Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Politics: Not such a great deal.

Via Les Jones, we hear of the swell new Knox Co. Sheriff's Dept. pension plan that we seem to have bought into.
The new pension plan for the Knox County Sheriff's Office is going to cost $100 million over 20 years.
That doesn't seem like such a great deal to me. All we get for this are some retired deputies and a term-limited ex-sheriff. While Knox County couldn't have landed A-Rod for a measly $5 Mil per annum, we probably could have gotten Andruw Jones to bite after his sub-par season last year, if only for the security of a 20-year contract. And really, who wouldn't rather have a power hitting center fielder with mad defensive skillz than an ex-sheriff tainted by a whiff of cronyism?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good point about the nepitisim, but personally, I believe that a more attractive pension plan will help bring in more "worthy" applicants. The changes certainly won't be overnight, by any means, but when the field that one chooses from becomes deeper, it becomes easier to make better choices. Because lets face it, if they need to hire 50 new deputies each year (imaginary numbers...) then they're going to hire 50 deputies, wether they get 51 applications or 5100 applications.

Anonymous said...

Well, we've had some sort of fun Sheriff news here lately. Pendergraph is leaving to go join Homeland Security and permits are already going out in a more timely manner.

Not saying he's anti-gun, although many others would for me, just saying the wheels are moving faster for some reason ever since the announcement.

Unknown said...

A "whiff" of cronyism?

Cronyism radiates off that guy like the could of stink from that little kid on Peanuts, Pig Pen.

Tam said...

Shoot me for hyperbole and then shoot me for understatement. A girl can't win around here.

;)

Anonymous said...

Ah there is the great quandary of American civil service. We vote in decent salaries and benefits so the incumbent won't have to steal the balance. Seems reasonable, nicht war?

So why do we still end up with a swarm of officers harassing our people and eating out their substance? And why does that sound kinky?

Looks like a systemic error to me.

Anonymous said...

The FOP possibly meant $6.2 million per year...

...and then didn't mention that would be a recurring cost every year.