FOP President addresses FL Senate about F&P "state" Pensions. Part 1 IP: 72.185.171.1 Posted on February 27, 2011 at 04:44:35 PM by webmaster
Florida Senate remarks from Tuesday, February 22nd by President James Preston:
Good afternoon Mister Chairman and Senators,
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this Legislative process. I thank Senator Latvala and Senator Norman for their amendments and willingness to work with us to make the proposed bill palatable.
My name is James Preston of Brandon, Florida. I am a career law enforcement officer with 30 years of service at the Tampa Police Department and a former Pension Trustee. From 1973 to 2003, I worked the streets enduring the rigors of shift work, missing weekends, holiday, birthdays, anniversaries and family vacations. I worked 25 years and then joined the DROP for the last 5 of my career. I am proud of my career and the service to my city. I am now the President of the Florida State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police representing 20,000 professional law enforcement officers both active and retired. I want to share my feelings today about your impending decisions regarding law enforcement pensions. Our membership is deeply concerned.
His name was David Crawford. Yesterday afternoon he put on his uniform and vest, his gun belt and badge and headed off to work another night shift. Little did he know he would soon be face to face with a man who would take his life. David was a Saint Petersburg Police Officer. He was 46 years old and had served St. Pete for 25 years. He is the third officer killed in St. Pete in the last 30 days. St. Pete Police Chief Chuck Harmon has to deal with another tragedy at this department and notify yet another family that their loved one would not be coming home. When David went off to work, he probably was not thinking about pensions nor DROP nor premium tax dollars. He was simply going to do his job. He certainly deserves the "special risk status" and 3% *or* more to compensate him for what he may be called upon to do.
Cops are casually murdered every day in our culture in the name of entertainment in our movies, television dramas and video games. Kids and young adults playing video games see police officers as targets to kill in order to earn points in the virtual world of games that desensitize them from the real world of responsibility. Law enforcement officers are expendable in daily episodes of the many TV shows our kids grew up with. Is it any wonder that the disrespect carries over into real life? Our law enforcement officers are real men and women doing an extraordinarily difficult, challenging and stressful job. They have families. They live in our communities. They are professional and well trained to deal with the challenges they must face each shift. Yet, they are dying at an unacceptable and alarming rate that is heartbreaking. No other civilian profession has had to build a National Memorial Monument to honor over 19,000 officers who have died in the line of duty. A monument that will never be completed as each day another name, another life tragically ended must be etched into the cold granite wall to remind us of the sacrifice and sorrow another family faces. Our members strap on a gun and wear a vest, tools of our trade, as they start their shift. They leave behind a family who worry each day if their loved one will return home. Cops face dangers that frighten ordinary people and many times hear "I wouldn't want your job". The officers choose this "unwanted and thankless" job because they wake up each day of their lives wanting to make a difference in their community. Police officers are the ones willing to go down the dark alley in the middle of the night and face the things that would scare you to death just to keep you and your family safe. They are the ones who run towards the sound of gun fire. Can you ever forget the heroic acts of 9/11 when hundreds of police officers and fire fighters ran into the towers to save so many others at the cost of their lives.
In just a few short weeks we will gather around a monument in the Capitol courtyard just outside these chambers. A monument that many of you walk passed each day containing 751 names. We will add the names of 9 more Florida Police Officers who lost their lives in 2010 while serving their Florida communities. Those names engraved on the walls represent our friends, our co-workers and loved ones. We will honor, remember and respect all that they gave while protecting you. Today we ask that you protect them and their families, protect those who serve you. Already in the first seven weeks of 2011, 9 Florida police officers have died in the line of duty. Florida has the unwelcome distinction of leading the nation again in the number of police deaths. This trend of violence towards our guardians of peace is unacceptable and attacks on their pensions are morally reprehensible. We earn our pensions with our blood and sweat.
On the campaign trail, candidate Rick Scott in his own words stated "absolutely not" when asked if he would reduce pensions for police and fire. "I never said I would cut any pension benefits for policemen *or* firemen." , Now Governor Scott has changed his tune.
When economic times were good and unemployment was low, new people entering the work force choose safe well paying jobs while police officers protected the community relying on the promise of a future pension for their service. Now the economy has taken a temporary turn and we have become the target of those who want to balance their budget on our already over burdened backs. We face layoffs and furloughs, reduced pay as cities and counties and the state attempts to balance years of bloated budgets on our backs. You forget that we took low salaries and limited benefits and risked our lives to protect the community and our reward is violence against us being on the increase. The current challenges and rhetoric are breeding distrust between law enforcement officers and citizens by giving erroneous numbers to the public about what we receive, and not telling them all the facts, *or* as Paul Harvey would say "The Rest Of The Story". They forget that private citizens that do not have pensions will get full Social Security Benefits, while public safety employees will have theirs cut by 2/3's because they have a pension even after contributing the required 40 quarters. I can attest to this personally after going to the Social Security office recently.
Our modest pensions have been bargained for in good faith, legislated and earned over the years. The benefits fought for are not a windfall but a modest way to provide for our future in retirement, for the physical and emotional stress the rigors of this job brings. On average according to FRS, cops live in retirement 9.3 years. Extending the number of years they must work will surely shorten those years as the physical rigors of the job take their toll. Calculations should be based on years of service and never on age. We do not feel the community will be served best by elderly police officers. I invite you to visit your local community and put on fireman's bunker gear *or* a police officer's bullet resistant vest and gun belt. Ride along with a cop *or* fireman and walk in our boots at a burning house *or* domestic violence call, child rape *or* homicide. Stop a speeding car alone in the night *or* serve a warrant on someone who has vowed to never go back to prison.
State law enforcement officers have not seen a pay raise in years and now are being asked to take a pay cut by way of contributions to the pension fund. Many municipal police officers on local pension plans are and have been contributing for years. Tampa Police officers are now paying 14.5 percent towards their pensions this year. Yet we are at impasse in negotiations in Jacksonville and Miami over pension issues as these cities look to balance budgets.
In articles and studies from FRS and SBA Annual reports over the past few years prior to 2009 FRS was deemed to be over funded. Changing benefits already in the system is wrong and unfair. A promise made should be a promise kept. During the early 2000's the FRS trust fund regularly had positive investment returns which exceeded the actuarial targets and the pension plan had surplus. "Special Risk" was extended to job categories above and beyond the original jobs of public safety.