As a taxpayer that has now been informed that I will be paying a lifetime for these part time employees is it too much to ask that while they are on the job that they actually do their job?

The only thing that I have ever asked of the Bay County Commission is that they enforce the responsibilities of the other Bay County Governement agencies.  They absolutely refuse to abide by the State of Florida statutes.

A representative at Jimmy Patronis’ office confirmed that they play by their own set of rules here in Bay county and that the laws made in Tallahassee are simply ignored in Bay County! 

Can we hold back their paychecks until they learn to play by the rules?

On the same evening that the story came out about these part time elected employees that enjoy a lifetime of benefits, Alex Sink (Florida Chief Financial Officer) declared that Florida is in financial crisis.

There is a simple solution.  Eliminating these lifetime benefits to the part time elected employees would go a long way toward improving the financial crisis that the State of Florida currently faces!

So an elected official should get more than an law enforcement officer in insurance benefits? Something is definitely wrong if people believe that. The problem has to do with when some (but not all) elected official create these laws to benefit themselves.

Hey,  what about the $2.00 per acre property tax robbery? Millionaires pay $2.00 per acre and we get taxed out of our houses???  http://www.baycbg.com

This is not right. I work full time for the State of Florida as law enforcement officer and get a High Risk retirement. A officer is vested at six years. If that officer chooses to retire at six years, he will not get paid anything until he/she is in their 60’s. Mike Nelson is a part time employee of the state and makes $61,575 a year. Something is wrong with this picture. Mike Nelson makes twice as much money a year at his part time, state job, then I do as a full time state law enforcement officer, and when he completes his second term we are going to give him $1000 a month for the rest of his life. Plus what he is already getting for his prior services. This is happening all over the state. I fell that the elected officials should get something, but they should have to serve a minimum of 16 years, that’s 4 terms. It’s a part time job. The State of Florida has no money and makes cuts to schools and law enforcement ever year, but can pay $1000 a month to elected officials, like Mike Nelson. I think this is a good area to start making cuts. I know I haven’t received a cost of living raise in the last 4 years and I don’t make anywhere near $61,575 at a part time job, Mike Nelson.

Under Florida’s Retirement System, elected officials are eligible to receive retirement checks after a much shorter amount of time served than other state employees.  According to the Division of Management Services the reason is elected leaders have a much shorter life span in public service.
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Will do a good a good job and help the tax payers and that life span my not be so short. EARN YOUR RETIREMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think we are getting robbed again!

Sound personal since my comments were directed towards the system and not a person. 8 years of service in a position that never puts a person’s life in danger I feel in not long enough to retire with a lifetime pension. Just because a person doesn’t make the rules mean you have to agree with them. When someone is a taxpayer and they disagree with the way the tax money is being spent they have every right to complain. And no, military retirement benefits shouldn’t be the same as county elected officials. It should be the other way around.

The County Officials that are mentioned in this story did not make the rules regarding full state retirement. Just because they served and are now old enough to collect does not make them bad people.If the retirement benefits are so unfair then maybe the laws and rules should be change.Maybe instead of questioning the rules these naysayers should run for public office to change them.Oh wait! If they are popular and effective enough then they may serve 2 terms and then they would be eligible for the retirment benefits also. Bet their story would change when they were the ones eligible for the benefits. I dare to say the jobs are harder and more time consuming than it seems.Should military members get the same benefits as elected officials. Yes but the previously mentioned officials could not control that.

I know retired military members that served 20 years that don’t get 1K a month. And they definitely earned every penny of it. 8 years is way too short a period of time only spending 20 hours a week on a job to earn that for the rest of your life. Compare working 40 hours or more a week and having to be available 24 hours a day, including deployments, remote tours away from family, and being in war zones around for world to your county commission job!

In some communities local business owners and other community people that care about their community volunteer to be on the School Board.  I think this is awesome because it shows you do care about your community and that you are not doing this for a check or because you have to.  Come on Bay County VOLUNTEERING is a great way to help your community, you don’t have to be paid to do everything for your community.  Most of the people on the school board have other jobs, can’t they do more with less as we expect everyone else to do?  Volunteering can have other rewards like a yearly bonus instead of a retirement benefits, just the insurance alone is GREAT, self employed people understand that.  Gee, I’d love to work 8 years and retire that’s better than the military retirement program!  What these people draw from our “students money” would be better spent in the classrooms and for teachers who have to deal with our kids more than we do….think about it.

Any goverment employee should be 65 years of age before any retirement is paid.

Mike Nelson is a Financial Consultant that does not know the difference between Bank of America and Charter Financial….sure he didn’t know about the retirement benefits…give ma abreak Mike!