“Enough is Enough” When Councilman Steve Kozachiks office called the Tucson Police Officers Association, yelling and screaming profanity laced threats of retribution over the loss of our endorsement of him, we knew our relationship with the Councilman was forever changed. We never thought though that he would ever sink to this level. It is now clear that Mr. Kozachik has become nothing more than a vengeful politician, towards anyone who cares to disagree with him. The time has again come for our citizens to be informed about the state of Public Safety employment in our community. After all of the headlines and TV news splashes fade, common sense and reasoning must prevail. As we have previously stated, City of Tucson employees recently saw their first positive pay adjustment in over seven years. The small amount each employee received was the first hope many of these employees had seen in almost a decade. Yet on the heels of this sliver of hope, some City Staff, and one Councilman, seem hell bent on extracting the exact amount of the cost of living adjustment from those same employees, and in some cases even more. Make no mistake about it: the headlines about cutting City of Tucson employee benefits is nothing more than a shallow attempt to take back the first positive pay adjustment these employees have seen in years. You can label it “inflated sick leave sell back.” You can call it “employee overtime problems.” But the result is the same. It is the systematic attempt to take hard earned money away from dedicated City Employees. Some City Management Staff and Councilman Kozachik think these employees are overpaid. A look at the hard numbers tells a different story. The starting salary of a Tucson Police Officer is $45,900. That same Officer could switch to the Mesa Police Department and make $54,000, or the Scottsdale Police Department and earn nearly $55,000 and locally, Marana Police Department starts their Officers at $46,300. Let’s compare closer to home. Councilman Kozachik says that Police Officers and Firefighters in our community are overpaid and earn too many benefits. He hopes that while he tries to sell the community on this misinformation, we forget the promotions and raises he’s given his own Council Staff. According to the University of Arizona, Councilman Kozachik makes just shy of $80,000.00. Of course, that’s after the healthy raise he received in 2013. The same year he voted against City Employees receiving one. And let’s not forget his City of Tucson salary, coming in at $24,000.00. That makes a combined base salary of a staggering $104,000.00 of taxpayer funded salary, or more than double the starting pay of a Police Officer he seems so fixated on. Talk about “double dipping” and “spiking.” Of course, the irony does not end there. Here is a short example of some of the benefits of being a University of Arizona employee: • Paid Vacation Leave • Paid Sick Leave • Reduced Tuition for the Employee and their Dependents • Life Insurance • Health Insurance • Dental Insurance • Discounted home and auto insurance • Resources for child and senior care • Free access to the Campus Fitness Center • The taxpayer funded Arizona State Retirement System • Sick leave Buy Back Program • Accident & Plasma Donation Leave And yet, the Councilman has the audacity to claim that TPOA leadership does not represent our members. We can assure Steve that our Association has never been stronger, and with his constant attacks, we become stronger every day. Since the Councilman likes numbers so much, we conducted a membership poll to give our Officers, Detectives, and Sergeants a place to express their opinions. 98 percent of the respondents voted for the TPOA to continue countering Steve’s petty mission of retribution and his continued efforts at spreading misinformation. We will never stop protecting our Officer’s hard earned pay and benefits. We will never allow Steve to balance the city’s budget on the back of the hardworking men and women who wake up everyday to care for this community. That being said, we have tried, time and again, to meet with Councilman Kozachik and express our concerns about his statements in the media. We continue to maintain an open door policy, one that the Councilman continues to ignore. The TPOA supports a balanced budget. We simply ask that it be balanced fairly. Not balanced by stealing from the employees who truly keep the city running. The Councilman recently stated in his newsletter that the budget process should not be a blood sport. We think constantly terrorizing the employees of this City, their spouses and children, and playing games with their financial security is the real blood sport. Councilman Kozachiks behavior is reckless, irresponsible, and unprofessional. Enough is Enough. It is time we stand up for the Police Officers who have selflessly dedicated their lives to making our community better. It is bad enough that our Officers face danger on the streets every day; they should not have to worry about a rogue Councilman constantly threatening their pay and benefits. Contact Ward 6 Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik at 791-4601 or by email at [email protected]. Tell him to stop needlessly threatening the livelihoods of Tucson’s Police Officers and their families. William Bonanno President, Tucson Police Officers Association
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 15:10:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015