Neils Bullshit

You may have read recently in the paper or online that TriMet’s non-union salary freeze was lifted in the middle of 2012. This means that, for the first time since January 1, 2009, our 400 administrative staff were eligible for salary increases. Administrative staff means everyone who’s not in the union. These are the employees who provide critical support to the 2,100-person union workforce that keep our service moving. (critical support huh, I'd say you  undermine your union employees)

Administrative employees, except those who received promotions, had not seen ANY increase in their pay for 3.5 years.(he used to say 4 years, and he used to say that more than a year ago) In fact, their paychecks had gone DOWN, because they have been paying a larger portion of their health care premiums. (oh my lord just take a look how far DOWN (click here) their poor paychecks have gone down. Could be as much as $99/mo for those poor executives earning more than $100K a year, whatever will they do now? Just think, Neils pay went down from $18,420 a month to $18,320/mo. Maybe he can get food stamps to help out)

Our administrative employees have been “doing more with less” in a big way for a long time.(uh huh, sure, we believe you) Since 2008, we’ve lost positions due to attrition, as well as a round of layoffs. The result – those administrative employees who remained have seen steep increases in their workloads. Except for a small group of non-union employees who are paid by the hour, when administrative employees work longer they don’t get overtime pay. In this situation, you start to lose talented employees. (standard high paying bullshit rationale, this excuse is always used for over paid people)

That’s why I made the decision to lift the salary freeze. (in secret) This decision cost $910,000 (a million here, a million there, nobody will notice)—less than 1/5th of 1% of our $473 million annual operating budget. The average increase was 3%. This is the same increase union employees were receiving at the time. I believe investing in talented and productive employees is always a smart business decision and pays for itself many times over. (what else would he say to his 'secret' payoffs to his cronies)

There are a lot of decisions that go into building the TriMet budget. In hindsight, last year’s decision about administrative salaries is something we should have made more clear and will do so in the upcoming budget process.(you know damn well what you did, you didn't think you would get caught)

This morning I’m presenting the Proposed FY14 Budget to our Board. That budget goes into effect July 1, 2013. Watch for details on TriNET and trimet.org.

My thanks to each of you for your service to TriMet and the community.

Neil (you are a liar Neil and we know it!)