5-5-5-5

Sean McCarthy, FDNY Firefighter, Dies at 35
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5-5-5-5

It is with the deepest regret that the announcement is made of the death of

FF. 1st Grade Sean McCarthy

Who died of complications related to cancer.
Sean is the 346th(+) Firefighter to succumb to the ravages of
the attack on America, at The World Trade Center on 9/11/01.

Our sincerest & most heartfelt condolences go out to Sean's mother, Mary and her 11 children.
Many Former Active Firefighters knew FF. Jim McCarthy from Rescue-1,
or after he was promoted to Lt.
As we all know so well, Jim was a "Fireman's Fireman" and Great Friend
to all who had the Honor to serve with him.
Sean and his four brothers followed in their dad's footsteps
and have served, honorably and courageously, as did their dad.

We pray that God has reunited Sean and Jim and will keep them in the hollow of His hands. Amen

NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T $$$

Now you see it, now you don't - city's $3B surplus
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BY FRANK LOMBARDI - DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU - May 29th 2008

The city has nearly $3 billion left over this fiscal year, but the surplus will vanish as quickly as it appeared - earmarked to close next year's shortfall.

City Council members voted, 45 to 0, Wednesday for a budget modification that recognized surplus from additional tax and other revenues for the current budget year, which ends June 30.

But that surplus has already been claimed by Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) to help balance the mayor's proposed $59.1 billion budget for fiscal 2009 and to reduce the projected gap in 2010.

"Do you see a pattern here?" said Councilman Vincent Gentile (D-Brooklyn), citing similar surpluses: $3.7 billion in fiscal year '05, $3.5 billion in fiscal year '06 and $5.3 billion in fiscal year '07.

Councilman Lewis Fidler (D-Brooklyn) said the mayor's budgets deliberately underestimate revenues.

NEW FIRE CODE PASSED

New Fire Code Passed by City Council
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Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta joined City Council Speaker Christine Quinn on May 28 to announce the City Council has approved a new Fire Code for New York City.

It will replace the existing code, which is more than 100 years old.

“This was a complete overhaul of the fire code, four years in the making” said Speaker Quinn during a press conference at City Hall.

The Code is based on the International Fire Code with amendments to address the New York’s urban needs. The new code is more modern, comprehensive and accessible.

PUSH BILL TO END "DOUBLE DIPPING"

Officials Push Bill to End 'Double Dipping'
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BY ELIZABETH MOORE - NEWSDAY.COM

May 21, 2008

Government officials from throughout the state, including Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, are calling for an end to "double dipping" by public employees injured on the job who collect damage settlements even while they are receiving state accidental disability pensions.

Nearly 1,400 public officials and governments from throughout the state have signed on in support of Weisenberg's bill.

The bill would require that any award for lost future earnings made to a public employee be reduced by the amount of the disability pension or other source of compensation the employee will receive to cover lost earnings. Existing law already requires that kind of offset when private employees are injured and sue.

"Why won't the legislature listen to what virtually every municipality in the state is asking them to do?" asked New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo in a news conference with Weisenberg and others on the steps of the Capitol yesterday. New York City faces nearly $164 million in liabilities under the law, he noted.

FIREFIGHTERS WILL REOPEN CONTRACT

Seeking Raise, Firefighters Will Reopen Contract
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by Christine Hauser - NY TIMES

Now the firefighters want their retroactive raise of nearly 10 percent, too.

One day after an arbitration panel awarded New York City’s police officers a raise amounting to 9.7 percent over two years, the Uniformed Firefighters Association said on Tuesday that it would exercise its option to reopen its contract covering the same two years — 2004 to 2006. The firefighters received raises of less than 3 percent the first year and 3.15 percent the second year in that now-expired contract.

The firefighters’ union also said it was halting negotiations on its 2008-10 contract in response to the new police contract.

NYC FIREFIGHTERS SEEK PARITY

NYC Firefighters Seek Raise That Police Officers Got

May 21, 2008 - Newsday.com

NEW YORK - New York City firefighters want what the city's police officers have won: a retroactive raise of nearly 10 percent.

The firefighters' union says it will fight for a retroactive raise covering 2004 to 2006. New York City's police officers won a raise of about 9.7 percent at an arbitration hearing for those years.

