Literally days after the Mandel Administration raised our taxes for the 3rd time in one year the politically connected LB Police Benevolent Association is getting a 27% pay raise!! In addition, each police officer will get a retroactive paycheck between $80,000 and $150,000 each!
Fiscal Crisis? What Fiscal Crisis? Hasn't the Mandel Administration been screaming "Fiscal Crisis" for the last 15 months? Once again, what they say and what they does not add up....and the taxpayers will pay dearly for it! But it didn't have to happen, not at all.
Here are the police raises in the newly approved contract:
2008- 3.75%
2009- 3.75%
2010- 3.75%
2011- 3.50%
2012- 3.15%
2013- 3.15%
2014- 3.15%
Total Raise = 24.20% raise which compounds to 27% over life of contract! And 24% of that raise goes into effect this year (2013)!
Who allows this giveaway in these economic times?
What did the city get back for taxpayers? Merely nothing! The cops now have to pay a portion of their co-pays for prescriptions now, that’s it! No one can argue this is a fair deal! It' pure political payback to the loyal PBA and taxpayers are picking up the tab for it, literally!
The Mandel Administration will say, "This was an independent arbitrator’s decision" and we are bound to it." NOT TRUE! That's simply more spin, and more smoke and mirrors; here's why.
By law an arbitrator is only allowed to award a maximum 2-year deal. However on September 19, 2012, the Mandel Administration passed a resolution, that handed the arbitrator the authority to award a contract that would be seven (7) years in length, nearly quadrupling the award length! That is not a typo, I said - 7 years!! In these economic times, who does that? During a so-called "fiscal crisis" what responsible government does that? It's unprecedented, it's outrageous and its irresponsible, but the Mandel Administration did it and they cannot blame the arbitrator for it, they gave him/her the authority to do it. They were in control. They did this for one reason, so they could say, "We didn't do this, the arbitrator did, our hands were tied!"
In essence the Mandel Administration gave away their power to negotiate a fair contract that was beneficial to the taxpayers and paved the way for the arbitrator to award a huge contract that will cost taxpayers dearly. They had the chance to take a 2 year arbitrator deal and then seek givebacks from the union going forward from 2010-2014- they didn't do it. They chose to reward the PBA and punish the taxpayers all while blaming someone else. Typical Mandel/Schnirman tactics- blame everyone else!
The question is, given the stupidity of the resolution, why did Mandel Administration decide this course of action? In my opinion, it was political payback to the PBA leadership for their loyalty the Democratic Clubhouse!
This award will cost taxpayers $6 -$8 million!! Where is the money going to come from? Will the Mandel Administration use the recently received $10 million insurance payments from the hurricane that should be used to fix the city infrastructure? We they use the state bailout money that’s is supposed to be used to pay off the $14 million deficit that is really only a $5 million deficit? Will they borrow more money on top of the $30 million Mandel has already borrowed? Or will Mandel/Goggin and Company raise LB taxpayers taxes a 4th time in the year?
PBA President Kenny Apple (whose father was also hired to a city job last year! by the Mandel Administration) told the patch reporter today that the arbitrator determined that the city did, in fact, have the ability to afford to pay these enormous salary increases for the cops. Apparently the arbitrator agrees with what I have been saying for the past 15 months, that the fiscal crisis never existed, it was a lie by Mandel Administration and this outrageous contract award proves it too!!
