Private Bernard Sterno's Jump on D-Day, June 6, 1944

Bernard Sterno enlisted in the United States Army on February 3, 1942.  Originally from Georgia, he had moved to New York in search of work.  New York was not what he thought it would be, so when the war started, he volunteered.  His objective was to get into the paratroopers.  He was 19 years old.  This is his story of D-Day, June 6, 1944.

 

 

     Just before D-Day, they sent us to a marshaling area.  We were held behind barbed wire, kind of like a prison camp, almost. They had guards outside. You weren't allowed to communicate with anybody.  You weren't even allowed to talk with the cooks.  When you'd go through the mess line, when they'd put the food in your tray, there was no conversation.  You'd say thank you, or talk about the food, or something like that. They were very careful.  The NCOs and officers were always there.  There were armed guards on the fence area.  They didn't want you to go out of there.  There was no chance to talk to anybody.
     They took us in for a briefing before we made our jump.  They had a sand table made just like the area we were going to jump into.  They gave us large scale maps of where we were going to jump.  We were a couple of days getting briefed, where we were going to jump, what we were going to do.  The plan was that we were to jump near St. Martin-De-Varreville.  We were supposed to attack some barracks that were there, and round up all the Germans.  After that, we were to head down the causeway and keep it open so when the ground troops got there, it would be a little easier for them.  Earlier we were told we had four gun installations to destroy, gun installations that could fire on people on the beach.  But, the next day when they briefed us on it, they said there were only two of them there.  The air corps knocked out a bunch of them the day before.
     They postponed D-Day one day because the weather was too rough.  Then the next day, it was it.  They had a meeting before dark and General Eisenhower came out and walked right among us.  It was very informal.  Usually, when a general comes up they have you at attention. But as soon as Eisenhower walked up, the company commander was briefed.  He said, "At rest."  That meant you could stand around.   Eisenhower came browsing through us, talking to us, joking with us, asking questions, where we were from, what did we do in civilian life, and things like that.
     After he left, they took us, and all our heavy equipment, down to the C-47s, and we loaded up.  We took off before dark on the fifth of June.  I don't know how long it took us to get into formation.  I was sitting next to one guy and we got tired and fell asleep.  It was dark then, we were still flying.  When I woke up and looked down, I could see a light flashing up at us.  We were over the English Channel.  It must have been a submarine or something like that that was flashing.

The next thing I knew, I could hear what sounded like a bunch of gravel on the plane.  I could see streaks of tracer bullets coming up from the ground.  I said, "Look there.  It looks like tracer bullet fire or something."  The guy next to me said, "It's just fire from the exhaust of the engines."

     Then we started rocking.  They told us to stand up and hook up and we parachuted into Normandy at night.
We were scattered all over and mixed in with the 82nd Airborne.  It was just all mixed up that first night.  Every time another plane would come over the Germans would start shooting.  We got as close to them as we could and threw some hand grenades at them.  That quieted some of them down.  When it got daylight and we started seeing some of our own people.  We stayed together and when we ran into groups of Germans, we'd get rid of them.  Some of them would run and roll.  It was nip and tuck.
     When we came to a village, we hit it along with other companies.  We were all mixed up with the 82nd Airborne.  We were just disorganized.  After a couple of days we all got together as people wandered in.  Some of the men landed further away from our objective than we did.  One plane load landed in the channel and were never seen again.  They were from Company A, First Battalion, 502 Parachute Regiment.  Their company commander was on the plane that went down.
I don't know how many days we were there.  After the 10th, we were supposed to go and take Carentan.  The whole company slept in a barn that night.  The next morning we started out toward the open causeway.  We had to rush in bunches and hit the ground and roll because the Germans were shooting at us and it was all in the open.  We'd go across one of those bridges, hit the shoulder of the road, and lay down low.  Some of the bridges were blown out.  We strung ropes across them and pulled ourselves across the water on the ropes.  We were all day long there. 
     When it got night, a dog-gone German dive bomber came over and was firing bullets.  He was hitting the paved road and everybody there.  He knocked several people of G Company out.  He just got them.  A British night fighter came in behind him and knocked him down.  The dive bomber looked like a torch in the air.  I could see it going over and hit the ground over on the other side of Carentan.  You could see it burning all night long.

     When it got daylight, we were out on the end of the bridge. They sent Company H up ahead because the other companies had already taken a beating.  There was a big steel gate there and they pulled the gate open.  They needed somebody to go so they said Company H, that was our company.  Our commander says, "Come on Company H, let's do it."
     The battalion commander, who was Colonel Cole, Robert Cole, from Texas, was standing there in the bald open with a .45 pistol on him.  Our company commander was talking in a little whisper, and Colonel Cole said, "Damn it, Simmons, those Heinies know you're here.  There's no sense whispering."
     Our company commander, Cecil L. Simmons, was from Grand Rapids, Michigan.  He was a captain.  After the war, he became the head of the Michigan National Guard and made brigadier general.  I've seen him twice since then.  I saw him at the Orlando reunion about 15 or 20 years ago and again when we were in Holland in 1989, at the celebration they had in memory of the liberation of Eindhoven.  That's the place where we jumped in Holland.  I knew the Germans were sitting there waiting, because all day long we had been trying to get to them.  When we started to cross over a hedge, all hell broke loose.  I mean, they just opened up.
     We sent one patrol out across an open field to a farm house. No sooner had they gone out, I was just getting ready to go over the hedge, and, man, the bullets and crap started flying.  We laid down in a ditch.  The rest of the battalion was up and down the ditch too, just pinned down.
     It was just starting to get daylight when I noticed artillery shells started going into them, our artillery.  I said, "The next artillery man I meet I want to shake his hand."  Those heavy aerial bursts would burst over the foxholes and trenches the Germans were in.  They would explode and hit them even though there were in slit trenches.  They kept pouring that on them.
     Finally the Colonel said, "When the smoke gets here," we would fire smoke shells which would hinder the Germans' visibility, "I want you to fix bayonets and charge."  I couldn't believe it.  But, sure enough, why, I looked over and saw Colonel Cole leading the dog-gone battalion.  He was the one that gave the order.  And then the rest of us, we jumped up and started going.  I went about a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet and I was looking for an German to shoot at.  One had his head right up there in the slit trench, I could see his helmet.  I aimed at it and got him.  He had a P-38 pistol and I wanted that son-of-a-gun.  I was laying on my stomach so I wouldn't get hit.  I reached up and got my trench knife out of my boot to cut the pistol loose.  I went to cut it, and my hand just jolted like that, and blood started to come out both sides of my finger.  A bullet had gone through my finger just as neat as anything.  I cut the pistol loose and crawled over to a more secure spot.
     A medic happened to come by, Land, was his name, a guy from Tampa, Florida.  Zephyr Hills, I think.  He saw my hand bleeding and he said, "Let me bandage that."  I said, "Aw, it's not bothering me at all.  It's just throbs a little."
He said, "Yeah, I want to bandage it."