City Labor Commissioner James F. Haley says that if the other unions agree to the concessions police officers' agreed to, they would likely receive the same raises.

Other unions representing civil servants, like correction and sanitation workers, could also seek raises.

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The UFA should be careful for what they wish ! They may SCREW the NEW HIRES, AGAIN ! Ah, no matter... The NEW MEMBERS will be in the MAJORITY soon and will remember-well, how they were treated, when the next election comes around ! Ooops, maybe Stevie Wonder, Slippery Slevin and Crew will make it up to them by passively Screwing Former Active Firefighters, AGAIN ! Yeah, that's the ticket ! Divide & Conquer ! Gee, we all used to think that was the CITY'S Job. Hmmm, Live & Learn !
jg - Thousand Points of Right

COPS LYNCHED AGAIN !!

Cops Lynched Again
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Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch promised his members the sun, the moon and the stars - huge raises, no givebacks - and wound up winning them a pinch more than bupkis. The proof is in the results going back three labor settlements.

Lynch, who has never successfully negotiated a contract, sold the fantasy that he would break a century-long tradition of municipal labor relations and get the cops outsized raises. He took City Hall to arbitration.

Tote everything up, and the cops come out a whopping 1.16% ahead of the game. And they had to wait four years to get that tiny bit extra - four years in which inflation cut their spending power by more than 12%. Some deal.

For the good of his members, and of the city, Lynch should hammer out a contract the way a labor leader is supposed to - over the bargaining table. Three times he tried to break the pattern through arbitration, and three times arbitrators refused. A fourth will not be the charm.

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Thousand Points of Right

At least Lynch has the courage of his convictions. He doesn't take the "Easy Way Out" and settle a contract with a "Me Too Clause" , as does "Stevie Wonder", "Slippery Slevin" and "Crew". Worse than that, The "Trusted" UFA went "Sneaking" outside the Sworn Coalition... Not even informing the UFOA of their "Secret Negotiations" with "Bermuda Bloomberg's" Labor Negotiator, Jim Hanley. There was a time when UFA "Leaders" had a knowledge of Labor Laws & Negotiations and didn't have to depend solely on the advice of their attorneys.
jg - Thousand Points of Right

10% PAY HIKE FOR NYPD

State Panel Awards 10 Percent Pay Hike to NYPD Officers
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BY KIRSTEN DANIS and ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Monday, May 19th 2008

The NYPD's starting salary jumps to nearly $36,000 in a two-year pact that gives rank-and-file police officers a 9.73% compounded raise.

Under the new contract, top pay for veteran cops rises to $65,382, from $59,588. The union said many of the top earners will get a retro check of about $21,000.

The two-year award of 4.5% and 5% was greater than the 3% and 3.15% won by other uniformed unions, which police union leaders said was appropriate.

"Pay should be based upon the responsibilities employees have, the hazards and dangers they face ... and not antiquated pay relationships of a bygone era," said Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.

City Hall officials countered the raise carried at least 2.8% worth of givebacks.
In exchange for the salary bump, new hires lose 10 of their 20 vacation days.

The award was agreed to in a 2-to-1 vote by a three-member arbitration panel. The panel's chairwoman, Susan Mackenzie, and the city's representative voted for the agreement. The union's rep voted against.

The PBA raises will cost the city $50 million more than was budgeted. It could cost taxpayers another $135 million because firefighters, correction officers and sanitation workers can reopen their contracts to match the PBA raises.

UNION HEALTH RIPOFF

The NY POST

Union Health Rip-Off
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Public-employee unions are anxious to lock in health benefits before those big numbers start to sink in - and now they've settled on a new strategy for pulling it off. The unions' legislative tool is a seemingly innocuous measure of the sort known in Albany as a 'study bill' - window dressing for a provision that's designed to hinder future efforts by state and local governments to rein in skyrocketing retiree health costs.

For the answer, start 14 years ago, after a successful lobbying effort by the powerful New York State United Teachers. In 1994 - not coincidentally a statewide election year - NYSUT got the Legislature and Gov. Mario Cuomo to enact a temporary moratorium on any 'diminution' of health benefits that wasn't first negotiated with unions representing active employees.

