Not from the grapevine, the following information is from documents available to all members of the Templeton Advisory Committee. All the members need to do is read them and do some basic fourth grade math. No need for grape vine rumors.
This same information is available to anyone who takes the time to do the hunting for the material located somewhere on the Templeton Town website, all you have to do is find it as there is no one place to find all the financial information for Templeton on the Town's website.
First place to look is on page 7 of section one:
Conversion of Old to "New" Departments.
Old . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New
Highway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Public Works - Highway
Fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Public Works - Highway
Tree Warden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Public Works - Highway
Mechanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Public Works - Highway
Street Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Public works - Highway
Town Building Repair/
Maintenance/Expense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Public Works - Builds & Grounds
Cemetery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Public Works - Building & Grounds
Memorial Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Public Works - Building & Grounds
Section four - page 158
"Highway" under employee and position, it has the following:
Superintendent . . . . . . . . . . . . Wages - $67,413.00 FY2018; 0 as in zero
Now it has Director (@ 60% allocation) FY2018; $43,206.00
Section four - page 175
Building & Grounds under employee and position, it has the following:
Superintendent . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wages - $60,715.00 FY2018: 0 as in zero
Now it has Director (@ 40% allocation) FY2018: $43,206.00
So, the town use to have two separate departments, highway and cemetery, with two separate department heads. Now we seem to have one department with two "divisions" and one person overseeing both. There does seem to be a savings on the salary side and for the future costs with regards to health insurance and retirement. Except for one thing!
Built into the FY2018 "budget" there are two new full-time positions, career fire fighters/EMS positions, which come with future benefit costs of health insurance and retirement costs. So one is gone and replaced with two, only in government.
The above material is not from any anonymous source, no rumor, not even the grape vine, it is from public documents that most will never see unless they attend meetings, ask for the information or go to the Town's website, or a couple other places and look for themselves. This is called trying to be informed, trying to stay informed.
So, you can trust the above information, you can go with the " anonymous" $25,000.00 raise, you can go with the "I heard it through the grapevine" approach or you can go look for yourself. You can also argue if someone got a raise and how much it was for. I have posted a link to the above mentioned documents and I will post it again so it stays "out front'. I also believe Julie Farrell has posted a link or links on Pauly's Templeton watch. I have also posted a link to it on my Face book page and will do so again.
If you are going to vote on something, I believe you should know what you are voting on.
posted by Jeff Bennett
Many Civil Service pension amounts are based on the 3 highest years of earnings. Many long term state civil service employees retire with 70% of their 3 highest years of salary. So if such an individual gets a large increase when he/she is very near retirement age, there is an unfunded liability as to that person's pension. For example, if a long term state civil service employee, nearing retirement age, were to get a raise of $25,700, and he were to work for three years and then retire with 30 years service at age 62, his pension would be increased by nearly $18k per year. That's without any raises for those final three years. This is a hypothetical situation as to the age of the employee and years of service. It illustrates that while this move appears to be saving money, it could cost Templeton far more than is apparent. Pensions are difficult enough to fund, giving out a 42% raise at career end is far more expensive than it appears. There is no time to build the sum needed to fund the 42% increased pension. I doubt there is a pension fairy to pick up the tab.
ReplyDeleteThe town is responsible for full pension payments. So for the 30 years that the employee worked, both the town and the employee contributions were based upon a much smaller salary. The power of compounding over many years does not apply to such a raise. At the point of retirement, the pension plan will need to pay out $18,000 per year more than before the large end-of-career raise in pay. In this scenario, I would expect the town to get a bill for nearly the entire amount of the increased pension, paid for the life of the employee and possibly his beneficiary.
Does Templeton's pension plan follow the State Civil Service plan, whereby the pension is figured on the 3 consecutive highest yearly earnings? If so, it would seem the additional pension payout will outdo any expenses for clothing, boots etc.