     He bandaged it up okay.  He had my whole hand just wrapped with the darn thing.  Then we moved on forward to where the Germans were.  Colonel Cole looked over at me.  He remembered me, and he said, "Sterno, get back there and get some more medical attention.  You can't sit up here with that."
     I said, "It don't bother me."
     He said, "Get back," and I said, "Yes, sir."
I went back and found a friend of mine, who was a sergeant. We used to go into London together.  He was on his back holding his stomach.  I crawled over to him, and I don't know whether it was a shell, or a bullet, or what hit him, but some of his intestines were showing.  I heard somebody grunting and groaning and looked over and it was our medic.  He got one in his back.  He died right there. I got his first aid kit and started putting sulfathilamide powder and sulfa on the sergeant's wound with big, heavy pieces of gauze.  I gave him some morphine shots, from the little tubes of morphine they issued us.  I squirted that into him and he felt better.
     Vehicles started coming up because they patched up the bridge.  One weapons carrier came driving in with more ammunition for us and they used that to pick up wounded.  There were a couple of medics on it.  They came over to where we were and got the wounded.  I told them, "There's one over here,” and they got the sergeant on a stretcher and got him out of there.  Another guy there was on his back.  His name was Reiley, and he was shot.  A bullet went completely through his chest.
     He said, "I can't breath, I can't breathe."  He was begging me to shoot him.  I thought he must be in pretty bad shape.  I said, "No, I can't do that."  A couple of medics came up and set him against a tree.  They saw there was not much they could do with him.  Later on, after a little more excitement, we found him on his back, dead.
     A lieutenant who was there said, "Get back.  You're wounded. We've got enough people here."  My hand didn't bother me.  It was just because the darned hand was bandaged all the way, but I went back.  I really wasn't hurt bad.
I got back to the trench we started from, and there were three or four wounded people in there.  One guy, I'll never forget, had a handlebar mustache.  When Eisenhower was walking among us before we jumped that night, he said, "What did you do in civilian life?"  He said he was a waiter or something.  Eisenhower said, "I think he was a pirate, the way he looks."  He was joking humorously.  But he was there.  He apparently had been wounded, he had his arm in a sling leaning back smoking a cigarette.
     I kept hearing these mortar shells.  I thought they were 88s at first.  I figured they were mortar shells, because you could hear pumph, pumph, and a short while thereafter, you'd hear the things whiz over.  They started hitting close to us.  I crawled into a little trench that was there.  It sounded like one hit real close to us and it felt like a board hitting my butt, tore my groin up a little bit.  My ears were ringing and when everything cleared, I could hear this one guy saying, "My eye, my eye."  His right eye was completely torn out.  I said, "Just be thankful you have the other one."  I put a piece of gauze and bandage on it for him.  Another guy, he had a submachine gun, was sitting there, his head lolling back and forth, blood coming our of both his nose and ears.  I don't know how he turned out.  But the guy who had the handlebar mustache, I wouldn't have recognized him if it hadn't been for that.  All that was left of his face was from the nose down.  The rest of it, it had shaved his head completely off, in two.
     I was hurt then, really hurt.  I could hardly stand.  I could get up and limp.  I didn't know how bad I was hurt.  I had blood all over me, and my hip was aching.  I had shrapnel in my groin, my butt.  So I crawled on back to the iron gate.  I got back across the bridge and saw this little foxhole and got down in it.
There were other people back there who were wounded, and some who hadn't got up to the front yet.  The lieutenant from our company was there in a little foxhole about 10 feet from me.  All of a sudden, boom, it was a small caliber shell, I think a 55-mm mortar that the Germans had, that hit right between us.  It grazed my neck enough to make it bleed.  That didn't hurt bad, but it also go me in the chest.  There's still a little piece shrapnel in there now.  The lieutenant caught most of it in his arm.  I heard him over there moaning.
     Finally, they had a truce.  They told all walking wounded, “If you can walk, get up and get to the rear."  We couldn't have any weapons or anything.  Our supply sergeant was there and he said, "I'll take care of that P-38 for you."  I said, "Okay."  I asked him later on back in England what happened to it.  "Well, I went across a river and lost it," he said.  I don't know what he did with it.  So they sent me back to England.
     Carentan was taken on June 11, 1944.

The Gun Is Civilization

"The Gun Is Civilization"  

            By  Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)
     Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force.

If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it .
     