That supposedly temporary moratorium has been renewed every year since.

Other unions naturally have tried to follow suit with us-too measures modeled on the school law. The Legislature was happy to oblige - by near-unanimous votes - but former Gov. George Pataki repeatedly vetoed these bills.

Mindful of Mayor Bloomberg's influence with Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, the bill is worded to exclude New York City retirees. But if all the other unionized government workers in the state get this kind of 'protection,' city workers will be sure to follow as soon as Bloomberg is out of the picture.

THE UNION POLICE

Wall Street Journal - Review & Outlook

THE UNION POLICE
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Under current law, every state has the ability to set policies that govern its public workforce. In some states, police, firefighters and paramedics belong to unions that collectively bargain for their contracts. In others, unions representing public-security workers can bargain over pay, but not over benefits or work rules. And in some others, these workers can choose not to belong to a union.

Democrats want to change this for the entire country. A bill that passed the House last year would make the top officials at local unions the exclusive bargaining agents for public safety officers in every town or city with more than 5,000 people. They would also have the authority to bargain for everything -- pay, benefits and work rules. The goal is to give labor the whip hand with local governments, and further coerce nonunion members to join the dues-paying ranks.

Sixteen states have considered legislation like this since 1996 and voted it down. The bill, pushed hardest by the International Association of Fire Fighters, would impose it nationwide, superceding all of these state laws. This arguably violates the Constitution's 10th Amendment, which leaves to the states any powers not specifically given to the federal government -- which presumably includes a state's labor relations.

The bill's mandates would also complicate the task of post-9/11 public security. Work rules negotiated according to national union standards make no sense when the safety needs of New York City are so much different than those in Fargo.

Local officials nationwide are fighting the bill, and the Bush Administration has promised a veto. But the House passed it 314-97, and it may be veto proof.

UFA & UFOA - THE REAL SKINNY

Here's the real skinny on a few articles below.

Other unions, over the years, have caught-up or surpassed the pension benefits Cops and Firefighters won many years ago. We have stood still while this was happening. "Former Active Firefighters" couldn't even convince the UFA or UFOA to support any COLA enhancement legislation for the past 8 years. In FACT, they never supported the 2000 COLA, as verified by their Legislative Agendas. They were both caught with their pants down and then took the usual photos with legislators when the COLA was passed.

Former Active Firefighters have also pleaded with both unions for the past 8 years to support a Health Benefits Protection Bill. Needless to say, they both refused for 8 years !

This year, to their credit, the UFOA has decided to support both bills and it is part of their legislative agenda.

Needless to say, the "Legislative Brain Trust" of the UFA, led by "Stevie Wonder" (who fails "to see" any reason for "Former Active Firefighters" or Retiree Legislation) and their Tenderfoot Legislative Rep. (UFA-V.P. Slippery Slevin) have again failed to support the COLA or "Health Protection" Legislation this year.

Most "Former Active Firefighters" have suggested that Retirees should explain to the Active Firefighters how important both pieces of legislation are to them. Sorry, it doesn't work. Many Active Members do understand that the unions may have been robbing Peter to pay Paul, but money in the pocket is more important.

Former Active Firefighters have learned that the ONLY way to protect your pension in retirement years is to have COLA enhancements or even better... a COLA increase every year.

Also, the UFOA has had a Payroll Deduction for their retired members, who have the "MARSH" Catastrophe Insurance. The UFA refuses to obtain that benefit for its members !

The UFA will be in Albany on June 10th. Will they be lobbying for or against their "Former Active Brothers" ?

I'll be there in my usual disguise. It takes awhile to get the dye out of my hair and grow back my mustache...but its so "worth it" !

jg - Thousand Points of Right

UNIONS FLEX THEIR MUSCLES

In Albany, Unions Flex Their Muscles
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By Jennifer Lee - NY TIMES - 5-15-08

In this approaching election cycle, labor unions are flexing their muscles in the state capital to a degree not seen in years, in part because Gov. David A. Paterson is viewed as relatively weak compared to his predecessor, Danny Hakim and Nick Confessore report.

