Recently the Famous Chattanooga City Council approved a new I.O.D. (injured on duty) plan, a new retiree insurance policy and overtime plan for the city employees. The I.O.D policy states that when you are injured while on duty, now the city will pay you only 75% of your salary while you are off hurt for a certain time, and then it will drop off to 65%.

Think about it, if you were a fire fighter, would you run into a fire to save someone or as a police officer risk getting shot for 75% of your regular pay when you stay back and get 100% pay? Think on it Chattanooga.

Now they have for overtime exempt and non-exempt employees for over time. Bottom line, if you are exempt and you are ask to work over, guess what you don't get paid for it. So the next time someone's child is lost and they have a search party out looking for little Johnny or little Amy and the search party has to leave because they will not be getting paid or not getting paid and get hurt. Think about it.

No one ever thinks about the people who keep all of the equipment running, the mechanics, these are the people who work in all weather, all hours of the day and night. When people are nice and warm at home during bad weather, guess who is at work in the shop or on the side of the road working? The mechanics. Now, if the mechanic that is on call (24/7) gets called out and is out all night long (it happens) they are still required to be at work ready to go with no sleep, because if they go home to rest they will not get paid overtime. They will only get regular pay even if they use a sick day. So ask yourself, do you want a worn out sleepy mechanic working on the equipment( Fire truck or Police car) that you rely on to help save your life? Think about it.

If you worked for the city of Chattanooga, you have 24 years 11 months and 2 weeks of service and you are getting ready to retire, guess what? You now have no health insurance plan to take with you. Myself and others left great paying jobs years ago to come work for the city because of the benefits. Now there is no future working for the city, a small retirement check, no pay increase and no leadership.

I and many others who work for the great city of Chattanooga would like to say thank you to the City Council for letting the employees know what you think of them.

So Chattanooga I ask you to think about the above and remember it when everyone says vote for me. Some may say I am a disgruntled employee. You are dang right I am along with about 2,000 more city employee.

Gary Johnson

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Welcome to the non-government, not dependent on taxpayer money, private industry real world.

M.A. Love

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I don't think you understand M.A. Love. The difference is a firefighter going into a burning room for your wife, or an officer crawling under a unstable car for your child.

The private equivalent is the fact that you forgot to put cheese on my whopper.

One of these things you can remedy. The other is a matter of you and your family's life.

Rob Simmons

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What percentage of pay are the numerous volunteer firefighters eligible for when they are hurt in the line of duty?

Corey Hodge