02 City Council Min 07-27-04 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Special City Council Meetrng July 27, 2004 Page 11 City and now they don't want to pay stability pay. He reminded the Council that they had been talking about saving money and asked what about the nine (9) laptop computers they were using anymore. Councilman Guest asked Mr. Alexander if retiree health benefits were a part of his package when he went to work. Mr. Alexander replied yes. Councilman Guest said that benefit did not start until 1990 for that. Mr. Alexander said that the Council was talking about stopping the sick leave sell back and some people who work for the City of Paris depend on that sell back to buy Christmas. He said a deal is a deal is a deal and there was other places the Council could cut. Jim Bryan from the Parks Department came forward saying he was a new employee and had worked for the City for one (1) year. He asked what was the use of working without benefits and stability pay. He told the Council what they would have is a bunch employees that don't care and a bunch of things that don't get done. He continued that the employees need something to work for. Chuck McMellon, a paramedic, came forward, saying he's been a paramedic for twenty years. He explained the cuts proposed by Mr. Townsend took $5300.00 out of his pocket a year, $2400.00 a year from TMRS, $600.00 a year for insurance, $720.00 for longevity pay, and his sell back, $1600.00 a year, which he used for Christmas, which isn't even counting retiree benefits. He said he has gotten a$5.00 raise for the past twenty (20) years. He said when someone retires at age sixty (60) or sixty-two (62), the Council was wanting retirees to pay $600.00 to $700.00 for insurance and the retirees would only be getting about $1200 a month before taxes. Brad Allen with the Engineering Department came forward and said he was a single dad, divorced, and he was required by law to provide insurance for his four (4) kids and because of that, his net check is $450.00 for two weeks, which doesn't leave him much to live on. He mentioned that he had high blood