Trade Unions and Professionals' Organizations Receive a Free Pass From The Occupy Crowd
          We have all heard how corporations should pay their fair-share of taxes, and I agree. However, have trade unions and professional associations like TSTA received a free pass? I believe they have! I do not believe that organizations who depend on taxpayer money for their salaries should unionized or, in the case of professional associations, receive representation from a non-governmental entity to avoid  censure.

 

Unions Have no Place in Government

          Many people quote Franklin D. Roosevelt's statement,"“If I went to work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union.” While many like to use the quote to add credibility to their perspective, many fail to realize two key ideas which explicitly state unions' importance in private industry at the time and not government. First, people do not read that Roosevelt said "factory" and not "government". I do not believe there were union members in the government at that time or in his administration. Second, the era the declaration was made. During Roosevelts Presidency, many of the labor laws today did not exist, and workers only had the recourse of unions to address their concerns and be protected from the unscrupulous owners. So what does this mena for us today?

 

Unions Protect Inferior Employees and All Employees' Reputations Suffer

             While there are many facets of government employees, my rant will focus mainly upon municipal employees, cops and firefighters. Unions work in the private sector because of competition. If a union shop wants to stay in business, they must provide a superior product at a highly competitive price. If they fail to do so, they will be out of a job; replaced by a better worker. The problem with unionized municipal employees, like the police, is they have no competition! Who replaces them if we are dissatisfied with their performance? Try to discipline them or fire them and their unions come to their defense. Coupled with this, unions then encourage an "us" versus "them" mentality. This mentality then results in good cops, teachers, firefighters, and other public servants protecting the unqualified, lazy, and  malingerers from dismissal, probations, and demotions. In other words, the sterling employees are lumped in with the inferior employees. Like the saying goes," Until good cops stop protecting bad cops, all cops will be suspect."

In Government, From Who Do The Union Employees Need Protection?

          I am not going to make any friends with this piece, so I will speak my mind. I firmly believe that unions for government/municipal employees are parasites. Exactly who are the unions protecting government employees from? The taxpayer? In other words, municipal employees are paid by the taxpayer, the municipal employee pays dues to a union, and the union encourages enmity between taxpayer and employee. For example, the City of Laredo has recently spent over $58k on attorney fees  negotiating a firefighter contract. I am not sure what all it contained, but I will tell you the police have a reciprocal "me too" clause in their contract as well. So, anything given to firefighters must be conceded to police and vice versa. Why do these two municipal entities warrant such privileged treatment when regualr city employees are "at will" employees, meaning they can be hired and fired "at will". I thought these two factions represent the best of our citizens. Isn't their word good enough? Apparently not, because the fire and police budgets commanded $0.63 of every dollar in general fund for Fiscal years 2013-2014. I have no idea how what that dollar amount is for the current fiscal year, and I throw up a little in my mouth as I think about it; but I digress. The truth is: they do not need protection from anyone, they are just leveraging their power to create Super PAC's and justifying their own bloated salaries and benefit packages. I mean, why do firefighters and police unions endorse certain politicians? Not because these politicians have the taxpayers best interests in mind, but because these politicians promise to advance an agenda which favors the union and its employees. It would seem taxpayers need a union to protect them from municipal employees.

Firefighters Protest Responding to Fires Outside Laredo City Limits

          Does anyone remember how firefighters were oppossed to responding to fires outside the city limits? Chiefs and union officials claimed that responding to these emergencies they were leaving city residents vulnerable in the event an emergency would arise while preoccupied outside the city limits. They only held our best interests at heart.  Well, that is partly true. They wanted moe money in the form of wages if they were to respond to such events. However, I notice they are not worried about such contingencies when they send fire engines and other emergency vehicles to the funerals of deceased members of their force, and I do not mean the ones who died in the line of duty. Because of the complaint and a strong union, a Webb County volunteer fire department was formed. I think this is brilliant, why don't we comprise a city fire department that is comprised of a 50% volunteer force, and since the cops have a "me too" clause do the same for their organization? Think the unions would allow that to happen?!  Of course not, unions do not profit and politicians cannot run on the support of volunteer cops and firefighters.

