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Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Sunday, Jul. 05, 2009

MPOA ignores good of many

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Having read budget articles in The Bee and having attended council meetings for months, I felt that the agreements reached with three employee associations to take at least 96 hours of unpaid time, to no raises or increases for a year, and to some increases in their health insurance costs were in the true spirit of cooperation.

After many speakers advocated for retaining police and after council members implored the MPOA to just defer a raise for one year to preserve the positions of those received layoff notices, the MPOA members appeared unmoved and went to the street and picked up protest placards.

The police, in my view, are priority one. But the entire city government is in a state of uncertainty and the coming months hold the possibility of more losses. Saying yes to a deferral for one year would have saved up to 10 people and their families. Saying no costs the city a million dollars in training and turns their back on those people in the name of a few dollars. MPOA should reconsider for the good of the many, not the good of the few.

RON JESKE Modesto