I explained it somewhat it post #65.

 

In short, you invest in the state pension system your whole career. After roughly 25 years (depending on when you were hired) you get to retire and get an immediate pension and full family medical benefits. The only way to get the pension and the medical benefits is to work for 25 years. If you leave after 23 years and/or are fired after 23 years you don't get the pension or medical benefits unless you catch on with another police department to finish your last two years.

 

You do get your money back out of the pension (not sure on all the money your department puts into the system) system but that isn't the same thing as getting your pension. In short, it basically takes a lifetime pension and converts it into about a three year cash payout. Furthermore, you are totally screwed on your medical benefits.

 

Police departments promote these great benefits when they hire you because they don't pay you very well up front. In other words, the retirement is probably the biggest benefit police officers get and this process allows it to be taken away, even at the last minute. No way it should be allowed in this format, this system is broke.

 

Do you have to invest in the state pension or can you opt out and manage your own?

Happens everywhere I guess...

 

New Dayton, Ky., mayor fires police chief

 

New Dayton Mayor Virgil Boruske fired the city's police chief Wednesday, just days after taking office.

 

Boruske said he disagreed with how Police Chief Scott O'Brien staffed the police department and had heard from the community that the police weren't aggressively addressing drug use in the city.

 

O'Brien, who had been Dayton's police chief since 2012, didn't respond to messages seeking comment.

 

Boruske said he disagreed with the chief putting too many officers on the morning shifts and not enough on the evening shifts. Having one officer on during the evenings posed a safety risk to that officer by not having any backup, Boruske said. The police patrolling in unmarked vehicles more often than marked vehicles also irked Boruske. Boruske, a former city councilman, owns an auto body shop in town. He beat incumbent Mayor Ken Rankle and took office this month.

 

"I think if we get the right person in there, it will change the whole police department," Boruske said. "As I was campaigning, I had complaints on the police. I didn't want to make the change later. I wanted to do it early."

 

Boruske said he hopes to have the new police chief in place by the end of the month. He has some candidates already identified from outside the police department. Sgt. Tony Baldwin will act as interim chief.

 

"I want a totally knew philosophy for the police department," Boruske said. "One of the things I want to see is that police cars are marked. I don't want unmarked police cars running around."

Do you have to invest in the state pension or can you opt out and manage your own?

 

No opt out, it is their way or the highway.

I would agree that the State pension system is broken. Given that many of the traditional "pension" jobs have gone away from the pension plans, why haven't the states done this as well. I understand that some go into law enforcement with the expectation that after 25 they can retire, but therein lies the problem. Private sector doesn't support that kind of thinking and it's long overdue for an overhaul on the public side.

 

People get laid off all the time and have to start their careers over, sometimes very late in life and that's unfortunate, but certainly not a reason to create a public lifeline to support it. Individual and personal responsibility should be the driver behind retirement, no how many years you clocked in. Getting laid off in these cases would seem to be an assumed risk of the job that you accept when you sign up.

 

I hear what you are saying but most police officers are grossly underpaid and it is pointed out to you that your benefits and retirement are part of the overall package and why you don't get paid what you should.

 

Obviously some of you just don't get it, law enforcement is a low paying, dangerous job that is constantly under attack from all directions, this is just one more nail in the coffin. So all of you feel free to tell the officers to suck it up or they should have known but in the long run the only thing that is going to happen is less and less qualified people are going to get into law enforcement.

 

Finally I will add that any newly elected Sheriff that does this to any of his employees knows damn well he is screwing them over hard, real hard.

I hear what you are saying but most police officers are grossly underpaid and it is pointed out to you that your benefits and retirement are part of the overall package and why you don't get paid what you should.

 

Obviously some of you just don't get it, law enforcement is a low paying, dangerous job that is constantly under attack from all directions, this is just one more nail in the coffin. So all of you feel free to tell the officers to suck it up or they should have known but in the long run the only thing that is going to happen is less and less qualified people are going to get into law enforcement.

 

Finally I will add that any newly elected Sheriff that does this to any of his employees knows damn well he is screwing them over hard, real hard.

No disrespect intended for those who work in law enforcement but A person who CHOSES to serve as a police office knows what they are getting in to. If the police department can not find qualifed applicants due to low pay, high risk than they will have to make the job more attractive. Be it thru increased pay, benefits, etc.

Don't like the job or the pay, you have the right to seek something else. Not sure many people write down in the second grade I want to grow up to be a garbage man. Yet many people do it? Why? the pay and/or the benefits suit their skill set.

We all have a say in what we do. Yeah we don't have the dream job we all thought we would grow up to get. Fact of the matter, If My boss does not like me, I'm gone. I don't like him, I have the option of shopping around to see where my value is.

I would agree that the State pension system is broken. Given that many of the traditional "pension" jobs have gone away from the pension plans, why haven't the states done this as well. I understand that some go into law enforcement with the expectation that after 25 they can retire, but therein lies the problem. Private sector doesn't support that kind of thinking and it's long overdue for an overhaul on the public side.

