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Mayor Isaac's cover up of a Contingent Liability of $20 million
by Mark Lowry, President, Standup 7 + 1

November 5th, In the Year of our Lord 2006

                                        
There are many firefighters who are upstanding individuals I am proud to call fellow citizen. There are also those who fleece the system and allow their votes to be bought by handouts of taxpayer dollars. This is morally wrong and one would hope, illegal as well.

The Lexington Herald Leader did an excellent article on the police and fire pension fund excesses. They reported a year ago about firefighters and police officers getting full disability for minor injuries, getting a full 60% of their pay tax free, free tuition for their families to college, free medical and health care benefits, and then going to do similar jobs thereby more than doubling their pay. The current system is a license to steal. I don't recall them reporting that these individuals could also get workers compensation benefits that they usually take in a lump sum.

Fayette County taxpayers are currently paying $1 million a year for these partial disabilities and over $14 million into the fund each year. The pension board thinks that needs a boost of $20 million. We can thank Mayor Isaac for her A+++ work which has succeeded again in digging a deeper financial sewer hole for our tax dollars.

There was an opportunity to tighten the rules and make more reasonable payments but Isaac chose the easy way and bought firefighter votes with our tax dollars that will continue to go into this government pig trough for abusers of the system. The FOF of Fayette County officially endorses Isaac’s reelection.

The thing she didn't rely on is that there are many sworn officers that are as outraged by this corrupt situation as are we the citizens. They know the problems our government is having financially and are opposed to the misuse of the pension fund by unscrupulous officers.

This problem can only be addressed by a stronger leader, with morals, who can bring a collaborative management approach to problem resolution. That person is definitely not Mayor Isaac who refuses to answer questions regarding the potential liability we taxpayers will be saddled with.

Judge Payne is the judge who will render the final decision, and he has apparently waited until after the election so as to not embarrass Isaac further. Thanks, Judge Payne; your hesitancy to let the people decide if this is a critical election issue is a kick in the pants for us all. Are you bought and paid for by the Isaac machine also?

How much more of this corruption and mismanagement can the citizens of this city take? Folks, its time for a change. It sounds like a cliché, but it is past time to give Jim Newberry a chance to see if he can do better.

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