But These men and Women Are Heroes

          While I have heard this before, usually from the source or the family member of the source, I will say we do need people to do these jobs; however, no more than we need garbage men, road workers, or bus drivers. The starting salary for a police officer in Laredo is above $49k per year, not to mention over-time pay, and a benefit package that is second to none. People very angrily tell me that these men warrant this level of compensation. They chide me that,"while you are at home asleep, they are out there protecting you." I agree that they are, and I further agree that I did not assign them this role, they fought, competed for, and agreed to do the job. If at any time they no longer want to perform their duties they are free to leave. As a veteran, I never tell people I deserve anything because of my service. I enlisted of my own free will and because I did people could sleep at night while I stood a post. I had no union, no big salary or compensation package, no sick leave, no workers comp, and no protection from the chain of command when I violated regulations, or was in any other manner derelict of my duties. If a cop's salary is woth $49k annually, what salary should the men and women in our Uniformed Services warrant? Perhaps only a union could answer that question.

       If anyone has comments, questions, or corrections, I can be emailed at darrell.mills@yahoo.com

If I Stole $1.4 Million, Would I Get A Free Pass?

     I have come to the conclusion that possessing a law degree or an elected office is a license to steal. As a former employee of the City of Laredo, I have witnessed many illegal, unethical, and outright acts of malfeasance by city department directors, employees of the City Manager's office , and the city council. I have done my damnedest to bring this to light; to do what I could to alert citizens and the authorities of these illicit acts, but the truth is: No one seems to care except me!

     Today, I write from he top of my head, consider this my manic phase in print. I am just free writing and relaying the truth, as I know it and believe it, in regard to the corruption that infects our city. Here we go!

Spending Other People's Money

      Would anyone think it prudent to pay $2.2 million on something which could have been bought for $800k? I suppose the answer would depend on if it was your own money or someone else's. Well people, your illustrious city council did just that! The new cell construction at the landfill is the result of the re-packaging of air space and the design plans which the city council overwhelmingly voted to give to AB&Z Engineering. The reason it cost so much was because council awarded this contract to the afore mentioned firm over SCS Engineering to appease a member of the Texas State Legislature, who I will name at another time. However, this is not the reason it cost so much, even though I am confident this state politician will definitely receive consultant fees as a result of successfully bypassing the scoring and bidding process, but I digress. The reason the project cost so much was because AB&Z could not qualify to bid on the project because they could not meet the specifications laid out in the RFQ (Request for Qualifications) so they had to partner with other companies, six in total, to meet the specifications laid out in the RFQ. It is my understanding that a job they did in Del Rio lingered in limbo for over a year because TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) refused to approve the finished work. I wonder if the council members would have over paid if it was their personal money, I doubt it. However, no one is outraged about this because $1.4 million is just a drop in the bucket to our city officials and elected leaders, and , apparently, to the citizens who support these corrupted politicians! And think, this is just one project in one department! If all the waste was exposed and fiscal responsibility instead of waste and malfeasance were the order of the day, imagine how much of a surplus the city would be operating with!! I expect this post will meet with the same luke-warm reception of my other posts. No one cares that taxpayer dollars subsidize the private third party recycling company, no one cares that the city operates a satellite office in a foreign country and uses taxpayer dollars to pay Mexican nationals in that office. In fact, no one has even asked if this arrangement is handles through our city payroll or if a third party agency is being used, and if so, did the city follow their own protocol for selecting this vendor? But why would they? As George Orwell wrote in his novel, 1984:

          “So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”

And so it is comrades, hope some of you are beginning to think. If not. think about this...

                                                Ever Wonder What $1.4 Million Can Buy?

