Huge Payoffs to Police Brass in San Francisco Infuriate Tax Payers

In this scary economic climate of the State of California being broke and nearly bankrupt, tax payers in San Francisco are steaming mad after learning in yesterday's SFGate.com's  Matier & Ross columnists article that the outgoing police brass are set to receive enormous pensions for life after receiving huge severance packages. 

What first angered people was when they learned the former Police Chief Heather Fong, who retired in 2009, received $303,653 in unused vacation, sick and comp time.  Needless to say, many article comments questioned why there wasn't any cap placed on sick time as in the private sector. The real clincher though was when tax payers learned Fong would be receiving a whopping $229,500 a year pension for life. In the article's comment section  people were threatening to storm City Hall with pitch forks while others ripped Ms. Fong apart calling her a criminal.

I thought I'd post a few of the comments after San Franciscans learned Ms. Fong will be receiving millions of dollars in her pension should she live a normal lifespan. 

This is totally disgusting. Heather Fong should be ashamed of herself for taking the money. She was a lousy police chief who got the position by politics and not by merit. No wonder the City budget is in the deep red. City top management are way over paid.

***

Disgusting is certainly the appropriate word. How about a few thousand people show up at city hall this afternoon and raise hell about this. What we need is a Facebook and Tweet based process to getting people out on the street in response to this sort of outrage.

***

These people think their actions are harmless "gaming the system" and taking money from a faceless state and city government. The problem is that they are stealing from the poor, elderly,sick people who need these funds to survive. They are stealing the education from our children. They are stealing the future from all of us. They should be considered criminals because that is what they are.

***

Now that "we the people" are officially working for the government I guess somehow as Jennifer Johnson ( I love it another department spokesperson this time from HR ) can explain how it is now legally justifiable for the taxpayer to be absolutely robbed blind due to it being "mandatory under state law".

OK kids here is the bottom line. You no longer need a gun to rob. Simply become a civil servant and you can again rob, steal and cheat to your hearts' content due to it being "mandatory under state law".

OK so how about giving us the poor working class some insight into how this all came to be "mandatory under state laws". Was this "law" something that was voted on???

What elected officials and it goes without being said which unions were pushing to establish "laws" that provided civil servants with the ability to get rich for life?

When did this become "law"??

Did those that pushed for these unbelievable just the opposite of capitalism laws receive political campaign contributions from the likes of SFPD, SDFD, SEIU, etc.?

Dig a little deeper and let us know who decided that to make "mandatory under state law" that civil servants could rob and steal.

***

That's disgusting. That's like winning the lottery. Many people with a master's degree or advanced carpentry skills will only make $40k/yr in most other states. $400,000 is enough to hire 10 people.

***

Chief Fong quit at age 54, so she should be collecting this pension for 30-40 years!!!! But an examination of the numbers is even more revealing. Her base pay, divided by 2080 hours/year yields an hourly pay of $90/hr. Divide that into her unused vacation payout and it comes out to 3370 hours of pay, or 421 days of accrued vacation. Assuming that she gets 3 weeks vacation per year, that means she accrued vacation and didn't take any vacation for 28 years!!!! This is a ludicrous and blatant and unnecessary attack on taxpayers and there should be a monumental revolt against this insanity. Thanks to Matier and Ross for continuing to expose this kind of GREED. It isn't just confined to Wall Street.

***

These city employees are outright stealing from the taxpaying public. These people are no better than the Madoff conspirators. If they cannot be arrested & I know that is the case, then these lowlifes should never ever be allowed back into San Francisco for any reason, publicly scorned forever and held up to the new lawmakers as the reason this public service system is thoroughly and completely corrupt.

***

These public employee payouts are just this side of criminal, yet we do nothing to stop them

It appears a few of these tax payers seem to have just had their eyes opened feeling they've been burned.  I've known it for years.  Those in the legal profession, attorneys in particular, learn how to steal money lawfully from clients.  Stealing from tax payers is the easiest crime of all and these politicians cover for one another as do the police and judges. It's all nothing but a business.

S.F. Police Brass Cash In On Way Out - SF Gate.com