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The opinions expressed are of my own individualy and are not to be interpreted as official of any governing body. Comments from readers are also of their own opinions and will be edited only if the content is harmful or non constructive to any individual. It is important to share information and thoughts on political process so that we may discuss issues that effect us all.
15 comments:
BC,
Our sister town has been asked to read contracts carefully,and speak up about clauses in contracts. You might think I raise some real sore issues, but someone has to. I don't get intimidated easy.
I would like to see a change in Derrys contracts with town employees. We have a lawyer now on the council, so maybe you can ask him if this makes any sense.
If you work for the town of Derry and you get terminated for an conduct unbecoming or felony, you cannot resign and get your pension as you thought. You WILL ONLY GET THE 5 PERCENT that he or she has put in and no matching funds from the taxpayers for the rest of your life. Health care will also be terminated on the day Derry GETS RID OF YOU.
Brian,I know this is not legal mumbo jumbo but I think with all the pension struggle going on in our great state of NH., THIS WOULD BE A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
You know Brian , I bet that this kind of amendment in a contract would even keep some folks from crossing the line. Looking to you for any feed back. What the hell, ask Coyle he should be up on this stuff. If you are an honest person, you should have no problem signing a contract with this amendment as an municipal employee.
Wh3,
I believe the first place we would need to go with this is our state reps. The reps could create a bill and try to get it passes at state level.
I think that is the only way to get what you want done.
I will post all our state reps names and numbers so that citizens can call thier reps with ideas such as yours and possible get some of this done.
Paul H.
Do you think this bill or amendment would have any chance passing with those honest folks in Concord? Maybe someone could explain to me why Concord has to get involved at all.
I've begun to notice how much some of the loudmouths in this town are actually quite the hypocrits.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an advocate for higher taxes. I like my money in my pocket like the next guy. I'm just sick of how they mouth off about how high the taxes are, and how they won't pay for either continuing or any additional services, and then they talk out of the other side of their mouths and blast some of the town departments for not providing services to the citizens in time of need. Figure it out folks, if you don't pay to have resources in place, they won't be there for you when you need them. Quit your freaking whining... We see your attacks for what the really are.
While we're on the hypocrit bandwagon, has anyone looked at the (secret) agendas of some of these loudmouths??? Look closely folks. People have skeletons in their closets. If you dig deep enough, you might see the wolf hiding under the sheepskin... Figure out what their agendas really are...
To all you of you who just sit home and complain to yourselves about the injustices in town government, get off your tails and make yourselves heard. Show up at the polls and show the "special interest" groups in Town that their attempts to "take back" Derry aren't what the majority of the citizens want. If you sit there on your sofas and don't speak out, you deserve all the headaches your going to get when their special intiatives pass...
Have a great day!
Doesn't Derry use the NH RETIREMENT SYSTEM? This would explain why Concord needs tobe involved ... are the rules are dictated at the State level in the RSAs petaining to the above agency. Derry has no course of action.
I'm hoping this link will work here. These are the Derry reps and Senator info.
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/whosmyleg/whosmyresults.asp
BC-link doesn't work. Folks have to go here
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/whosmyleg/
and select Derry.
The NH Retirement System is broken and it is dictated by the State. It can only be fixed by the State. Here is what is wrong:
1. Investment returns are capped at 9%. Anything over this amount goes to fund the COLAs and medical subsidies.
2. The NHRS assumes a 9% return rate even when the 5y returns were in the 2%+ range.
3. The investment firm charges fees that are 2 to 3 times that of other state pensions.
4. Representatives for towns are not sllowed to be on the pension board.
5. Employees can buy up to 5y of retirement time to accelerate their retirement date.
6. Retirement pay is based on the highest 3y of pay while for those of us on social security it is based on 35y of pay.
7. Employees are having towns buy back generous leave time, special details, and overtime pay to enhance their retirement pay.
Tell your state legislators that they need to fix it because the costs are going to bankrupt towns.
I think it's awful that there is a group of people in Town that continually fight against the fire department. Here are my observations:
The very people whom now fight against the fire department are the exact same people who fought to keep the East Derry Fire Precinct. These people "lost" their battle with the Town and now seek to take it out on the Town's new fire department.