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing  that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
     
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have  to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate  your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound  woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in  physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a  defender.
     
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society,  because a firearm  makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat - it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential  marks are armed.
    
People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of  a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly .
  
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.
     
People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force, watch too much TV , where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier, works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.
     
The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply would not work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily  employable.
     
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded . I don't carry it because I'm  afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation.. And  that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act!!
          
So the greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced !!

New Philadelphia, Ohio, Fiscal Irresponsibility Grows

Politics goes on.  It has always been biased, its objectives to bring power, influence, financial gain to those who participate but only if done on the right side.  Integrity, honesty, responsibility to country, state, city, and the citizens who reside there is a thing of the past.  Good stewardship to citizens is dead. 

On the national scene we are governed by a president who is of doubtful citizenship, Barack Obama, who is unfit to serve in that office because of his inability, or refusal, to prove his citizenship, has disregarded the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence, has openly declared his preference of Communism over a republican type of government, and is supported by Congress which follows his lead without question. 

New Philadelphia has watched the debacle in Washington and learned its lesson well.  The present circumstances could be the basis for an Orwellian book titled “The Day the Idiots Took the Asylum”.  Consider the recent past.   New Philadelphia is in serious financial trouble.  The mayor, Michael Taylor, for whatever reason, we’re not privy to what, resigned half way through his second term effective the end of December last year.  That, of course left the city with no mayor, a situation that could only be remedied by the Tuscarawas Democratic Central Committee meeting and appointing a replacement to fill out the last two years of Taylor’s unfinished term.  Meet they did and on January 9, by a vote of nine of the 16 eligible committee members, the Democratic Central Committee elected David Johnson Mayor of the City of New Philadelphia, a remarkable choice.

Johnson has had experience in city positions in the past, City Council President and City Treasurer, both jobs as the result of successful election bids.  As city treasurer Johnson did not finish his four-year term but resigned after a state audit of the city’s books.  His experience as treasurer was marred by a lack of presenting to city council monthly reports on the state of the city’s finances, as required by law, and difficulty in balancing the city’s books with statements from banks in which city funds are deposited.  This is spooky as a major part of the mayor’s job is administering the city budget.

One of the first decisions made by Johnson as mayor of New Philadelphia, was to express opposition to retaining Regional Income Tax Agency (RITA) to administer, and enforce, New Philadelphia’s income taxes.  RITA is an agency established by the state under the Ohio Revised Code, Chapter 167, to provide assistance to cities in Ohio with their tax collection.  RITA does it all.  It calculates taxes due, checks to make sure full payment is made, goes after delinquent tax payers, or non-payers as the case may be.  RITA will represent the city in actions which require going to court to collect taxes not paid. 

This assistance does not come for free.  RITA charges two-and-a-half percent of the total amount of taxes collected, for an estimated cost of $151,000 a year in comparison to the income tax office current operating budget of $240,000 per annum, an annual saving in excess of $90,000.

Mayor Johnson doesn’t like this for a couple of reasons.

He says that it could cost jobs, and the city should be hiring people instead of laying them off.  Currently there are four people working in the tax office, an administrator who was hired as a temporary employee and knows it, two full time clerks and a part-timer.  One full-time clerk is retiring, the part-timer will probably be let go no matter what happens. 

Johnson’s second complaint is that there aren’t many cities getting involved with RITA.  I don’t know where he got his figures.  Since 2008, 92 municipalities have signed on with RITA.  To name a few there are Willoughby, Kent, Gahanna, Loveland, Cleveland Heights, North Ridgeville, and Painesville.  Conversations with communities using RITA over a number of years give RITA excellent ratings including the cities of Freemont, Lyndhurst, Middlesburg Heights, Streetsboro, Tallmadge, and Broadview Heights.

It has been rumored that there are taxpayers in New Philadelphia, some of whom are major businesses within the city, who are not paying their taxes at all, and the money is being lost to the city because the city does not actively pursue and prosecute them.  RITA will seek these people out, prosecute them if necessary to collect back taxes, increase New Philadelphia’s revenue, and do it with a $90,000 savings to city expenses.

And Mayor Johnson doesn’t seem to get it.

What’s coming next?  Executive orders from Mayor Johnson?

 

Obama And The Muslim Heritage In The United States

 


 Barack Obama, during a speech in Cairo, said: "I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's history."

AN AMERICAN CITIZEN'S RESPONSE.

Dear Mr. Obama:

Have you ever seen a Muslim hospital?

Have you heard a Muslim orchestra?

Have you seen a Muslim band march in a parade?

Have you witnessed a Muslim act of charity?

Have you seen Muslims shake hands with a Muslim Girl Scout?

Have you seen a Muslim do anything that contributes positively to the American way of life.

The answer is no, you have not. Just ask yourself why?

Were those Muslims that were in America when the Pilgrims first landed?  No, they were Native American Indians.

Were those Muslims that celebrated the first Thanksgiving day?  No yet again.  Those were Pilgrims and Native American Indians.

Can you show me one Muslim signature on the: United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, of the Bill of Rights?  No, you cannot.

Did Muslims fight for this country's freedom from England?  No.

Did Muslims fight during the Civil War to free the slaves in America?  No, they did not.  In fact, Muslims remain the largest traffickers In human slavery to this day.  Your own half-brother, a devoutly radical extremist Muslim, still advocates slavery himself, even though Muslims of Arabic descent refer to black Muslims as "pug nosed slaves."

Says a lot of what the Muslim world really thinks of-your family's "rich Islamic heritage," doesn't it, Mr. Obama?

Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present.

There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King, Jr., or helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights.