The unions want their pensions sweetened and their health benefits set in stone. They want school districts to continue to increase their budgets without interference from the state, and they want to force some nonprofit groups to pay higher wages. They have already scored a victory by stripping language out of state law that linked decisions on teachers' tenure to their students' performance on standardized tests.

The unions' push has set up an early test for Governor Paterson, a longtime friend of labor who is trying to refashion himself as a cost cutter in the face of the state's coming fiscal crisis.

GOV. TO UNIONS: NO PIE FOR YOU

Gov To Unions: No Pie For You

Elizabeth Benjamin - NY DAILY NEWS - May 15, 2008

Asked today about a report in The Times on unions' perception that he is more of a friend - and perhaps also more of a pushover - than Eliot Spitzer, Gov. David Paterson today reiterated his plans to stand firm against efforts to "sweeten the pot," particularly when it comes to state pensions.

"This is not the time to sweeten the pot because we're about to lose the whole pot," Paterson said.

The governor insisted he's not "looking to fight" with unions, with which he has long enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship, (and he will no doubt need them in 2010), but noted that New York's fiscal picture has changed dramatically over the past several years, leaving the state unable to be as generous as it once was.

"When I found out that the 20 largest taxpayers to this state, the 20 banks and corporations that pay the largest amount in state taxes, for the final quarter in 2006 they paid - they paid their money in March 2007 - $533 million into the New York State treasury," Paterson said.

"Do you know how much they paid this March ? $72 million. That's 14 percent of what they paid last year."

"So I understand there are entities that go on and on thinking they're going to cut the same peice out of the pie. They don't understand that there's no more pie.

COOKED FIGURES BURN PENSION BILLS

Cooked figures burn pension bills

BY KENNETH LOVETT
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF

Saturday, May 17th 2008, 4:00 AM

ALBANY - Lawmakers will recalculate scores of pension sweetener bills after a union-paid actuary admitted he lowballed the original cost estimates.

There are 120 such bills pending in the Assembly in which the actuary, Jonathan Schwartz, provided the low-cost estimates.

For example, Schwartz said one pension bill would cost nothing, while the Bloomberg administration says the city's end of the tab would be $200 million.

Schwartz admitted to The NY Times that he routinely skewed his numbers to favor the union that paid him, calling his job "a step above voodoo."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Sheldon Silver said that because of the admissions, "I have determined that the Assembly cannot have confidence in any of the fiscal notes" Schwartz prepared.

Silver said new fiscal notes will be required for all 120 bills.

FROM HANLEY TO RANDI

(Facimile)

Dear Ms. Weingarten:

As you know, in light of the economic forcast the City's current financial plan for Fiscal 2009 includes the attainment of $200 million in annual health plan savings.

We wish to work together with you and the municipal labor committee to achieve these savings.In the past through our joint efforts, we have been able to implement cost containment programs and achieved our goals without jeopardizing employee' health benefits.

In some instances, such as PICA, we have enhanced benefits for employees.

In this context, we are requesting a meeting to discuss solutions to realize these savings.

Sincerely,
James F. Hanley

Proposals to the MLC from Hanley

1. Establish co-payments and deductibles in the HIP-HMO plan approximate the design of the GHI/Blue Cross CBP plan.

2. Elimination of the Medicare Part B reimbursement for all covered dependents.

3. Eliminate the City's $35M annual contribution to the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund.

4. Eliminate the annual $65 welfare fund contribution funded by the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund.

5. Technical committee to meet and discuss coordination of prescription drug benefits between the welfare funds and the GHI and HIP health plan optional riders

The City reserves the right to add or amend proposals.

April 17, 2008

PATERSON'S UNION SELLOUT

Paterson's Union Sellout
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May 5, 2008 - NY POST-OP

Even as he warns of budget doom, Gov.Paterson is moving to ensure sky-high public-sector labor costs in New York by stacking a key panel with pro-union cronies.

Paterson wants Rosemary Queenan, an in-house lawyer for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association from 2001 to 2007, to fill the open seat on the three-member Public Employment Relations Board.

The board helps settle collective-bargaining disputes between unions and state and local governments. Members with ties to unions already hold two PERB seats; Queenan would make it unanimous. How fair is that?