     I have pondered this question, but not in terms of what it could buy for and individual person, rather, what it could buy in terms of investment in the city as a whole. How many kids in Laredo  could we send to college? You know, those kids of promise but without the means to attend. How many people's homes could we weatherize and repair to ensure they live in a decent home with adequate energy savings? How many kids in Laredo could we buy school supplies for? How many elderly Laredoans could we ensure have adequate food, sanitary conditions, a palomita to care for them in the absence of their family, to ensure these same elderly can afford their medications? How much food could we provide for the hungry and the orphans residing in our city? How many of the homeless and homeless families could we shelter? How many more teachers could we hire? How much of a raise could we provide these teachers? How much relief from taxes could we provide the taxpayers? How many books could be bought for the libraries? How many after -school programs could this fund? How many more city sponsored projects could have been paid for? HOW MANY LIVES COULD THIS MONEY HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE IN BRINGING HOPE INSTEAD OF DESPAIR? I really do not know the answer, but I know how many corrupted politicians it bought, 8 city council members, 4 employees from the city manager's office, 1 city attorney, 5 city department directors/managers, and a State politician, if anyone cares....

Nothing Can Justify a Citizen Being Shot 60 Times by Police, Nothing! 

     I am incensed by the comments of Chief Garner in regard to the LPD shooting of a Laredo man at a local truck stop as justified. The Chief's comments deny the victim and his family the basic dignity all human beings deserve and, furthermore, is an assault on the public's intelligence.

      In my opinion, the shooting was nothing more than an execution minus a blindfold and cigarette. I say execution because it is still not clear what incited the police to open fire. Since there is no gunshot report or muzzle flash from a bb gun, is the public supposed to accept the officers' defense that the victim failed to comply with a directive? That is no defense!

   Another thing which is unclear, is why did the victim sustain head shots? Police are trained to aim center mass at their targets. If the cops followed protocol, the victim should have been shot only 1 or 2 times in the trunk area increasing his odds of surviving the encounter.

  The last inconsistency I wish to address; however, there are many others inconsistencies,  is why did the officers handcuff a corpse? Did they know he was dead and this influenced their decision not to administer and seek emergency medical attention? If so, the corpse should not have been handcuffed because this action was nothing but a desecration of his mortal remains. My condolences to the family of the victim.

   My closing comments are to Chief Garner: Sir, no amount of damage control will repair the chasm between your department and the public. Because so long as good cops protect bad cops, the public will hold all cops suspect. To serve and protect the public is a privilege and honor, police are not privileged and deserving of honor because they serve and protect.

  

Again, I encourage and welcome anyone to respond or reply to my comments. My email is darrell.mills@yahoo.com



Does Environmental Propaganda Belong in Our Public Schools?

     This morning I was listening to a local radio talk show and the topic was recycling. A guest speaker was stating how they want and have spoken to children at schools, public schools, and I felt that this is inappropriate. My reason being is I feel this is more a political indoctrination than education. If the true desire is to educate, then other sides of the issue would be presented and not just the side which is highly subjective and necessary to justify the existence of the speaker and their career.

             I also have issue with recycling advocates using public schools as a depository for their propaganda. In my opinion, these people blur the line between recycling and conservation. Most people do not need to be reminded about conservation because it affects them directly because they pay for the resources they use. Anyone remember being told not to leave a door open, or to turn out a light when they leave a room? Too bad the recycling lobby doesn't take a look at what they do and compare it to conservation. They might be surprised at how this activity enlarges the carbon foot print. Isn't this contradictory to their efforts? 

          I have over 10 years of solid waste experience, and in my experience, the only way to effectively reduce and reuse is to start with manufacturing. Allowing manufacturing to continue wasting resources and penalizing citizens with once a week trash pickup in attempt to appease a political agenda is wrong. To enter a public school and teach that plastic bags are damaging our environment, while Fukushima is causing irreversible damage to the Pacific Ocean, and possible long term genetic damage to marine life and humans is irresponsible. If local environmentalists want to effect a change in Laredo, and make a small contribution without addressing the current environmental dilemmas, they could patrol the retails stores and malls watching for Mexican tourists who unpack their purchases and discard the plastic, styrofoam, and paper to be blown across the parking lot and into our city. It is a shame that in the 21st century rhetoric and sophistry pass for knowledge and truth.

