They have a pension, they want a better pension and they want you to pay for it!

In June 2012 I was asked to vote on a Tentative Agreement between the City of New London and the New London Firefighters. At that time there was $354,179.53 of outstanding loans against the Firefighters current pension plan, the 401A. That number represented 22 loans from 18 employees.  Also at this time the funds required to get these employees into the MERS plan was $14,067,016 and the difference between what the firefighters had and what it cost to get in is approximately $4 million dollars. That meant that the citizens and taxpayers of New London, who had been contributing to their previous pensions (including, according to the State of Connecticut Comptrollers officer, the MERS plan to which they entered in 1970) were being asked again to contribute $4 million dollars which would be with interest over 20 years another $1.6 million dollars.

 I thought that with the impending city tax increase, water increase and the fragile economic state of the state was just asking too much. I started researching another way to get the needs of the taxpayers and the wants of the firefighters to fit together. I spent 3 weeks working with the State Comptroller’s office, the city finance director and the law director to find a solution to what I saw was a request that was just going to be too much for the taxpayers of New London, some of who don’t even have a pension of their own but were being asked to give and give again.  

With the answers I got from the law director and finance director it was clear that the firefighters could enter the city pension, which was generously funded, first then moved into the MERS program. Since the firefighters expected to be in the MERS within 6 months, it would have required a short extension to their time frame, but it could be done. When speaking to the firefighter’s union president about this he informed me that they did not want to do this, they wanted to get into MERS as soon as possible and would not want even the shortest delay.  With these facts I had no choice but to vote against the agreement when it included the bonding- I knew there was a better way for everyone to be represented and to save the taxpayers the expense of bonding. 

This pension move is being touted as saving the city $325,000/year due to the reduction in Firefighters, however, the alternate plan I suggested would have saved the taxpayers $4 million in bonding and $1.6 million in interest over 20 years. 

At the council meeting for the vote of the agreement the firefighters who attended were rude, obnoxious and out of control to the point that the police department had to be called to control the situation. At numerous meetings of being voted on they would get louder and more boisterous at the council meetings.  The firefighters even went to far as to disparage me in the local newspaper, calling me a liar, and saying I had made a campaign promise to support them going into MERS. My exact response to that question while campaigning was “I would totally support and work to help Local 1522 enter the State MERS retirement plan”. I had worked to try to get them in, I had all the documentation that stated they could do it the way I suggested and save the taxpayers the $5.5 million dollars cost. 

Instead of understanding that the taxpayers of New London were already stretched dangerously thin, the firefighters wanted them to cough up more money. It was becoming clear that they did not care what it was going to cost citizens of New London, whose median household income was $44,000, while their salaries ranged from $67.147 to $107,155, to pay for them to go into yet another retirement plan.  They don’t care that the firefighters, who over the past 10 years were given cumulative raises of 25.75% to their salaries while he unemployment rate was 9.2% and rising, would be pushing some people in this community to a financial breaking point.  

As a City Councilor I have a responsibility to all the citizens of New London, most of the firefighters don’t live in New London, but were asking New London taxpayers to increase their pension contribution from 9.5% to a shocking 15.5%. There also is no cap on MERS and the state informs the city what its contribution is each year, there is no input from the city as to what we could afford.  Do you have a pension and if so what is your pension contribution? And if you want a better one, who can you get to pay for it? This was so wrong on so many levels and so I became the target of lies, intimidation and bullying by New London’s bravest. How much courage does it take to personally attack someone trying to do the right thing for all the people of a city, not just a chosen few? 

16 months later and the firefighters are still not in MERS, and at last’s night’s council meeting  the law director stated they have still not paid off their loans, and are no better off today than they were when they decided I was wrong for wanting to weigh everyone’s needs, to balance the desire of the firefighters to have a better pension and the needs of the citizens to be able to afford to live. 

 And so to make themselves look even worse they are on a campaign to thwart my campaign for re-election.  They say I do not keep my promise, that I am not a game player, however I have worked hard and painstakingly researched each and every vote I have to make, taking into account how it will affect each and every person in New London, and worked to try and keep the skyrocketing taxes as low as possible, while trying to improve the quality of life for all the citizens.  It has not been an easy task, and by doing so have been abandoned by my party.

 I have been a supporter of organized labor many years before even moving to New London. I have walked picket lines, I have helped lobby for legislation, I have stood at rallies for employees wanting to unionize, I attend the worker’s memorial every year, and supported union labor at many events.  I am a previous union member myself. This one decision does not define me. No one ever said doing the right thing was easy, but never did I expect our well paid municipal employees to attack and bully me they way they have for a year and a half now. How can I ask those less fortunate, those struggling to pay their mortgage or taxes, those having to decide between food or medication to give more to the firefighters than they can afford? I have to be more frugal with your money than I am with my own. It is my duty to guard the taxpayers’ money, and spend it wisely. I have done that! Does anyone out there believe that when endorsed by a union, the elected official is bought and paid for? I don’t think that is the intention of union endorsements. 

I was attacked by Rocco Basillica, the president of the firefighters union for my actions, but where is he today, what do you think about a person who would steal from others? This was NOT an anti union vote, it was a vote for fiscal responsibility. Through this all I have remained silent while they churn out lies and hate about me. It is time that the taxpayers of New London know the truth. Anyone who wants to sit down and go over the wealth of documentation and facts I have, I welcome it.