MIKE PUTS SQUEEZE ON COP PACT PANEL

Mike Puts Squeeze on Cop Pact Panel
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NY DAILY NEWS 5-07-08
Lisa Colangelo

The three-member arbitration panel currently deciding the terms of a contract between the city and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association got an indirect - yet pointed - message from Mayor Bloomberg during his budget address last week.

A contract that breaks the wage pattern already set by City Hall will break the city budget, the mayor warned. In fact, he said, the city may not be able to deliver its 7% property tax cut if the contract exceeds the pattern.

"If that [arbitration award] were to break the pattern, all bets are off," Bloomberg said at City Hall. "It would be a very serious blow to our budget and we would have to revisit our ability to maintain the tax cut."

CITY HALL SQUASHES RAISES FOR COPS

City Hall Squashes Raises for Cops

By ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Saturday, May 10th 2008

The head of an arbitration panel put a two-year police contract on the table that would offer the city's officers a 5% raise each year, sources said Friday.

But the deal was too rich for City Hall, which was pushing for givebacks from the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association before agreeing to give cops higher raises than other unions, sources said.

The three-member arbitration panel met for five hours Friday without reaching an agreement. Any deal must be approved by two of the three members. City Hall and the PBA each have one appointee.

360 POST 9-11 WORKERS HAVE DIED

360 Post-9/11 Workers Have Died, Including 80 of Cancer
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BY JORDAN LITE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, May 8th 2008

More than 360 workers who dealt with the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster have died, state health officials said Wednesday.

Officials have determined the cause of death of 154 of the responders and volunteers who toiled at Ground Zero, the blocks nearby and at the Fresh Kills landfill, where debris from the site was taken. Of those, 80 died of cancer.

"It's the tip of the iceberg," said David Worby, who is representing 10,000 workers - 600 with cancer - who say they got sick after working on rescue and recovery efforts.

MANAGING ESCULATING HEALTH CARE COSTS

Managing Escalating Health Care Costs
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Hudson Valley Press - 5-08-08

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today proposed the creation of an investment pool to help the State and local governments manage and fund Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB). Under new accounting standards issued by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) that call for the disclosure of escalating future costs of retiree health care benefits, State and local governments must now begin to report those liabilities. DiNapoli issued a report on OPEB liabilities urging the State and local governments to develop plans to quantify, manage and fund these costs.

“The state and local governments have to start preparing for these costs,” DiNapoli said. “These are difficult fiscal times, and the impulse may be to push this issue aside. But more than one million New Yorkers are counting on these health benefits. The responsible, good government thing to do is to start preparing for the future in order to protect health care benefits.

NYPD MGMT STILL A WHITER SHADE OF MALE

NYPD Management Still a Whiter Shade of Male
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BY ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER- Friday, May 9th 2008

The NYPD's upper management remains almost entirely white and male, according to a review by a civil rights group.

About 84% of the NYPD's leadership posts were held by white males in December, with the percentage of black men and women in the command structure at 3.7%.

An NYPD spokesman said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has made inroads by promoting minority officers once they reach the rank of captain.

A snapshot in March showed that among the pool of officers ranked captain and above, 54% of the black officers had been promoted, compared with 45% of the white officers.

GROUND ZERO: NOT FIT FOR A HERO

Ground Zero: Not Fit For A Hero
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by Kimberly Ripley - May 09, 2008

I walked as far around the perimeter as the public was allowed. I just knew I'd find something to commemorate the lives lost here.

I found nothing. Aside from an American flag flying gently in the warm New York City evening breeze.

Why were there no flowers? Why wasn't there at least a sign? "Rest In Peace."

Life seems a lot different than it was the last time I visited this city. It was just four weeks after 9/11. When I stepped off the train in Penn Station I was instantly heartbroken as I viewed hundreds and hundreds of signs with photographs on them.

"Have you seen this woman?"... "Has anyone seen my husband?"

Yet here it is just a few years later and nothing honors the void where the Twin Towers once stood.

In addition to the lack of respect and honor for those lives lost and their loved ones who remain, I think about the brave American men and women fighting terror in the Middle East. To not commemorate the tragedy of 9/11 negates (at least in my mind) what these soldiers stand for.