Where were Muslims during this country's Woman's Suffrage era?  Again, not present.  In fact, devout Muslims demand that women are subservient to men in Islamic culture.  In fact, women are often beaten for not wearing the 'hajib' or for talking to a man who is not a direct family- member of their husband. Yep, Muslims are all for women's rights, aren't they?

Where were Muslims during World War II?  They were aligned with Adolf Hitler and Mussolini, and were murdering and looting our stranded and wounded aviators and soldiers in the deserts of North Africa.  The Muslim grand mufti himself met with Adolf Hitler, reviewed the troops, and accepted support from the Nazi's in killing Jews.

Finally, Mr. Obama, where were Muslims on Sept 11, 2001?  If they weren't flying planes full of innocent people into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, or a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people on our own soil, they were rejoicing, not only in the Middle East, but in US streets as well as many other western democracies which have allowed them to enter illegally.

No one can dispute the pictures shown from all parts of the Muslim world revealing Muslims celebrating, on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other cable news networks on that infamous day.  Strangely, the very "moderate" Muslims who's arses you bent over backwards to kiss in Cairo, Egypt on June 4th were stone cold silent post 9-11  To many Americans, their silence has meant approval for the acts of that day.

Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention the Barbary Pirates,  They were Muslims too.

And remember November 5, 2009 and the slaughter of American soldiers at Fort Hood by a Muslim major who, as a doctor and a psychiatrist, was supposed to be counseling soldiers returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan..

We must also add the Boston Marathon bombings and the killing and beheading of a soldier on the street in London.

That, Mr. Obama is the "Muslim heritage" in America.

Zucal/Lautenschleger Retroactive Pay Increases Endanger New Philadelphia Budget

       City Council, under the direction of John Zucal, is pushing hard to pass a piece of legislation which will increase the salary of the Fire Chief by almost double his current salary.  The chief, by the way, hasn’t objected.  But there is a problem or two, which Mr. Zucal has not brought before council.

First, what is the cost of this pay increase going to be and how will the city be able to pay for it?  The cost is unknown.  After repeated requests from council members and others, Zucal is unable, or unwilling to disclose the actual cost of such a pay raise.

Second, where is the money coming from to pay for such an exorbitant increase?  Zucal has this one figured out in that he wants to rob the ambulance fund, which is mandated to pay for equipment purchases and repairs plus overtime due hourly fire fighters who man the ambulances, not for salaried fire chiefs.

Third, how much will the Police Chief’s salary be raised, or the Service Director, or the Water Department Supervisor, or…well, you get the idea.

As far as the money is concerned, there’s no problem according to Zucal and Councilman Lautenschleger.

Lautenschleger isn’t concerned about financial problems until the end of 2014.  That should put our minds at ease, unless you live to 2015.  Isn’t this a lot like the wife coming in and saying,  “We have a hundred dollars in the grocery fund money to last into next month so why not buy a new plasma television for six hundred dollars today?  I mean we have it now and we’ll worry about next month when it arrives.”  Sounds a lot like the housing bubble that broke the economy a few years ago.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  You remember them and how buying homes without being able to make the down payment, let alone keep the mortgage payments, caused home foreclosures on a scale not seen in most people’s life time.  Cities are no different than personal finances.  The message here is if you don’t have the money, or another source of income, don’t spend money you don’t have.  If you do, it will always lead to eventual bankruptcy.

So where is the money coming from to pay for pay increases?  Actually, there is no problem here according to Zucal.  The Fire Chief’s salary increase won’t cost the citizen anything.  After all, he says, the money will come out of the ambulance fund.  Wait a minute.  Where did the ambulance fund come from?  If you guessed that it came from fees charged by the Fire Department for ambulance services, you are correct.  If there is enough money to pay for wage increases in the fund, why does the Fire Department want ambulance service rates increased by some 30%?  What am I missing here?  If Zucal and the Fire Chief say the ambulance fund is going to cover the costs, where is the revenue from increased ambulance fees going to go?

Even more questionable, if there isn’t a financial crisis in the city now, why was it necessary for Zucal and Lautenschleger to push so hard for a .75-percent income tax increase on last November’s ballot?  As you may remember, the citizenry decisively defeated that one.

A major concern, ignored by salary increase advocates, is where do the increases stop?  The reason given for the Fire Chief being granted an exorbitant wage raise is that he should be paid more than those fire fighters he supervises.  Wait a minute.  How far will this logic go?

If the Fire Chief is paid $90,000 a year, what about the Safety Director?  By law the Safety Director is the administrative head of the Police and Fire Departments.  Therefore, the Safety Director, following the logic Zucal uses to provide the Fire Chief with a salary of eighty three thousand dollars a year, that is the Fire Chief should have a salary in excess of what fire fighters make, the safety director should be salaried for at least $95,000 a year.  That being the case, the Mayor, considering that both the Safety Director and Fire Chief would be earning more than he does, and he does supervise both, he should receive a salary of at least $100,000 annually.

One more thing to take into consideration is the not mentioned by proponents of this legislation is that Zucal wants these pay increases be made retroactive to January 1, 2013.  Anybody out there really think we can afford this?

Zucal’s push at this time is to get the third reading of the legislation, which would give the Fire Chief the largest salary of any New Philadelphia city employee, made on the floor this year, in hopes of getting it passed before the balance of power shifts with the seating of Councilperson Cheryl Ramos in Ward One.  For this reason, he has called a special council meeting on Wednesday, December 18.  Call your Councilman and ask him to vote against this ill-advised legislation.  Zucal doesn’t know what the final cost of this action will be.  Nobody knows where the funds to finance it are coming from.  A tax increase will unquestionably be asked for if the legislation is passed.

