20020423 Baltimore Sun: Westminster property tax rise proposed and Officers disapprove of pension plan

Baltimore Sun: Westminster property tax rise proposed and Officers disapprove of pension plan

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/carroll/bal-ca.council23apr23.story?coll=bal%2Dlocal%2Dcarroll

Westminster property tax rise proposed

Officers disapprove of police pension plan

April 23, 2002

The Westminster Common Council unveiled last night a proposed $21.9 million spending plan for fiscal 2003 that calls for a 4.8-cent increase in the property tax rate - the city's first increase in five years.

"It's a pretty responsible budget that does two things - it tries to meet the city's current need to provide services and it also tries to look to the future for other needs," said Councilman L. Gregory Pecoraro, chairman of the council's finance committee, which drafted the proposed budget.

In another money-related matter, the council introduced last night an ordinance creating a pension enhancement plan for the city's 43 police officers.

Concern for adequate room in case of a large turnout by police officers prompted the council to move the meeting to a hearing room at the County Office Building. More than half the force showed up.

The proposed 2003 budget, which includes monies for the water and sewer funds as well as building projects, is up $4.6 million from the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Pecoraro said more than half of the money is earmarked for construction of the Longwell Avenue parking deck.

Under the spending plan, city employees will receive a 1 percent cost-of-living raise. This year employees received a 2.5 percent raise, plus $240.

While water and sewer rates will remain the same, the property tax will increase 4.8 cents to 40 cents per $100 of assessed value. The average Westminster home has an assessed value of $125,000 and the homeowner pays $440 in property taxes each year. That will increase to $500 next year.

Pecoraro said the increase could provide the city with about $500,000 in additional revenue.

A public hearing on the proposed budget and tax increase will be held May 6. The council could take action on the proposals as early as May 13.

Local police officers - and several supporters from the Annapolis Police Department - showed up to voice their disapproval of the proposed supplemental retirement plan for the Police Department.

At a cost of $125,000 a year, the city would deposit the equivalent of 5 percent to 9 percent - depending on years of service - of an officer's annual salary into an account similar to a savings plan.

The Westminster Police Association, Local 84, released a statement at the end of the meeting outlining its opposition to the plan.

The organization questioned the viability of the plan to retain officers because its five years' vesting gives officers an excuse to quit in favor of employment by a police department offering the kind of plan they want - a 25-year retirement threshold and 50 percent guaranteed payback.

"Now is the time for the City Council to begin taking care of the employees that take care of the city and keep it running," the statement read.

20020423 Baltimore Sun: Westminster property tax rise proposed and Officers disapprove of pension plan

20020414 Police object to pension proposal

Police object to pension proposal

April 14th, 2002

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/carroll/bal-ca.pension14apr14.story?coll=bal%2Dlocal%2Dcarroll

Police object to pension proposal - Council members say $115,000-a-year package is all city can afford; 'This is not acceptable'

By Athima Chansanchai, Sun Staff, April 14, 2002

A supplemental retirement plan for Westminster's Police Department unveiled at last week's Common Council meeting was supposed to satisfy dual goals of attracting and keeping city officers, but they don't like it. "This is not what they promised. This is not acceptable," said Daniel W. Besseck, International Union of Police Associations representative, who attended Thursday night's emergency meeting of the Westminster Police Association. Eight of 38 association members were in attendance.

Besseck was referring to the plan proposed by Westminster Councilman Roy L. Chiavacci, who serves as chairman of the council's Public Safety Committee. The plan would require the city to deposit the equivalent of 5 percent to 9 percent of an officer's annual salary - depending on years of service - into an account similar to a savings plan. It would cost the city $115,000 a year.

"The council's job is to make sure their employees are taken care of. It should be their primary responsibility. This is a slap in the face," Besseck said.

Members of the Common Council said the plan was a good one and all the city could afford as it faces a $2.3 million deficit.

Besseck's group has been working with Westminster police Local 84 for the last two years to revamp the department's current retirement plan, a state pension system that returns 32 percent to 42 percent of the average of three consecutive years of an officer's highest salaries, after 30 years.

Officers at the meeting said that amount isn't enough to live on, especially if they have a family. One officer said he would receive only $1,026 a month in benefits if he were begin drawing from it when he retires in 2023.

Most officers said they would prefer the city use the Law Enforcement Officers' Pension System, or LEOPS, which returns 50 percent of an officer's salary after 25 years of service. According to the city's studies, this would cost $364,000 a year, or $17 million over 25 years.

"Though we're on a smaller scale than Baltimore City, the overall stress level doesn't change. You still put your life on the line every day," Besseck said.

"What's important here is that we work with the police officers and take into consideration their thoughts and feelings and be responsive to their needs," Mayor Kevin E. Dayhoff said. "I truly believe the council worked on this with a sense of caring, depth and integrity.

"I understand clearly that the budget will not allow the city to go in the direction of LEOPS this year, but I would rather that we wait and do LEOPS when it's financially feasible than go to a pension enhancement plan."

Council President Damian L. Halstad said there was an involved series of discussions concerning the retirement options, and of them all, the plan proposed by Chiavacci was the most viable.

"LEOPS is not fiscally possible or prudent," said Halstad. "We're talking about this in a vacuum. We have to remember that there is a $2.3 million shortfall we have to trim from the budget, but the city is still willing to find money to implement this plan. ...

"Some people even view the whole plan as much too generous a windfall for the Police Department. The council showed great commitment to the force by moving this forward."

Police Chief Roger G. Joneckis said he would not comment on the program until he learned more about it.

He mentioned steps the city has taken to improve the department's situation, including pay raises and increased hiring to bring staffing to the full complement of 43 officers.

The union has been pushing for better retirement benefits to keep senior officers from pursuing jobs in other departments.

"They continue to train new people. You can fill bodies but not experience," Besseck said. "Maturity is everything in this job."

Chiavacci hopes officers change their views when they're given an opportunity for personal projections of their supplemental benefits on April 24.

"We tried to craft a plan that was both desirable and affordable, and quite frankly, it's generous," Chiavacci said.

He said he's disappointed by the negative reaction of some officers, but that he wants to hear what they have to say.

"If they did that, they can help us make it better than what it is. I welcome that input," he said.

Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun

Maryland State Police,

20020412 President Bill Clinton and the International Criminal Court by Oliver North

President Bill Clinton and the International Criminal Court by Oliver North

Global injustice By Oliver North Friday, April 12, 2002

DULLES, Va. -- On Dec. 3, 1969, Bill Clinton wrote to Col. Eugene Holmes, director of the University of Arkansas ROTC program. In that infamous letter, Clinton stated that he "loathed" the military.

On Dec. 31, 2000, 31 years later -- almost to the day -- Bill Clinton, as commander in chief, proved how much he still loathes America's military by subjecting them to the "justice" of a rogue international court.

On New Year's Eve, just days before boarding Air Force One for the last time with a load of stolen ashtrays and White House towels, Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court (ICC), another unaccountable United Nations bureaucracy that became reality this week.

The ICC claims jurisdiction over cases of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and "the crime of aggression," which the U.N. has never defined.

Although a permanent international court has been the globalists' dream since the end of World War II, it wasn't until widespread violence broke out in places like the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s that Kofi Annan and his cohorts went to work.

In July 1998, the U.N. convened the "United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court" in Rome to form a permanent international tribunal to try individuals for "the most serious offenses of global concern."

Once in motion, their court would claim jurisdiction over every person in the world and grant the ICC prosecutor extraordinary powers and ICC officials lifetime immunity.

Read the rest here: Global injustice By Oliver North Friday, April 12, 2002