Former city administrator and longtime consultant Ernie Graham ended his nearly 40-year business association with Winder’s city government on Monday after questions were raised late last week about some of his recent billings. Graham informed Mayor David Maynard of his decision on Monday. He scheduled that discussion hours after the Barrow Journal on June 1 requested copies of the past year of his invoices to Winder and Braselton. Graham apparently got a special deal in 2002 to retire from the city at age 50 and after that, has continued until this week to draw other income from the city as a consultant and also from Braselton as a consultant. Over the past 10 years, Graham has collected about $1.1 million in public funds through a combination of early retirement benefits and consulting fees from both Winder and Braselton.
For the full story, see the June 6 issue of the Barrow Journal.
But there's nothing criminal here. The early retirement, especially the obligation to pay part of health care costs was a dumb idea for the city but a great idea for the few, privileged employees. Blame the former mayor.
The consultant work should be open and transparent and seems to be. The billing rate is competitive for the extensive knowledge base of the principal. Blame the former mayor if the city didn't get value for their fees.
The BCJ makes a big deal out of the "$1.1" in public funds paid to Graham but over half of that is his retirement benefits, agreed upon by the city. Blame the former mayor if this is excessive.
This is an interesting story and an example of why municipalities should rework their benefit package so that the taxpayers are not obligated for defined benefits. Let the employees have their own 401k and the city contribute a matching percentage. Defined benefit plans, be they for police, fire, or whomever are a bad deal for the taxpayer.
Graham is not to blame for any of this and there is less than meets the eye in this story.
If your retirement check comes from a government source and you decide to run for office or work then the original government should stop your retirement payments.
What we are seeing now that there has been a few bad years in the economy are lying politicians and their minions in the media try and steal the pensions that these people have worked for their whole working lives.aside from the obvious bad will that comes from this kind of theft from citizenry towrs elected officials , the true damage will be felt many years down the road with lesser quality people in positions at the fire dept. and police dept.i predict more corrupt police in the future taking more bribes and using their positions for their own gain.i also predict more lazy and gutless firemen in the future willing to sit and watch buildings burn and people die ather than risk anything themselves. All this will be a boon for lawyers and courts as well as news media types.
The only loosens in the long run will be the citizenry, ironically the same people that mike pretends to be speaking up for in his ranting editorials about govment employees.
Early retirement for police and fire is a sweet deal also. Drop that.