A couple of days ago, I received a call from my longtime friend, Farris Hensley, who again reiterated his long standing and legitimate concerns about our membership not posting comments about my articles on this website. I have told him for some time now, how many visitors each particular article has received on a daily basis; however, it is apparent that our membership who reads those articles, for whatever reasons, has not seen fit to comment about them. Farris has indicated that, while our readership is quite good, the lack of interest displayed by our membership troubles him because it leaves a definite impression on the membership and others who read this website that our membership are not very concerned about the issues posted on the website or they would leave comments.
I told Farris that I understood his concerns but that perhaps the reason for the lack of comments was because our membership approves of what we are doing. I told him of a telephone call I had received just the day before from pension member Rick Wilson who discussed a very interesting idea with me that he obviously came up with after reading several of my articles; however, he did not see fit to post any comment about the matter on the website and, instead, called me directly and discussed the issue. That led Farris to question why he hadn’t posted a comment on the website. I told him I had no idea but that the idea he had come up with certainly had merit in my opinion. Farris stated that while I may be correct about our membership’s reasons for not committing, it still leaves the “impression” to others how read the website that they are not concerned or interested.
Farris then postulated, as he has before, that he believed the reason people weren’t committing is because my articles all seemed to have a “negative connotation” that he thinks offends some readers who are put off by them. Feeling rather insulted, I replied that, while I wished my articles could have a more positive connotation, I found it extremely difficult to put a positive “spin” on the numerous problems and negative issues currently facing our pension fund and, once that is remedied, I would be happy to attempt posting “touchy feely” articles on this website but do not currently have the time for such frivolity. I also reminded him that our membership, at least a sufficient number of them, voted me into office knowing, full well, my “writing style,” which I have never attempted to hide from anyone, and cannot change because, for good or bad, it is me.
For those reasons, I wish to remind our membership that I am NOT the only person who can post articles on this website; however, with the notable exception of the single, excellent article posted by pension member Donny Wells several months ago, I have been the ONLY pension member to do so. For those who may be “put off” by my style of writing or just want to interject a new topic of discussion, I suggest you post your own article on whatever topic you may chose, which is easily done by simply registering with this website. I am afraid I must maintain that requirement because to do otherwise would mean that anyone could post articles, including spam articles of no interest to our membership, just as they currently attempt to publish spam comments to my articles that I must constantly delete for the same reasons. I have even created a guide on this website to tell you how to register that can be accessed HERE.
After registration, it is a simple matter to post an article and is no more difficult than using any word processor. I have even created a guide to assist you in the publication of articles that can be found on this website by clicking HERE and I strongly encourage you to read it and to post your article. Perhaps of particular interest to someone who wishes to post an article, is the fact that, once registered, even I do not have the ability to stop you from posting whatever you may wish, even if I wanted to, as this is truly an open forum for ALL of our membership to use and I PRAY that others of our membership will avail themselves of this opportunity.
Alternately, PLEASE post comments on my articles! Good, bad, or indifferent, I don’t really care but post something. I have NEVER denied and would never deny ANY pension fund member’s comment on this website and, once the initial requirement of my having to approve your first two (2) comments has been meet (a requirement of the program used to create the website not mine), I no longer have any control over what comments our membership may post about anything on this website (unless the member somehow changes his posting name which triggers the program’s requirement for my two time approval again). Concerning comments, I have even allowed persons other than members to post comments on articles if their opinion and comment is relevant to the article.
In short, PLEASE help me get Farris off my back about this issue by posting a comment or an article about SOMETHING!
Just a post to take readers of our website to this article if they only read the “Recent Comment” information.
Happy reading and other “touchy feely” salutations!
Well, we sure don’t want you and Farris to have any kind of squabble. (Ha) I try hard not to post too often for the simple fact that the ones that SHOULD be posting are the actual retired policemen and women. I hope that, by now, most of you know my feelings and that I usually agree with you. Sometimes I am not cognizant of the matters, so my post wouldn’t mean anything except WHAT? And, would show my ignorance of the matters at hand. I check every day to see who is reading & posting, so your efforts are certainly not wasted and you have taught me a tremendous amount about the inner workings of both our Board and the PRB, which saddens me very much. WAY too much politics and not enough cooperation.
