GREED and BANKRUPTCY - A CITY ON THE BRINK...

There can be no doubt that we respect and value the service of our police and fire departments in Hollywood, Florida.  Their job to protect us requires a special commitment, and for that they deserved to be appreciated and paid well.

It’s when greed and self-interest begin to interfere with their job that we, the citizens, should become concerned.  That has become the case in our City.

Our police and fire department have become a privileged class of workers, whose pensions more than double the average workers.  This year alone, more than half of the 80 million dollars in property taxes our City collects will fund their troubling pension fund.  They are bankrupting our City, for a job not even in the top ten most dangerous jobs in the United States.  Yes, you read that right, even an average garbage man (#6), truck driver (#9) or fisherman (#1) has a more dangerous job then our police and firefighters.

Sadly, the Hollywood taxpayers are being put into a no win situation by the political clout of the police and fire department.  The stranglehold they have over many of our elected officials is enormous, coercing them to make irresponsible choices.  That discussion will follow over the next few days.  Let’s get back to the dollars and sense of the fatal path five of our elected officials continue to walk on.

Recently, Mayor Bober and Commissioners Blattner, O’Sheehan, Sherwwod and Russo voted for the Golden Nest Eggs that our firefighters have lobbied for.  On Wednesday, September 16, 2009, they intend to do the same for the police department.  Handing over hundreds of millions of dollars to them, as our City falls apart!

With over 300 million dollars in unfunded pension liabilities and the same or more in unfunded health care liabilities, these five elected officials have approved a guarantee of 8% on the police and firefighters pension fund investments.  The police and fire department have said they’re making concessions – only a 6% guarantee for new hires.  You, the taxpayer, make up the difference when the market does not meet that 8% obligation.  That's one heck of a guarantee, right now the return is at 0%, maybe even negative percentage.  Wall Street should put their money in the police and fire pension fund.  Shame on the police and firefighters and shame on our elected officials for avoiding their fiduciary responsibilities to the City and citizens of Hollywood..

The City of Hollywood is involved in nothing less than a gigantic Ponzi scheme.  People go to jail for this in the private sector!  If you are even minimally capable of calculating simple math problems, you can easily see that we are headed for BANKRUPTCY.  And, maybe that’s not so bad.  Vallejo, a city in Northern California, about the size of Hollywood, recently declared bankruptcy.  The judge has ruled that the police and fire department contracts are null and void.  Will that be the fate of our City, and is that what really must occur to break the pensions of the police and firefighters?  Stay tuned for more on this subject.