed group, whether independent, or state or federal agency. I will have yearly employee benefit fund audits to insure that the funds are being deposited and administered properly. I will work with our city manager and council to create better working conditions, happier, healthier and more motivated employees. I will work for fair, impartial employee reviews so that we may retain those who work hard for the good of our city, rewarding them for their care and service to our citizens.
The buck may start with me as mayor, but that buck will also stop with me as mayor. There is no way as mayor I can expect to reduce costs, create efficiencies, have funds for more police, fix our crumbling water and sewer lines and pay our employees properly, as promised, if our employees are unhappy, and therefore less-effective. I will work to create a great team of city employees who deliver the best services possible to our citizens in the most efficient ways possible. I need them, you need them, we all need them.
Let's take care of them!