CTA Tattler

A very poor tactical move by Huberman. Putting aside his eligibility for a moment, consider:

1) The CPD has been operating sans contract for over a year, is short several hundred officers, faces an uptick in violent crime, and takes a constant beating (some deserved, some not) from the media and public.

2) Ron earns a salary of nearly $200k per year. He's relatively young, and let's face it, with Daley as his political godfather, regular employment will never be an issue. (Exhibit A - Kruesi, Frank)

3) The CTA is regularly lobbying Springfield for more funding, claiming in excess of $6 billion in underfunded capital expenses, amongst others.

Yes, Huberman's petition is a symbolic gesture, and doesn't qualify as even a blip on the radar from a purely financial perspective. But at a time where the CTA needs as much goodwill and support as possible, this move appears heavy-handed and a microcosm of the sort of slimy politics that defines Chicago.

Thank you! You said that with the tact that I would have so lacked.
It's all about the money. Feed the beast

I hope the money's worth the loss of credibility and integrity. Faust rides the Red Line!

Ron's contention that running the CTA is just like being a police officer probably shouldn't surprise some folks here. I lost count of how many times people have said that the CTA doesn't need a transit professional in charge because the management skills needed to run one type of organization are the same as what's needed to run another. So if that's true, he *is* just like the chief of police.

The reality, however, is that the idea that the chief of police and the CTA president are interchangable is downright hooey.

Ron is *not* doing the same kind of work he was doing as a cop -- and if he is, then we're in for one hell of a CTA colapse in the near future.

This grab at money meant for retired police officers and their survivors shows us a lot about Ron's character. Don't let the smiles and handshakes fool you. He's just another dirty-dog politician who can't tell the difference between being police chief and CTA president because it's all just part of a political career for him. So perhaps he's not lying when he contends that he feels he's doing the same job as when he was a police officer.

Before the lead story in the post gets lost in the maelstrom of well-deserved flogging of RonH, condolences to the family of the gentleman who worked for the credit union. While the embezzlement is indefensible, his suicide, coupled with his wife's ovarian cancer and staggering medical bills, have heaped tragedy on this family. Thoughts, prayers, good energy, etc. to you as you begin to deal with this.

If on his "off-time," Ron wants to patrol the streets of the Uptown neighborhood in which we both live, then I would have no problem with him receiving a cop pension.

This just in from the Sun-Times:

>>After hopscotching from one government agency to another, Huberman could choose between three pension funds: police, municipal employees or CTA. Since he’s already spent 13 years making payments toward his police pension fund, the choice was clear.

“It’s a bridging issue. The way the law reads, you can’t bridge out of a CTA pension. So, if I bridge my service into the CTA and then move to another government entity, I couldn’t take my pension with me. It means that I, in essence, start over on a pension,” he said.

Nice try. A patrolman who moves to the fire department wouldn't be given the same opportunity. The reality of municipal pensions is that there is a guaranteed payout (something you don't get with 401Ks), but in order to be vested you have to stay with one entity for a long time, usually 20 years for even a partial payout. For Huberman to say that, as president of the CTA, he's in charge of CTA security and therefore deserves to continue to pay into the police pension in order to become vested is a major stretch. If I leave CPS right now, I lose my 10 years and would start over with only 3 years' credit if I come back. C'est la vie in the real world.

The real world apparently isn't applicable to his world.

This is only typical of the pension mess in this state, which is compounded by the state constitutional provision that all pensions are guaranteed, although, as we discussed about a year ago, doesn't mean that the constitution mandates compliance with actuarial funding standards. The Sun-Times also reminded us of Frank's attempt to double-dip.

Since double-dipping is endemic around the state, as well as other abuses such as raising teachers' salaries the last year to increase their benefits, politicians taking on 2 month jobs (such as Bobbi Steele) to double their final salaries for pension purposes, etc., what is really needed is statewide pension reform, and maybe only one pension plan for the entire state. However, since Blago points out (correctly in this case) that many legislators are double dipping, we won't see that.

Lots of luck for the generation behind mine, who will have to pay this liability.

And in other news;

http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/subway.car.advertising.2.830528.html

With reference to painhertz's link, CTA has been wrapping its rapid transit cars for several years. Is he saying that NYCTA is behind?

Not to mention they're $900 million in the hole.

What a phony BS,BS,BS,what kind of scam is this.

thanks to former mayor jane byrne,after disbanding the cta security force,i got nothing for thirteen years of loyal service. no job and no pension.those clout hounds who cameover from city hall,put in little service and little money into the cta pension raped the cta for pension benifits.