Call your councilman and ask that he does not vote to pass any legislation which will raise taxes because of salary increases.

Councilman Proposes Raiding Ambulance Fund To Pay New Philadelphia Fire Chief

       Well, Zucal seems to be at it again.  I’m not sure where the Ward Two City Councilman comes up with his ideas, but this one, typical of how he operates in council, has some really strange twists.

Fire Chief Jim Parish was making a bundle of money as a fire fighter with the New Philadelphia Fire Department.  The base salary was good, somewhere around $50,000 a year.  The benefits, life and health insurance, overtime pay (paid at twice the regular hourly pay for any time over scheduled work time), uniform allowance, paid holidays, sick leave, added onto the base pay, increased take-home pay to more than $80,000 a year.  Life was good.

Then the chance for Parish to become Fire Chief raised its head.  Parish applied for the position.  He studied for the test, passed the examination, and won the appointment.  Low and behold, the advertised salary for the Fire Chief was, in reality, less than what a fireman could make when the overtime was included. 

Chief Parrish objected.  This was going to cut into his retirement so he strongly objected.

Councilman Zucal, who, at the time, was running for reelection and wooing the New Philadelphia city workers vote, took up his case.  Zucal proposed raising the Chief’s base salary to 85 to 90 thousand dollars a year, a figure that does not include the cost of benefits to which he would be entitled.  Parish and Zucal also asked that the Fire Chief be paid double overtime for any time worked over the standard forty hours.

How this raise was going to be paid for was brought up in the December 23 ad hoc committee chaired by Zucal, by Ms. Cox, Chairperson of the Finance Committee.  Cox asked Zucal what the costs would be to the City should Parrish be given the requested salary increase.  Zucal never provided an answer to her question, rather told her to “add it up yourself”.  When Cox persisted to ask for the financial effect on the city’s budget, a question to which Zucal obviously did not know the answer, he ended the discussion by shouting for her to “Be quiet!”

It was hoped, by those who were interested in raising the Chief’s salary, that a city income tax resolution which would increase the citizens tax burden by .75-percent , that was defeated in November’s election, would raise revenue to cover such items.  Its failure dashed such hopes.  But wait.  There was another plan waiting in the wings.

Plan two was to raise the cost of the New Philadelphia Fire Department’s Ambulance service.  With an increase of income from the city’s ambulance services, money could be taken from the ambulance fund to pay the Chief’s $40,000 pay raise.  Three types of services would be involved, each of which deals with life threatening events or accidents.  The increased costs to people using the Fire Department ambulances service would amount to nine-percent.  Furthermore, it is highly questionable that taking funds from the Ambulance Service to pay for the chief’s requested pay raise would pass legal scrutiny, let alone a moral evaluation.

This proposal, Resolution No. 31-2013, which was presented to City Council by Zucal under sponsorship of the Ambulance Committee, of which Zucal is a member.  By this action Zucal once again showed his ignorance of City Ordinances, his contempt of City Council, his disdain for the citizens of New Philadelphia.

You see, the Ambulance Committee is not even remotely connected to City Council.  It is an appointed advisory committee charged with making recommendations on the operations of the Fire Department Ambulance service.  It reports to the City Council, keeping them aware of daily operations, financial needs, equipment needs, and such other matters it deems important.  Mr. Zucal should know this.  If he doesn’t know the difference between a City Council Committee and an advisory committee appointed by Council for advisory purposes, which apparently he does not, he cannot responsibly fill his position on city council. He should either educate himself on the workings of city government or reevaluate the advisability of continuing his position as a ward councilman.

So here we have an interesting situation.  We have a fire chief who politicked for his job, got it, then complains that he is underpaid.  Get a life, Jim.  You chose the position.  You wanted it, you campaigned for it, and you got it.  Fulfill your commitment.  Live with it.

New Philadelphia Councilman Wants Fire Chief Paid $95,700/Year

If you work full time, as an hourly paid employee, eight hours a day, 52 weeks a year, including vacation, holidays, sick days, and other paid days off, your wages are paid on 2,080 hours a year.  Any time over that is paid as overtime, generally paid at time-and-a-half which translates to your hourly wage plus 50% more.  If, for some reason, you do not work a full eight-hour day, your pay is reduced by the amount of time not work times the hourly rate you are being paid.

If you work full time as a salaried employee, you work the same number of hours as an hourly worker but are paid  an amount, usually quoted as an annual salary.  Overtime is not paid to salaried employees.  Tardiness and missed days are not deducted from earnings as as their wages are agreed to by both employee and employer at the time the employee is hired.

The difference stems from the position.  A salaried employee is paid at a higher rate than the hourly employee because of his increased responsibility, knowledge, and the necessity of his being available at all hours to make decisions and direct the company operations.  Management personnel accept long hours, as a part of the job, the higher pay compensating for management “overtime.”

These practices are generally accepted in business, but not, evidently, by the New Philadelphia Fire Chief, and John Zucal, New Philadelphia Ward Two City Councilman.

On Monday, November 25, 2013, at 6 p.m., Mr. Zucal reportedly will present legislation to the New Philadelphia City Council which will increase the salary of Fire Chief to $41 an hour.  Let me repeat that.  $41. No.  That is not a typo.  That hikes The Fire Chief’s base salary to $85,300 a year base salary.  That does not include job benefits like city retirement contributions by the city, uniform allowance, medical, hospitalization insurance, life insurance.  Business generally figures benefits costs to average 12% of income which could add another $10,700 to the Fire Chief’s income bringing it to $95,700 a year.