As always, I invite and encourage comments, suggestions, and criticism. Please feel free to contact me at darrell.mills@yahoo.com

Corrupted Politicians and Environmental Hacks Scam Taxpayers

   Below is a post which was edited and re-printed in the Laredo Morning Times, on June 9, 2014, under the Letters to the Editors. I am grateful to the editorial staff for printing the letter and for editing which maintained the integrity of my original thoughts. However, some content was cut due to a constraint of space. For anyone interested, here is the original posting from my Facebook  page. Of course, as usual, if anyone wishes to debate me, enlighten me, or ask more questions, I can be contacted at: darrell.mills@yahoo.com. 

Corrupt Politicians and Environmental Hacks Scam Taxpayers



       I still cannot believe the "hub-bub" over the plastic bag ban and the recycling program. I find it ridiculous that a councilman would go through residents' trash to "monitor" forced compliance with recycling ! The idea of recycling is another scam perpetrated against taxpayers. First, the program has nothing to do with reducing the waste. It has to do with making money. Contrary to popular belief, recycling does not reduce manufacturing's carbon foot print; it increases it! I hear arguments about how long it takes a plastic bottle to decompose in a landfill, but how long does glass sit in a landfill? Any less than plastic? Of course not! However, the city subsidized private company cannot profit from glass, so we are deceived into thinking it benign and plastic much maligned. Why is glass any less a threat to environment sitting in a landfill than plastic? Pretty poor logic, isn't it? Recycling only works when industries reduce their mining, forestry, water and coal burning activities. This is not happening! In fact, many industries are increasing these activities. People recycle without realizing they are not reducing any carbon foot print, but actually increasing it. So, in fact, the fraud is being perpetrated on a global scale. If recycling is to achieve its goal of conserving resources and reducing the carbon foot print of manufacturing, it is only logical industries must be forced to comply with recycling programs. To penalize the consumer for the wastefulness of manufacturers will accomplish nothing, except to continue to allow manufacturing to profit from the ignorance of the consumer.

Why not be egalitarian in approaching recycling?



        If the city is going to compel citizens to recycle, shouldn't the city be compelled to do the right thing and recycle all materials regardless of profit? I mean councilman Vela, can we place a price tag on environmental responsibility? If this is the right thing to do, why isn't everyone doing it; or being forced to do it?  Second, I  hear that the city cannot make apartment complexes recycle because they have private vendors pickup their trash. Well, in the past those residents used to pickup their own blue bags and the city picked up those bags, regardless. But the real deception is  the city claims to have no recourse where private sanitation companies are concerned. WRONG! Those privatized vendors have a franchise contract with the city. While these contracts are valid for 25 years, the city has a clause allowing them to alter the terms of the contract to protect the publics' interests. Nobody is telling the public about this clause! Now why isn't anyone insisting on city wide recycling if it is so important? What is good enough for some citizens should serve all citizens well and promote equality.

Business as usual in Laredo      

        Lastly, this recycling program is really nothing more than a sham to subsidize a third party private company because a member of the corporate entity has a family tie to a sitting member of the city council. There is no reason the city cannot and should not run this enterprise. The truth of the matter is the city secured the $12mil bond to update equipment in the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) and buy the blue bins. First Recycling did not invest dollar one! Think about this: the third party recycling company does not own anything connected with the recycling program, except the profits derived! The city owns the blue bins, the trucks which pickup the recyclables, the taxpayers pays for the fuel which powers theses trucks, the taxpayers pay the salaries for the labor who pick up these recyclables, the city owns the facility the trucks provide door-side delivery of the recyclables to, the machinery used to bale the recyclables, and to add insult to injury; the taxpayers even pay the $1.25 per ton to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to dispose of what does not get recycled, but ends up in the landfill. The city scams its residents because they say every city in Texas is recycling. This Tu Quo Que fallacy( Latin for you too) that other cities are doing it too is not a good defense. Would this defense work on a cop to avoid a ticket or on a supervisor to avoid a write up? No! And it shouldn't apply to excuse corrupted politicians or hack environmentalists who want to justify their existences. Real environmentalists are screaming about Fukushima still spewing radioactive water into the Pacific, the unlined pits in New Mexico which hold nuclear waste and threaten our Rio Grande, or even the Mexican cities along the border who dump raw sewage and industrial waste into it, or any number of imminent environmental threats! But no, they crusaded for a ban against plastic bags and recycle-for- profit- Ponzi schemes. Residents, we deserve and are paying for twice a week pickup; the city should provide it, and relegate recycling to a voluntary endeavor without regard to profit, but with regard to good environmental stewardship. One final note, Jay St. John you are a sell out.

