On September 2, 2012 on Labor Day weekend I listened to State Senator Julianne Ortman being interviewed on the radio on the KTALK, Late Debate Show at about 3:30 PM.
She began bragging at one point about the Senate stopping the State Public Employee Union's from settling their contract. She was referencing the action by Sen. Mike Parry who caused the Senate to not approve the already negotiated and agreed upon contract with the State Employee unions. She said something along the lines that the "Public Employees came like they do every year expecting a raise, but this time we told them no." Of course as Public Employees we know the reality is that their wages have been frozen for years.
This came as no surprise from a Senator who voted against guaranteed pension benefits for public employees and voted to reduce the State workforce by 15%. I will grant that this is a common position of her political party, but while she talks the talk, and votes the vote she does not WALK THE WALK. Like too many politicians she's good at telling her constituents what they want to hear then doing something else.
Here's something every one of her constituents should know.
While Senator Ortman is big on attacking public employees she is one herself! Not just a State Senator, she is a Senior Administrative Manager with the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and has been drawing a salary of over $90,000 a year since 2007. She gets not one, but two Public Employee Pensions, one from the Minnesota Senate and another State PERA pension from Hennepin County.
As I wrote in an earlier post, she still works for the Sheriff's Office making about $90,000 a year in addition to the $40,000 a year she makes as a State Senator. She also racked up 77 hours of "overtime" (though salaried), when the 35W bridge collapsed. So while she votes against hard working Public Employees she doesn't miss an opportunity to cash out at the expense of the taxpayers any chance she gets.There have been allegations in the media in the past about her claiming pay from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and the State Senate at overlapping times.
Like us Hennepin County Detention Deputies, our fellow State Correctional Officers have also had no raises for years. We work days and nights, weekends and Holidays locked up with the dangerous people the police have removed from neighborhoods. We have endured years of no raises, yet Senator Ortman regales the fact the State Senate has yet again prevented them from getting a raise. She plays games with our hardships for political points, all while eating up a bigger piece of the pie then any of us.
I have an idea, I know a Public Employee position Senator Ortman could eliminate immediately by resigning her job with Hennepin County. After all she does support a 15% reduction in public employees.
I have another idea, her constituents can vote for her challenger, Jim Weygand.
This post is written by Wade Laszlo, Union Steward, Minnesota Public Employees Association.
She began bragging at one point about the Senate stopping the State Public Employee Union's from settling their contract. She was referencing the action by Sen. Mike Parry who caused the Senate to not approve the already negotiated and agreed upon contract with the State Employee unions. She said something along the lines that the "Public Employees came like they do every year expecting a raise, but this time we told them no." Of course as Public Employees we know the reality is that their wages have been frozen for years.
This came as no surprise from a Senator who voted against guaranteed pension benefits for public employees and voted to reduce the State workforce by 15%. I will grant that this is a common position of her political party, but while she talks the talk, and votes the vote she does not WALK THE WALK. Like too many politicians she's good at telling her constituents what they want to hear then doing something else.
Here's something every one of her constituents should know.
While Senator Ortman is big on attacking public employees she is one herself! Not just a State Senator, she is a Senior Administrative Manager with the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and has been drawing a salary of over $90,000 a year since 2007. She gets not one, but two Public Employee Pensions, one from the Minnesota Senate and another State PERA pension from Hennepin County.
As I wrote in an earlier post, she still works for the Sheriff's Office making about $90,000 a year in addition to the $40,000 a year she makes as a State Senator. She also racked up 77 hours of "overtime" (though salaried), when the 35W bridge collapsed. So while she votes against hard working Public Employees she doesn't miss an opportunity to cash out at the expense of the taxpayers any chance she gets.There have been allegations in the media in the past about her claiming pay from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and the State Senate at overlapping times.
Like us Hennepin County Detention Deputies, our fellow State Correctional Officers have also had no raises for years. We work days and nights, weekends and Holidays locked up with the dangerous people the police have removed from neighborhoods. We have endured years of no raises, yet Senator Ortman regales the fact the State Senate has yet again prevented them from getting a raise. She plays games with our hardships for political points, all while eating up a bigger piece of the pie then any of us.
I have an idea, I know a Public Employee position Senator Ortman could eliminate immediately by resigning her job with Hennepin County. After all she does support a 15% reduction in public employees.
I have another idea, her constituents can vote for her challenger, Jim Weygand.
This post is written by Wade Laszlo, Union Steward, Minnesota Public Employees Association.
No comments:
Post a Comment