These same people would like to cut the fire department's budget and eliminate personnel on each shift. This would cause a station to close. Most likely, it would be the station on the Bypass (the slowest station with the least amount of calls) which they fought so hard to build and keep open.
This is the ironic part: these former East Derry supporters had no problem when there were 5 fire stations open in Town. Now there are 4 open and they want to close another, leaving the Town with only 3.
I wonder what the cost difference to average homeowner would be to keep staffing levels as they are or to have their insurance rates go up due to slower response times and decreased staffing. Not to mention the Town's ISO rating will go up affecting the businesses in Town.
In regards to the NH Retirement System, the Town's have not been paying their fare share all along. If you do a little research you'll see that the Town's have been paying far less of a percentage than the employees for years. This arrangement has finally caught up to them and now they are finally forced to pay.
d3, The taxpayers know that having 10 or 20 firestations in town is not going to make a differance in our insurance rates.
Maybe you can explain to the people of Derry, HOW IN THE HELL a firefighter at the bakery at Shaws waiting to have a cake to be frosted,which measured over a foot wide and two feet long, while a LADDER TRUCK T3 is running outside has anything to do with firefighting or lowering our homeowners insurance.
THE DAY THIS ABUSE HAPPENED WAS THE FRIDAY BEFORE 4TH OF JULY 2006 AT 17 15 HRS.{15 MINS AFTER 5 OCLOCK)
How is this truck going to save lives ,OR give the taxpayers outstanding performance.
Were these brave soles going to hold on to this marvelous cake or drop it off back at the rotary station before racing to a high building burning!!!!. GO ON ,give us taxpayers a good story.
WE dont want stations closing.WE want all abuses stopped ,you get it.
It's funny you mention fire apparatus being on Crystal Ave.
Isn't it true that the majority of emergency calls take place within the downtown areas? So if a fire truck happened to be in the downtown it would actually have a faster response time than if it were at the station.
Well if the taxpayers don't want stations closing, they had better relay that information to their Town Councilors, because that's what some of them are planning on doing. Some have even openly admitted that they want to make personnel cuts therefore clsoing stations.
d3, If you truly believe town's have not been paying their fair share for years then it is not the town's fault. They have no representation on the board of directors of the NHRS. But, each union has 2 members on the board. So, it sounds to me like your union leadership and the state need to take responsibility for that. The problem is that things were going well so you got the special account created for COLAs and medical subsidies. To fund them, the investment returns were capped at 9% with anything over going to fund the COLAs and medical subsidies. Again, the towns had no say. Now that the actuarial valuations have fallen short, the taxpayers are being hit with huge increases to make up the mismanagement of the retirement system. I have a BIG problem with that. As things stand now, I will oppose any increase in staffing until this issue gets resolved and if these huge increases continue, I will advocate that we reduce our public safety personnel because this town cannot afford zero-growth budgets.
the town has been paying more toward the retirement system than the employee for years. So, I don't know where you are getting your information. But that has nothing to do with what is broken. What is broken is that investment returns are capped so the $2B unfunded liability (which is now forecasted to be $6B) will
1. Investment returns are capped at 9%. Anything over this amount goes to fund the COLAs and medical subsidies.
2. The NHRS assumes a 9% return rate even when the 5y returns were in the 2%+ range.
3. The investment firm charges fees that are 2 to 3 times that of other state pensions.
4. Representatives for towns are not sllowed to be on the pension board.
5. Employees can buy up to 5y of retirement time to accelerate their retirement date.
6. Retirement pay is based on the highest 3y of pay while for those of us on social security it is based on 35y of pay.
7. Employees are having towns buy back generous leave time, special details, and overtime pay to enhance their retirement pay.
Brian,
What is your take on kindergarten?
Tammy,
To be honest, I have not looked at the schools proposal to bring kindergarten to Derry yet. I do believe it will not be presented to the voters until next year and at that time voters will need to ask themselves a couple of questions.
Is Kindergarten a need or a want?
If the answer is a need- then we should find a way to fund.
If the answer is a want? Then under are already high tax burden it would not be something we should do UNTIL we can bring taxes down ( this is where economic dev is important)
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