But, wait.  There’s more.  Zucal and the Chief feel that the reason for this pay increase is because the Chief doesn’t get paid overtime while the firemen who are on an hourly pay schedule do.  This they think is discriminatory.  Therefore, the legislation Zucal will present at the Monday meeting contains that in addition to the Chief’s salary increase, he should also fall under the work rules and benefits contained in the fire department contract with New Philadelphia.

Part of that contract states that if a firemen is called in because he is needed to fight a fire, or man an ambulance, he gets paid a minimum of one hour double-time pay.  If the Chief is covered by the fire department’s union contract with the city, working more than eight hours a day would increase his overtime wage to $82 an hour.

We know why The Fire Chief wants the increased pay.  He feels that it is unfair that people who are under his direction are making more money than is he.  But wait.  He knew this was the situation before he politicked for the Chief’s position.  Once he got the job, and the prestige that goes with being Chief, he wanted more money for his retirement.  Retirement from government jobs in Ohio is based on income from the job one has when he retires.  This is the reason why the Fire Chief wanted to resign his position go back to being a firefighter.  A firefighter’s pay, with overtime, is greater than that being paid to the Fire Chief.  It’s the overtime that counts.  After all, when it comes to money……

But Zucal?.  He will be remembered as the councilman who gave everybody possible pay increases.  I guess, because I don’t know, that he needs Parrish for his future plan, whatever that may be.  Is he trying to buy the fire department’s support for a run for mayor?  Who knows?  But this I do know.  He has pushed for pay increases for New Philadelphia city employees since he was elected four years ago.

Only one problem.  How does Zucal plan to pay for the fire Chief’s pay raise?  Where is the money coming from?  Strangely he never seems to have an answer on how to pay for schemes like this one.  The city auditor expresses concern for New Philadelphia’s solvency in 2014 without such irresponsible pay increases.  New Philadelphia is close to insolvency, bankruptcy, going broke, you name the terminology.  Schemes which include spending city money without an accompanying city income increase at this time is fiscal insanity.

Fire Chief Parrish knew when he applied for the position what the pay scale was and gladly accepted it.  Chief, quit your whining.  Live with it.

As for councilman Zucal, it is time you quit playing games with the citizenry and admit that your fiscal knowledge is insufficient for the position you hold.  If you can’t understand that you can’t spend the city’s money without the ability to pay the bills, a situation that increases with every passing day, it may be time to reevaluate your position on city council.

 

 

New Philadelphia In Financial Difficulty

      There is a way to explain the difference between ignorance and stupidity.  If you don’t understand it before I explain it, you’re ignorant.  If you don’t understand it after I explain it, you’re stupid. 

      Earlier this year, non-union employees, excluding members of city council, were given three percent salary increases, the raises made retroactive to January of 2012 for elected officials.  Recently a similar salary proposal was brought before council, again by Mr. Zucal, with a retroactive clause which would pay the increases back to January of 2013.

      On November 12, a letter was sent to Mrs. Cox, Council Woman at Large, and Chairwoman of the Finance Committee, supposedly from Mayor Taylor.  The question of authorship arises from an interesting phrasing in the first line of the correspondence which states, “you asked if the mayor wanted to add salary increases for non-bargaining personnel to the Temporary Budget appropriations.”

It is unusual for someone to refer to himself by his title.  A member of royalty may refer to themselves as us, or we, but never as king or queen.  Could it be that the letter to Cox was ghost written, and sent to Cox by someone other than Taylor?

It stated that Cox asked the mayor if he wanted to add salary increases for non-bargaining personnel to the Temporary Budget for 2014.  Her minutes for the November 11 Finance Committee meeting call this scenario into question by reporting that following a discussion on Temporary Appropriations for 2014, Cox asked Mayor Taylor and Auditor Gundy for comments.  The Mayor had no comments.

However, the letter to Cox has an entirely different tone, one that speaks of salary increases to be made retroactive to January 1, 2013.  It goes on to say, “The Auditor can provide you estimates with the cost of implementing these increases in the Temporary Appropriations.  It has been stated that a recommendation should come from the Administration to address this issue.  You now have my recommendation,” that recommendation being increased salaries for the administrative and non-bargaining staff. 

A report from Auditor Gundy on the financial position of New Philadelphia indicates that the ending cash balance for 2013 will be $867,977, which on the surface may look good until it is understood that in 2012 the ending cash balance was $2,132,381, a difference of $1,264,404.  The auditor’s estimate of ending cash balance for 2014 is a $1,130,119 loss, for 2015 is a loss of $3,490,419, and the year-end loss for 2016 to be $6,253,677.

In spite of this, the writer of Mayor Taylor’s November 12 letter advocates granting salary increases to city employees who are not presently in unions.  In addition the writer wants the addition of a me-too clause for all employees which would specify that whatever favorable contract agreements are made to any employee group would automatically apply to all employees, regardless of position, who work for the city.  The cost would be more than the city could bear. 

Mayor Taylor confirmed his own position in a radio interview after the November 11 meeting when he stated that administrative personnel deserved salary raises of five percent and more because “they deserved them.”  What ever happened to earning a pay raise? 

Fiscal responsibility is totally lacking in the New Philadelphia administration.  The answer is to push the problem off onto other people, preferably onto people who are not responsible for the situation, or to underlings who can only assume blame and cannot fix it.  This is where New Philadelphia stands. 

Mayor Taylor is unable to take responsibility for the poor financial status of the city.  It is his job to make recommendations to solve problems in the city, not to pass them on to city council.  It is his job to put a budget together with which to run the city.  It is his responsibility to respond to his staff, city employees, citizens, and others, on matters of concern to the city, and bring those concerns to city council with his recommendations for their solution.  Administrative decisions lay with the mayor and his staff.  Legislative responsibilities belong in city council.

