City should change pay procedure

To the editor:

A letter to the Common Council of the City of Portland, Indiana, from a retiree of 12 years as a police reserve and 21 years active member of Portland Police Department who is drawing a pension, also served as pension secretary, and still attends seminars presented by the Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police concerning the 1977 Pension and Disability Fund.

I present the following points:

1) IC 36-8-1-11. “Salary of a first class patrolman or first class firefighter”; longevity increases. Sec. 11 (a) “Salary of a first class patrolman or first class firefighter” means the base salary of a patrolman or firefighter plus all longevity increases, if provided by the employer, for service of twenty (20) years or less but does not include remuneration or allowances for fringe benefits, incentive pay, holiday pay, insurance, clothing, automobiles, firearms, education, overtime, or compensatory time off. (b) With respect to the 1925, 1937, and 1953 funds, “salary of a first class patrolman or firefighter” may include longevity increases for more than twenty (20) years of service at the option of the employer but only if these longevity increases had taken effect before Jan. 1, 1983.

My pension benefits was dependent on the above formula.

My social security benefits were reduced by 42 percent. I had all credits.

Police and firefighters do not pay into social security when cities agreed to participate in the 1977 Fund.

There is nothing that increased my benefits, just base salary and 18 years longevity.

Longevity increases are in three-year steps with a cut-off of 20 years.

My contributions along with city are based on the above statute. Neither overtime nor extra time increase pension or disability benefits.

Police have to work 171 hours in 28 days before overtime. Firefighters have to work 212 hours in 28 days before overtime.

All hourly city workers work 40 hours per week, then overtime with 3 percent of total earning going toward their pension.

Adding increases to longevity does not affect base salary. See cutoff date above of Jan. 1, 1983.

When I was working, we started the certificate pay, but this did not help my pension benefits.

At present not all police officers get the same amount of certificate pay. Is this fair?

All certificate pay should be put on the base salary, which would increase both the hiring salary and benefit payments. At the present, Payroll Ordinance 2018-10 showed a difference between police and fire certificate pay of $1,820.

The “bonus” paid July 1 did not increase base salary. Council should read, Title 29, Part 778.200 to 778.208 Code of Federal Regulations.

2) The city is still paying on two police and two fire retirees along with an unknown number of widows at the present time. Payments are reimbursed by Pension Relief Fund from State of Indiana.

3) I very strongly encourage the common council to put every dime that you can on the base salary of both the police and fire employees. This is where the money will do the most good.

4) Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman said in the July 16 council meeting, “It’s hard to distinguish when you’re in charge of 54 employees, who’s more important than the other?”

That should not be a question. Each employee is as important, in his own right. Each employee should be treated the same.

Council gave the mayor a $5,000 raise in salary for 2019 — 10.417 percent.

The city should also treat each employee the same with the same amount not a 3-percent increase.

If the bonus and the mayor’s increase in salary along with putting certificate pay onto the base salary would equal $48,355.36, that would be a good step in hiring officers.

Bob Moore

Portland