 

People get laid off all the time and have to start their careers over, sometimes very late in life and that's unfortunate, but certainly not a reason to create a public lifeline to support it. Individual and personal responsibility should be the driver behind retirement, no how many years you clocked in. Getting laid off in these cases would seem to be an assumed risk of the job that you accept when you sign up.

 

Another reason "Hazardous" employees can retire after 25 years of service is that nobody wants a bunch of 60 year old police and firefighters.

I'm of the belief the Sheriff shouldn't be an elected office. It should be a position hired like a police chief of a city . If that were the case this wouldn't be a problem.

 

I'll be honest I don't like how the system works currently. But as long as it's an elected office it should be treated like every other office and those other positions have power over who works for them.

No disrespect intended for those who work in law enforcement but A person who CHOSES to serve as a police office knows what they are getting in to. If the police department can not find qualifed applicants due to low pay, high risk than they will have to make the job more attractive. Be it thru increased pay, benefits, etc.

Don't like the job or the pay, you have the right to seek something else. Not sure many people write down in the second grade I want to grow up to be a garbage man. Yet many people do it? Why? the pay and/or the benefits suit their skill set.

We all have a say in what we do. Yeah we don't have the dream job we all thought we would grow up to get. Fact of the matter, If My boss does not like me, I'm gone. I don't like him, I have the option of shopping around to see where my value is.

 

This. This 1 million times over. :thumb:

Mixed feelings.

 

Law enforcement agencies have a tendency to single some of their own out unjustly.

 

What if some of the staff were political opponents of the incoming sheriff?

What if some of the staff were political opponents of the incoming sheriff?

 

Going a step further to this, what if some were not just political opponents (i.e. supported the other candidate), what if they openly campaigned for the other? Politics is almost always a dirty game, and I could see if they were openly campaigning and possibly slandering the reputation of the incoming sheriff in the process how that could cause quite an issue.

What if some of the staff were political opponents of the incoming sheriff?

 

That same staff may have been hired due to their political connections to the old sheriff?

Since some say it's politics the new guy can do what he wants...

 

So it would be OK for a Republican/Democratic Governor to fire all Democrats/Republicans working for the State, because they didn't support his election?

 

New Mayor is elected should he be able to fire any city worker that had a campaign sign in their yard for his opponent?

Since some say it's politics the new guy can do what he wants...

 

So it would be OK for a Republican/Democratic Governor to fire all Democrats/Republicans working for the State, because they didn't support his election?

 

New Mayor is elected should he be able to fire any city worker that had a campaign sign in their yard for his opponent?

 

Where did I say anything close to that? :no:

 

I said "if they were openly campaigning and possibly slandering the reputation of the incoming sheriff". I really think people just see what they want to see on here.

 

So if you were running for sheriff, and I was out campaigning for you opponent and slandering you, you'd be cool with me working under you?

 

I'm not saying it happened, I'm saying I can see why that would be a reason to want to make changes.

Where did I say anything close to that? :no:

 

I said "if they were openly campaigning and possibly slandering the reputation of the incoming sheriff". I really think people just see what they want to see on here.

 

So if you were running for sheriff, and I was out campaigning for you opponent and slandering you, you'd be cool with me working under you?

 

I'm not saying it happened, I'm saying I can see why that would be a reason to want to make changes.

I wasn't replying to you specifically.

 

If you want fore them for slandering you, then you give that as a reason for being fired. If someone deserves to be fired I'm 100% fine with that. The issue I have is when people are fired for no reason other than they didn't support me in the election.

 

County Clerk and a County Judge here several years ago came into office and fired several employees for no reason, just wanted to replace them with people of his choosing. In both cases the county lost the cases, had to pay back pay, damages, attorneys fees and give their jobs back. Part of the reason they lost was that the employees were Tenured Employees and couldn't be fired without cause.

 

Sheriff's across the state have opposed allowing tenure for their employees because they want to keep those people afraid for their jobs and supporting them. No one in this day and age should work and be afraid to lose their job just because their boss lost an election.

I wasn't replying to you specifically.

 

If you want fore them for slandering you, then you give that as a reason for being fired. If someone deserves to be fired I'm 100% fine with that. The issue I have is when people are fired for no reason other than they didn't support me in the election.

 

County Clerk and a County Judge here several years ago came into office and fired several employees for no reason, just wanted to replace them with people of his choosing. In both cases the county lost the cases, had to pay back pay, damages, attorneys fees and give their jobs back. Part of the reason they lost was that the employees were Tenured Employees and couldn't be fired without cause.

 

Sheriff's across the state have opposed allowing tenure for their employees because they want to keep those people afraid for their jobs and supporting them. No one in this day and age should work and be afraid to lose their job just because their boss lost an election.

 

Again I don't think the Sheriff should be an elected offical. It's silly to me that they allow the office to be political. But do deputies know this is a possibilty when they take the job? The answer is yes. So if you take the risk on this career you have to know this is a possibility and have back up plans.

 

In a perfect world this wouldn't be a political office, but it is.