Overtime bump for retirees?

Dear Editor,

It was recently brought to my attention by a member of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 57 that there had been what he characterized as a gross misstatement of facts made by Dick Trail in an opinion article published in the McCook Gazette on Aug. 23, 2016. I read the article and felt compelled in the interest of accuracy to respond.

In the article Mr. Trail states that when he was a City Council member, he was "graveled to learn that the police union had a scheme to have members nearing retirement to be assigned lots of overtime to get their pay way above average to bump up their retirement checks. Mr. Trail's statement is flawed on several facts.

In metropolitan cities that have defined benefit retirement systems that pay a percentage of earnings based on gross pay, that might be possible to do. In cities of the first class, which includes McCook, the retirement system is a defined contribution plan which was based on a 6 percent employee contribution matched by the employer. The monies were invested in a retirement account most closely resembling a 401 k plan. The most benefit anyone could have received from increased overtime would be a one-time increase of 6 percent of the overtime from the employee and employer.

As an example, an additional $500 in overtime would result in a whopping $60. Considering that, at that time, the McCook Police department had total overtime budget for 22 persons in an annual amount of $16,000, it is ludicrous to assert that unions could scheme to pump up anyone's retirement checks;

City of McCook Department heads are tasked and work diligently at assigning and scheduling personnel as well as utilizing overtime funds in the best interest of the city. Overtime funds are utilized to offset costs for off-duty court appearances, call-ins for emergency response, call-ins for sudden illness and special events like Heritage Days.

Officers and union personnel have no influence in any of those tasks. Further, city officials monitor the use of all department funds on a monthly basis and would recognize any such "scheme."

During the time period Mr. Trail was on the City Council there were no retirements from the Police Department. There have been four retirements from the Police Department in the last 35-plus years. Richard Brunswick retired as a salaried Chief of Police. Detective Sergeant Lloyd Myers retired in a different retirement plan many years ago. Sergeant Jim Henry and officer Lonnie Anderson retired from the department, but not during the time period Mr. Trail was on the City Council. It's a wee bit hard to have schemed to increase funds for retirement when no one was retiring during that time period.

Officers of the Fraternal Order of Police has the authority to deny any wage increases for sub-par performance by employees based on an annual performance evaluation. The appropriate checks and balances have been in place and agreed upon by both the City Council and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 57. The public interest is protected and has always been protected by city officials and union members.

While I appreciate that everyone should be allowed to express their opinion regarding the way they saw it, it is incumbent on those asserting things purported to be facts while expressing opinions in the public media to be accurate and factual.

Isaac Brown,

Chief of Police

McCook, Neb.