Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Sheriff and Firefighters

The other night during the interviews for Firefighter’s Pension Trust Fund Board membership, Patricia Highland, someone who had been on this Board for several years believed that her only fiduciary was to the Firefighters and their Union. She said that is what she had been told (as I recall) by the city attorney, etc. It came as a revelation to her that she was actually there for oversight for the taxpayers of Lake Worth. The Mayor set her straight. She also indicated that she may not want to stay on the Board if her role changed. She was much more comfortable rubber stamping it all.

This is why we have been in such trouble for a very long time and just one of the reasons, of many, why we no longer can afford our own Police Department and our own Fire Department. No one has stood up to the inflexible Unions and no one has negotiated or said "no.' And we just assume, not only in Board appointments but in Staff overall, that everyone knows what their job description is and that they will perform at 100%.

Now in Broward, the Commission is demanding that the Sheriff cut its budget of overtime and doling out big raises to unions. Read about it HERE. The Sheriff is crying that he can’t cut his budget because of public safety. He signed a union contract last year where they will be getting 7% to 12% raises. Sound familiar? The message is old. We need people on these particular Boards that will stand up to the Unions and stand up for the citizens of Lake Worth.

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