Copy of Complaint sent to TCEQ office in Austin, Texas

Dear Sir/Madame,
                I am writing to relay my dissatisfaction with the
results of investigations from complaints filed with your Laredo TCEQ
office. My name is Darrell Mills and I am the former Superintendent of
the City of Laredo MSW Landfill. I filed three complaints in October
of 2013 with the Laredo office of the TCEQ, only two of which were
investigated.
     The first complaint was about a ware house within the Laredo city
limits, surrounded by a residential area, which the city leased to
store comingled recycling in from July 2013 through the end of October
2013, while the MRF was upgraded. I complained to the TCEQ that the
sheet metal ware house was stuffed from the floor to the ceiling with
recycled material. My observations of the ware house revealed no
ventilation, no discernible fire system, blue bags and other refuse
littering the immediate area outside the ware house, and a putrid
smell emanating from the area creating an environment conducive to
creating health vectors. In short, a public health hazard as the
temperatures outside the ware house exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I
can only imagine the temperatures inside the ware house without
adequate ventilation.
    The results of this investigation, as reported by the Laredo TCEQ
investigator, stated that there were no actions to be taken because
the TCEQ had no jurisdiction over government storage facilities  or
they were exempt from the rules. However, I maintain.that this is not
the case because the ware house was leased from a private company and
was not within the boundaries of a permitted area or within the
confines of a registered processing or recycling facility. I believe
this issue needs to be revisited or at least reviewed by another
investigating body.
    The second complaint was in reference to water from the facility
truck wash being emptied into the leachate containment area. I
photographed the containment area which had the black water stagnantly
growing dark green algae on its surface. Also, I commented that the
leachate pumps had not pumped water from the liner in at least a
month's time. Further, I complained that the mud from the wash rack
reservoir is taken to dry where the street sweepings dry and are then
taken to be disposed of in the landfill along with the absorb all from
the mechanics shop. My whole complaint, aside from the lack of
leachate pumping, was the high amount of THP's, through the wash rack
water, being introduced to the landfill working phase and most
recently to the leachate containment area, which is not supposed to be
disposed of in any water plant. This wash rack is used to clean refuge
trucks and landfill heavy equipment. The washing of these pieces of
equipment includes the removal of hydraulic oils, transmission fluids,
engine oil, fuel leaks (diesel),and other unknown chemicals from the
solid waste.
    In response to my complaint the investigator's findings only
addressed the leachate pumps being inactive and that the landfill was
using the leachate water to mix alternate daily cover as is approved
in the facility's permit. My original complaint of THP laden water
went uninvestigated to my knowledge as indicated by my copy of the
investigator's findings.
   Lastly, I would like to address the third complaint which went
uninvestigated. In regard to my complaint about the storage of
recycled material, in the above noted ware house, the city transported
the putrid waste from the above noted ware house to the landfill and
disposed of it in an inactive phase without recording the grid
location in any electronic or manual log; in stead, opting to
fraudulently record that the material was disposed of at the active
working phase from the last week of September 2013 through October
2014.
     I hope these issues are revisited, because I do not believe they
were investigated in the spirit of good environmental stewardship, but
in the spirit of appeasing the local municipal government.

     sincerely,
    Darrell P. Mills