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Camden City Council Approves Massive Police And Fire Layoffs

j-mac

j-mac

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CAMDEN, NJ (CBS) – Camden City Council, as expected, voted Thursday to lay off almost 400 workers, half of them police officers and firefighters, to bridge a $26.5 million deficit.

That’s about a quarter of the city’s entire work force.

Five members of City Council voted unanimously to approve the layoff plan — two other members were absent. The cuts take effect in mid-January.

Exactly how many city workers will be affected is still an open question, although nearly half the city’s police and a third of the firefighters are slated to go.

Karl Walco (right) is with the union that represents non-uniformed Camden city workers.

“If we agreed to everything that the city proposed in concessions, it would only have a minor impact on the number of layoffs,” Walco told the council members.

snip

“We didn’t put a price tag on public safety. Unfortunately, the governor of the State of New Jersey put that price tag on it,” he said at the packed Council meeting.

Camden City Council Approves Massive Police And Fire Layoffs « CBS Philly – News, Sports, Weather, Traffic and the Best of Philadelphia
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Sounds like Greece to me...This ought to make Philly more desirable to move to....


j-mac
 
Whovian said:
2nd highest crime rate in the country... and half the police area about to go bye bye.... sweet.
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Time to head to Bass Pro Shop and stock up on some more slugs, and .00 ;)


j-mac
 
Without knowing the revenue Structure it's had to come up with suggestions to help them out of this mess. But one thing is clear and it turns up every time we hear a horror story about fiscal ruin of a City or a State, and that is the presents of Unions.

It's time to wake to reality the attitude that Unions are needed is flat wrong. Unions had their day but today State and Federal laws protect workers in the areas that spawned Unions.

Off the top of my head I would say that in the short term knowing what I do about City Government and Law enforcement, I would suggest that the City start an armed citizen volunteer Posse to and team them up with regular officers.

I would also suggest dumping all unions and look into replacing the vast majority of City workers with private industry contracts.

Just to name a few. It's high time that people understand that lack taxes is not the problem, over spending is.
 
Some firefighters and police must be sacrificed in order to get our hands on the jugular vein of the public sector unions.
 
Sounds like a bad time to stop the oil and gas drilling in Pennsylvania.
 
Albert Di Salvo said:
Don't demean yourself with snide comments. What's happening here is serious stuff.
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of course it is serious

A local government is making serious cutbacks to the number of people it employs. In doing so it is drastically reducing the number of police and firefighters it employs.

Is it a risky move, most definately, but I doubt the city had much in the way of options other then raising taxes, or declaring bankruptcy. I expect raising taxes would have caused at least as big an issue. Cutting pensions of retired workers would be breaking contracts, and given the howls of protest when the government wanted to reduce or eliminate the bonus's owed to AIG employees, ( in breech of contracts) I am certain most people would not be in favor of breeching the contracts by reducing the pensions to retired workers
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
of course it is serious

A local government is making serious cutbacks to the number of people it employs. In doing so it is drastically reducing the number of police and firefighters it employs.

Is it a risky move, most definately, but I doubt the city had much in the way of options other then raising taxes, or declaring bankruptcy. I expect raising taxes would have caused at least as big an issue. Cutting pensions of retired workers would be breaking contracts, and given the howls of protest when the government wanted to reduce or eliminate the bonus's owed to AIG employees, ( in breech of contracts) I am certain most people would not be in favor of breeching the contracts by reducing the pensions to retired workers
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Public employees will have to move to defined contribution pension plans and away from defined benefit pension plans. That is the looming big battle in state, municipal and local govt. budgets.

Local and municipal govts. can go into bankruptcy and discharge those contracts with retired public employees. A bankrutcy judge has the power to restructure the retirement package, so the retired employees should just play ball and share the pain.

States can't go into bankruptcy and discharge or restructure their debts. California's approaching insolvency is a test case for the nation. This is unknown territory. It's like being at a high stakes roulette table in Las Vegas. Fascinating to watch.
 
Albert Di Salvo said:
Public employees will have to move to defined contribution pension plans and away from defined benefit pension plans. That is the looming big battle in state, municipal and local govt. budgets.

Local and municipal govts. can go into bankruptcy and discharge those contracts with retired public employees. A bankrutcy judge has the power to restructure the retirement package, so the retired employees should just play ball and share the pain.

States can't go into bankruptcy and discharge or restructure their debts. California's approaching insolvency is a test case for the nation. This is unknown territory. It's like being at a high stakes roulette table in Las Vegas. Fascinating to watch.
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The type of pension is not really the problem, it is that they were overly generous in nature. I dont blame the unions for wanting them, that is their job. To maximize the returns for its members (over the long and short term) They were doing a good job. It is the government officials that were not doing thier job in protecting taxpayer interests in accepting these contracts in the first place.