You can delegate authority, but you cannot delegate responsibility.  This is true in business, politics, family life, you name it.  And the ultimate responsibility for the condition of New Philadelphia politics and its financial situation lays with the New Philadelphia citizen.  You don’t explore the issues.  You don’t vote with a knowledge of the issues, or you don’t vote at all.  The situation the city is in is your fault because you don’t give a hoot about who is destroying your city, how they are doing it, and what this means to you. 

So where do you fit?  Ignorance?  Stupidity? 

You can make a difference.  Get involved.  Go to council meetings and make your voice heard.  Bug your council representatives and let them know how you feel.

I wonder who did write the November 12 letter.

Zucal Election and New Philadelphia's Budget

     There is something you must understand about this year’s election.  It is totally about money.  Forget all the rest of the lies and fabrications you have been hearing, it’s the money, the city budget.  It’s about pay increases for the City of New Philadelphia employees, maintenance workers, police and firemen, elected officials like the mayor, auditor, treasurer, city council, city council president, even appointed administrative members like the service director, water superintendent, all of them with the exception of the park director and the law director who have declined such raises. 

But there is more.  The New Philadelphia school department wants more money, this time admitting it is for salary raises.  When I say more money, I mean lots more money. 

Interestingly enough, there is a common thread that runs through this whole scenario, and that is John Zucal, Ward Two City Councilman, a position he has held for the past four years.  Zucal not only sits on city council, he is also principal of the New Philadelphia Central Middle School.  He is the brother of Jim Zucal, New Philadelphia service director, and husband of Wendy Zucal, the Director of Schoenbrunn Village and the Dennison Railroad Museum.  These connections give me cause for concern. 

Where does his interest and loyalty reside, with his personal priorities or with his constituents?  As Dr. Phil has often said, the best indicator of future performance is past performance.  So how does that apply in this case?  The Times-Reporter, on October 18, ran an article of what Zucal considers to be his goals.  It is an interesting recital.
 

He has, according to the article, worked with city, state, and local people to develop a strategic plan to improve the quality of life in New Philadelphia.  His plan, he reported, would be paid for from income that would not come from New Philadelphia residents.  Interesting thought.  Could this be the three percent bed tax that was hotly debated in city council?  If that is the case, how is Zucal’s demand that the bed tax be used to help finance Schoenbrunn Village, a state run operation, or the Tuscarawas County Visitors and Convention Bureau, a Tuscarawas County operation in which the city has no obligation nor financial interest.  He wants to use bed tax money for grants to businesses outside the city.  His proposals give 80-plus percent of bed tax revenues to businesses totally outside New Philadelphia. 

     Mr. Zucal wants budget reform.  That sounds good but what has he done in the past.  He is pushing for pay raises for administration officials which amount to 2.75-percent this year and made retroactive to January 1, 2013.  A previous retroactive pay raise was made for the year 2012.  If passed, it will be the second time that retroactive pay raises have been granted with the blessings of Zucal during his tenure. 

The list goes on.  He takes credit for bringing natural gas companies to New Philadelphia.  I am aware of one company, Piedmont, which has been distributing gas since 1988, but am not aware of any gas or oil company drilling or pumping within the New Philadelphia city limits.  Am I missing something?

He does say that we need budget reform in New Philadelphia.  We all agree with that.  But his reform seems to be a reform that will continue to force New Philadelphia finances into bankruptcy.  His current proposals include a new fire station, pay increases for members of city council to $10,000 a year, promises of pay raises for all department heads.  The list goes on.

He just doesn’t get it.  There is no money.  The mayor doesn’t get it.  Most of the city council doesn’t get it.  The city is on the verge of going broke and he wants to increase salaries, grant more benefits to city employees who are making more money from city employment than the citizens of the city who are paying the taxes  City revenues are down.  Last year’s ending of the death tax cut the budget for 2013 by two million dollars.  But Zucal doesn’t get it.  He still proposes spending that we just can’t afford.

Why this interest in Zucal?   Because he is one of the four city councilpersons up for election this year.  If reelected he will continue his current, and past, spending agendas.  The way city council is made up now, the other ward councilmen seem to be under the thumb of Mr. Zucal.  Councilmen from wards three and four, who generally follow Zucal’s lead on legislation, are coming back for another four years as they are running unopposed.  This almost guarantees three votes Zucal on issues he proposes. 

The councilperson from Ward One is an unknown factor, but if Zucal is reelected, there will be a sure three votes on spending, Zucal, Maurer, and Lautenschleger, with another possible vote coming from the new councilperson from Ward One..  That will lock in the votes on legislation with those who lack the understanding of being good stewards of taxpayer money and continue the spending of tax dollars which has driven New Philadelphia to the edge of bankruptcy.

If you don’t think that we are in a financial crisis, then explain the issue on the ballot that is requesting a 3/4-percent increase in your New Philadelphia income tax, a proposal supportred by Mr. Zucal, who by the way, has offered no suggestions on how to cut back on city expenses.  Oh, yeah.  Zucal also backs the 7.2 mill increase in the New Philadelphia school tax.

