Can You Top This?

Can You Top This?

Dennis Gannon Re-Hired By Chicago City Government For One Day, Receives $158K Pension

Chicago, a city notorious for political corruption, now has one more scandal to add to its list.

Thanks to a change in the city’s pension code passed in 1991, 23 retired labor union officials stand to collect a total $56 million from two city funds over their lifetimes, according to a Chicago Tribune/WGN TV investigation. The law uses the retired leaders’ union salaries to determine their pensions, instead of the salaries they made as city employees, the report found.

Some of the more egregious examples include Dennis Gannon, who the city re-hired for one day and managed to net a $158,000 pension, according to The Tribune. Liberato "Al" Naimoli, president of the Cement Workers Union Local 76, officially retired from his $15,000 a year job working for the city last year even though he hadn’t held the job for 25 years. Naimoli is drawing $13,000 from city coffers, according to the report.

The investigation's findings add fuel to critics who say Chicago and the state of Illinois is rife with corruption. Former Governor Rod Blagojevich could serve up to 30 years to life in prison for corruption charges including that he tried to benefit from picking President Barack Obama's replacement in the Illinois Senate, according to The Chicago Sun Times.

And Blagojevich isn't the only one who is corrupt; The Sun Times reports that Chicago FBI branch is investigating 2,000 public corruption cases in the area. A former Chicago police officer was sentenced to 12 years in prison earlier this month for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from drug dealers, among other charges, CBS reports.

At least the city is paying out pensions to people who are still alive. The federal government spent more than $120 million over the last five years on retirement payments for dead retired employees, the Office of Personnel Management reported on Friday.

Addition by Dr. Morris...

This morning Alfred cleaned my gutters on my house. It didn't take long. I told him I paid him too much. He said, “There's much risk involved”. After President Obama was caught calling 153 bridges "structurally deficient" that actually weren't, an administration official said the President merely "over-suggested the risk".

Last week, former manager of the liquor stores in the city where I live, who had 17

employees, and was drawing an annual salary of $214,000 a year with a $30,000 bonus, who's son, Bradley Williams, received a $20,000 bonus in each of those years on a base salary of $115,500 while working under his father, who was also sentenced recently to 3 years probation for using county funds to build a garage at his house, will now draw a retirement salary of $8,300 per month.

I am a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected, medical officer veteran of the Korean conflict. Living next door to me, for many years, a retired chief of police, in good health, who drew a retirement of $200,000 a year, once said to me, “You are the biggest fool I know. Going to school all those years to become a doctor, then going into the military service and spending the rest of your life blind, getting pennies from the government.”

Three percent of the population pay 52% of all federal taxes. Forty-seven percent of the population pay no taxes at all. Fifty-seven percent of the population are subsidized by the government. The disabled are the largest minority. There are over twice as many disabled as blacks. Yet, the disabled, most of whom are happy, dependable employees, are expected to pay taxes like the “normal” (one restaurant owner told me that he did not like disabled people in his restaurant because it made the “normal” feel uncomfortable). In spite of my condition, I have worked every day, lived frugally, invested wisely, and pay much tax. Every time I write these checks, I think how many places I cannot go...parks, libraries, museums, concert halls, political meetings.

The ROTC student at a college receives more money for his education each month than does the disabled veteran on a pension. The disabled veteran learned long ago to take the crumbs from the table when it comes to health care. If you can get to a VA facility, you take a number and wait until you are called.

At the VA Hospital in Durham, NC, this medical officer asked the Chief of Staff, why, as across the street at the Duke Eye Center, he did not have volunteers who would help the blind, deaf and crippled in wheel chairs, get around through the large maze of clinics. He said, “ I do not need suggestions from you. We are just waiting for you to die.”

When Jesus Christ returns for his own, and judgment will begin at the House of God, for those who should be concerned, God will judge with equity. (Let them sing before the LORD, or he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. Psalm 98:9).

Dr. Thomas R. Morris
Lt. Col USA Retired
Blind/Dictated
Visit my blog at http://pockets1940.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.DrThomasMorris.com
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(Dr. Morris is a totally blind 100% disabled service connected veteran, 8 around the world trips, passport stamped in 157 countries)

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