Yes I know that in bankruptcy the pensions can be restructured which is why I mentioned it as a possibility
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
The type of pension is not really the problem, it is that they were overly generous in nature. I dont blame the unions for wanting them, that is their job. To maximize the returns for its members (over the long and short term) They were doing a good job. It is the government officials that were not doing thier job in protecting taxpayer interests in accepting these contracts in the first place.

Yes I know that in bankruptcy the pensions can be restructured which is why I mentioned it as a possibility
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AH! Herein lies the rub.

The public employees unions collect dues from their members. The union bosses then make massive mindboggling political contributions to leftwing Democrats. The Democrats sponsored by the union bosses then are elected, and end up sitting across the bargainining table with the union bosses who elected them.

In essence, the public empolyee unions have captured the political process. In doing so the public sector unions always place their objectives first, and the commonwealth be damned. The public employees have effectively enslaved the taxpayers.

I live in California. The corrupt process is easily observable here. It can't be defended with intellectual honesty.
 
Albert Di Salvo said:
AH! Herein lies the rub.

The public employees unions collect dues from their members. The union bosses then make massive mindboggling political contributions to leftwing Democrats. The Democrats sponsored by the union bosses then are elected, and end up sitting across the bargainining table with the union bosses who elected them.

In essence, the public empolyee unions have captured the political process. In doing so the public sector unions always place their objectives first, and the commonwealth be damned. The public employees have effectively enslaved the taxpayers.

I live in California. The corrupt process is easily observable here. It can't be defended with intellectual honesty.
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Everyone has the right to make donations to political parties and vote out those they do not like. If the voters of California have not punished their elected officials by not voting them into office again and again for providing such generous pensions and benifits it is their own fault, not that of the unions
 
Camden had a police force?
 
Albert Di Salvo said:
AH! Herein lies the rub.

The public employees unions collect dues from their members. The union bosses then make massive mindboggling political contributions to leftwing Democrats. The Democrats sponsored by the union bosses then are elected, and end up sitting across the bargainining table with the union bosses who elected them.

In essence, the public empolyee unions have captured the political process. In doing so the public sector unions always place their objectives first, and the commonwealth be damned. The public employees have effectively enslaved the taxpayers.

I live in California. The corrupt process is easily observable here. It can't be defended with intellectual honesty.
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If that's the case, then the answer isn't to get rid of unions - rather, the answer is for there to be more accountability for public sector unions, and the political officials who negotiate with them.

Another issue is that we have way too many stupid ****ing laws. Wasn't there a thread on this forum just recently about a man who moved from Colorado to New Jersey who got arrested for having two handguns in the trunk of his car?

Also, we need to legalize recreational drugs and prostitution.
 
samsmart said:
If that's the case, then the answer isn't to get rid of unions - rather, the answer is for there to be more accountability for public sector unions, and the political officials who negotiate with them.
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Unions are accountable to its members. It should not be accountable to the public any more then Ford or GE is. Politicians are the ones that should be held accoutable for the contracts they approve. No different the a business manager (ceo, president etc) that signs a stupid labour contract that puts the company at risk
Another issue is that we have way too many stupid ****ing laws. Wasn't there a thread on this forum just recently about a man who moved from Colorado to New Jersey who got arrested for having two handguns in the trunk of his car?

Also, we need to legalize recreational drugs and prostitution.
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Whovian said:
2nd highest crime rate in the country... and half the police area about to go bye bye.... sweet.
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If it has the second highest crime rate in the country, perhaps the City Council rationalized that they weren't doing such a very good job. It's quite possible that it was a bloated bureaucracy with poor management which had little effect on the crime rate. Perhaps they're looking to a leaner, meaner machine.

But i could be wrong!!
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
Everyone has the right to make donations to political parties and vote out those they do not like. If the voters of California have not punished their elected officials by not voting them into office again and again for providing such generous pensions and benifits it is their own fault, not that of the unions
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Indeed, the parasite has a right to kill it's host even at the cost of it's own death. This is the truth.
 
Albert Di Salvo said:
Yeah, right! Haha. And the Chinese Communist Party is accountable to its local cadre too. Haha. Don't kid with us.
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Unions have votes to who is their representative\

Now as most unions typically ensure their members have higher compensation then non union members, they have seemingly done a good job representing their members ( up untill the companies goes broke of course or relocates)
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
Unions have votes to who is their representative\

Now as most unions typically ensure their members have higher compensation then non union members, they have seemingly done a good job representing their members ( up untill the companies goes broke of course or relocates)
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Unions in the private sector are fine, but not in the public sector.

American public sector employees have all too often diverted funds from children and the poor. Look at California as an example of how public sector unions feather their own nests at the expense of public school children.

Their compensation and benefits are now the subject of political debate in the Golden State. Public sector union employee comp/benefits are subject to the same laws of motion as are apples falling from trees.
 
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