Get involved.  Tell ‘em “No” to increased spending.  Tell ‘em “No” to increases taxation.  Tell ‘em “No” to more money for city officials.  Tell ‘em “No” to Zucal

Gun-grabbers promise protection they can't deliver

 

By GREGORY KANE | OCTOBER 17, 2013 AT 8:52 AM

                      

When a group of thugs dragged Alexian Lien from his SUV on Sept. 29 and savagely beat him, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was nowhere to be found.
Neither was President Obama.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, reputed to be a presidential aspirant, wasn’t on hand to protect Lien, either.
It should be pretty obvious what Bloomberg, Obama and O’Malley have in common, other than protoplasm.
We’ve been hearing from all three since the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., on the matter of America needing more gun control laws.
Bloomberg, Obama and O’Malley were among those calling for laws that would limit the magazine capacity for firearms.
The argument of gun controllers goes like this: There really isn't a need for guns with magazines that can fire large numbers of rounds, because only crazed killers would want to kill that many people.    
Lien should have been armed with a gun that had a high-capacity magazine as he drove on New York City’s Westside Highway on the afternoon of Sept. 29.
No one wants deranged killers mowing down large numbers of people with weapons that have large-capacity magazines.
But I want people that are attacked by members of, oh, I don’t know, say a motorcycle gang, to have enough firepower to defend themselves, too.
So I wasn’t in favor of the proposal to ban guns that had large-capacity magazines. My argument was simple:
People like Bloomberg, Obama and O’Malley really shouldn’t be in the business of telling the American people how many attackers they might have to shoot.
A six-shot revolver would have done Lien little good in defending himself. But a semiautomatic handgun with a magazine capacity of 15-20 rounds might have come in real handy.
The gun-grabbers use logic similar to their “no one needs to shoot that many people” argument when they talk about banning assault rifles. No one, they claim, needs an assault rifle.
Whether a person needs an assault rifle depends strictly on how many people are present to do him harm.
I don't know if those Korean-American merchants that had to defend their lives, homes and businesses during the 1992 Los Angeles riots had used assault rifles, but they'd have been darned well justified if they had.
Los Angeles police, for whatever reason, provided no protection for those Korean-American merchants.
So they decided to protect themselves, and made many Americans proud to be Americans when they did.
According to news reports, there were undercover New York City police officers among the biker thugs that attacked Lien. They were of no help, either.
The gun-grabbers assure us that the cops will protect us whenever we need protecting, but the incidents in Los Angeles 21 years ago and on New York City’s Westside Highway on Sept. 29 prove what a world of delusion they’re living in.
Cops can’t protect us in every situation. In Lien’s case, a cop might have been one of the bikers trying to smash his SUV window.
Citizens have to protect themselves. That’s why we have a Second Amendment in the first place.
When elected officials like Bloomberg, Obama and O’Malley advocate and sign laws designed to restrict the gun rights of law-abiding citizens, they’re in essence cutting a deal. They’re making us a promise.
They’re telling us that we don’t have to fret about protecting ourselves, because they and their big, bad, brave police force will protect us.
But the likes of Bloomberg, Obama and O’Malley are lying when they make such a promise, and they know darned well they’re lying.
They’re also writing a check with their mouths that they know our bodies won’t be able to cash.

GREGORY KANE, a Washington Examiner columnist, is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.

Excessive Tax Increases Coming To New Philadelphia

This is going to be one of the most important elections we have had in recent memory.  What happens this November will set the standard of living in New Philadelphia for years to come.  I know you have heard it before, but this year is different, really.

For one thing, issues on the ballot will affect your standard of living in ways you could never imagine.  The proposals include a city income tax as well as a school proposal.  Already the county has raised your country property tax by three percent, and when you total them all together the result is a big bite out of your income, a really big bite.

Let’s start with something simple, Tuscarawas County real estate tax.  You won’t find this one on the ballot, but you are going to find it on the bill from the Tuscarawas County Auditor next spring when your real estate tax bill comes.  You have probably received the notice already.  If you didn’t notice, the market value for your house has been increased.  It doesn’t mention the tax increase in so many words, but look out, it is going to be a real shocker.  The market value of your house has been increased by three percent.  Keeping the math simple, that means that next year the cost of your real estate tax alone will increase.  To figure out how much, look at your real estate tax for last year and multiply it by 1.03.  The figure you come up with is your new county property tax.  If, in the box on the lower right of your real estate bill, the amount due is $500, remember that is only for half a year, the tax is increasing by about $15.  It’s not much, only $30 a year.   There is not much we can do to prevent it since it is a state law and you know how much we can do to affect that.  By the way, folks who rent are going to pay this tax as well.  Trust me that the property owners you rent from aren’t going to absorb that loss.

Also on the ballot is a proposal to raise the city income tax by 3/4 percent.  That will kick your income tax up to 2.25%.  If your reportable income is $30,000 a year, your city income tax will jump from $450 to $675 per year if Ballot Issue 1 is enacted.  But then, as the advocates of the issue figure, it’s only a $225 increase.  What they don’t say is that there will be $225 less in your grocery budget.

Then comes the big one, the levy for the New Philadelphia Schools who want to add a 7.2 mill increase to your taxes.  The current tax rate is 49.2 mills, or 49.2 cents per thousand dollars real estate evaluation.  Should this levy pass it would increase the school taxes to 56.4 mills.  So for a property valued at $40,000 by the county, a resident who now pays $1,968 a year in school taxes, will be paying $288 more a year for a total of $2,256 in school tax.  But wait.  His house evaluation has increased by three percent, which raises his school tax by the same amount, to a total of $2,324

So if you live in a house for which the county has valued at $40,000 and have an adjusted income of $30,000 a year, voting for increasing the city income tax increase and the school levy will boost your taxes to almost $3,000.  And this, believe it or not, is on top of the increase in the sales tax, which is 6.75% on all you buy except for food you take home. 

The politicians will tell you we need these tax increases to make the city and county run.  I think we need that money to feed, clothe, and house our families.  Isn’t it about time we say no to those elected officials who are supposed to be looking out for our good but instead spend our money on their pet projects, on city employee wages, and expenses that don’t help us?

Vote in this election.  Vote no on the spending bills.  Make government live within their budget as we have to live within ours.  Tell ‘em no!