Anyway, keep up the good work and I am very pleased to be kept informed, whether I like what is going on or not. If I can ever be of help, I will be delighted to do so.
Steve thanks for the updates . I appreciate you keeping us informed.
Steve, I review all your postings and regard them as informative not negative.
Comment or not comment. Just because there are no comments does not mean no one reads the articles. Most times I don’t make a comment but I read the articles. Steve the incident with your son has gotten blown out of portion to say the least. Richardson should have answer the question & gone on about his business. He said he supported the police well does not sound like he supports the regular patrol officers, just the management! Eliot should hold his head up, this too shall pass. Keep us updated, thank you.
Steve you are doing a great job keeping us posted on happenings. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. You are appreciated! Keep up the good work!!!
Steve, I like other members of our fund, read your articles and have no problems with what you say. I appreciate the time and effort you put into the pension board and keeping those of us who do not attend the meetings abreast of what goes on in them. I do have one question that concerns me and if it is true, should concern us all. I was told this past week by a fellow retired officer, that the fund would be totally broke in 5 years and that at that time something could be done regarding the city putting the fund back on it’s feet. True? Also, I see nothing Eliot did wrong, he is owed an apology from Mr. Richardson and the administration. Terry needs to be more selective as to who he sells/gives the LRPD shirts to so there is no more confusion of this nature.
Frank,
I have no idea who you spoke too but I wish you’d have him give me a call. Our fund will NOT be “totally broke in 5 years.” Not even the PRB, who declared our fund to be “projected insolvent,” believes that to be possible with our current investments and cash flow.
While our Fund is currently experiencing difficulties, those difficulties are not insurmountable, in my opinion. One thing that would help us tremendously is to receive assistance from the state Guarantee Fund; however, under the current policy of the PRB, our fund is not eligible to receive such assistance because our Board, like many other pension boards, has given our membership benefit increases in the past. I believe the PRB’s policy on that issue to be one that is, as a matter of law, illegal and I will be speaking before the PRB on that very point on September 1.
Additionally, the Pension Board has taken steps to meet with City government in an effort to increase our pension fund’s revenues from the City. Those sources of revenue do not currently exist, as the City has never contributed one dime to our fund other than what is mandated by state law to help keep it going. One such idea, is the use of existing state law allowing the City to collect a “warrant fee” of $50 for each warrant served. Had this been the practice of the City in 2009, it would have generated over $300,000. Because the City was unaware of its ability to tap this source of revenue until I brought it up, I have proposed that the City use this new revenue stream to fund our pension plan; however, I have no delusions that the City will not keep the money for themselves rather than give it to us and, so far, can’t even get the City Manager, who is the Chairman of our Board, to bring up the issue of making appointments to the Committee that would oversee that task. However, this is a problem I hope to remedy in the next pension meeting.
One thing that your “fellow retired officer” said is true. If the pension plan should ever become unable to pay its pension members their funds, the City would have to make the money available for us to do just that. The law firm our Board plans to hire to represent our fund stated during their interview that it has handled many cases around the country were this fact was judicially determined by the courts of other States, although no such case has been judicially reviewed in Arkansas. While not a judicial opinion, the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office has also recently opined that the same would be true in Arkansas. Thus, the City, for better or worse, is inextricably tied to our pension fund.
I hope this post elevates some of your “concerns” about our fund and assures you that we are taking, and will continue to take, the steps necessary, to the best of our ability, to ensure that our fund will NEVER be “totally broke.”
Steve,
I have always read all of your postings as well as all the others and as I have mentioned in the past, I appreciate all your time and effort that your are so willing to give so that we can stay informed.
Reading all your articles and knowing the effort that is put into them, makes me feel guilty that I cannot do more so the only way I know how to contribute in a small way it to help a fellow ‘brother or sister’ that may be in need, financially. I have done so in the past and will continue to do so as long as Farris keeps throwing out some names to me. I consider myself blessed that I receive my pension and see no reason NOT to share it with someone less fortunate. It gives me great joy to do so.
Once again, thank you for your dedication and providing us this web site.
Tami