From the City of Havre de Grace:
With the support of the Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) and in partnership with Havre de Grace Chamber of Commerce, and Havre de Grace Main Street, the City of Havre de Grace has developed a “Furlough Friendly Community” campaign. This campaign will have a dedicated distribution through APG personal and reaches out to families impacted by the recent furloughs.
There are over 11,500 people at APG that are currently affected by the recent furlough. For 11 weeks Havre de Grace’s neighbors at APG, who reside and patron our City, have lost more than 20% of their income due to sequester.
Understanding the impact to these families and the potential impact to our small businesses, the City of Havre de Grace has created a “Furlough Friendly Campaign”. To participate in this endeavor, the local businesses offer a 20% discount; Monday through Friday, to APG employees affected by the furlough; providing proper I.D. Some participating businesses have taken this campaign a step further by offering other opportunities that better suit their establishments. This campaign is slated to run until the end of September.
This is a great and much needed opportunity to reach out to all those individuals and families affected by the furlough and encourage them to continue to patronize our Havre de Grace’s businesses. “We have a positive relationship with the APG community and understand the challenges the furloughs have placed upon those who reside, work and play in Harford County,” stated Mayor Wayne Dougherty.
We have created a logo and decal to be posted on the doors of businesses who are participating in this campaign. A list of business participants will be found on the hdgtourism.com website.
Since Obama was elected in 2008, my (private sector) income has fallen by 48%. I live in Havre de Grace and do not appreciate the preferential treatment given federal workers. Will not shop in my hometown anymore – not that there is anything to buy there anyway.
And why is there nothing to buy there? Because you have no Walmart? Because Walmart is a wondderful employer that pays a wage that requires many of their employees to live on government assistance. Exactly who are the real criminals here as far as job loss is concerned? The guys who love China Labor Camps where they make all manner of things for very low wages? The same guys who have had their taxes reduced ever since Eisenhower left office. Seriously, do you not see that you have done it to yourselves because you will not pay someone to do a job for a fair wage.
@Sam Adams – No need to snivel. You speak as though none of us have been affected since POTUS took office. We have been under a hiring freeze, pay freeze, and promotion freeze since he took office and has failed to pass a budget. This doesn’t affect local economies, it affects ALL federal workers WORLDWIDE. I understand your frustrations of loss of income. However, to add insult to injury (no cost of living increase in 5 years while inflation has raised the cost of things as miniscule as a gallon of milk), our Federal Government has shunned all of us by cutting 20% of our pay. Again, that may not seem like much to you, but when you take a family’s income and cut it by 20% immediately, the effects are also instantaneous. I now have no choice but to leave my townhome I have been leasing for three years, because I can no longer afford to pay rent there.
Bottom line: Suck it up, cupcake. At least local businesses understand and are willing to assist those of us caught up in something we wanted no part of.
Well Said Useless Civ Employee! I am in the same boat! it quite frankly sucks! thos who are not feeling or dealing with our pain to our wallets have no freakin clue how lucky they are to keep their normal pay & get raises in the private sector! the general sensus that we Fed. Employees don’t deserve certain things need smacked right upside the head! Come on over to my house, i’ll smack ya!
Stop blaming Obama and place the blame where it belongs (Congress). If this country were to run like a business the way Trump wanted, they’d all be fired. The city of Havre de Grace is making a mockery of the entire ordeal while making money off of all of us. Folks get use to living at a certain standard are the one’s that it hurts (Suck it Up). The only way HDG can assistany of us is to lower some prices, the heck with a discount until September. Enough said, this whining make me sick.
My BIL lost his job selling cars during the Bush recession. he got a job with the fed givernment with zero experience paying him over $100,000/year, twice what he was making. I’ll let him know on his days off he can go to havredisgrace and spend the extra cash he is bankrolling at a discount.
Few things. I am not usually one to point out misuse of words but it says from the City of HVDG “APG personal.” Should I assume they meant Personnel? This was a press release sent out to many people? Also I agree with Sam Adams. Federal workers already enjoy many more benefits than most. Apparently too there is a way to get around these furloughs that I have heard firsthand from Army employees. You take your furlough day but “work overtime” throughout the 2 week period and will get your regular pay back and not miss a beat. Yea that’s a furlough…
No overtime allowed, Ethel. Get your facts straight before commenting on something you obvioulsy have no knowledge about.
not all can do that most cant even use vacation time to make up the difference so stick that in your crack pipe and smoke it
Overtime? What are you smoking? Under normal circumstances we can’t get overtime. If we ever do, it is straight time.
If you really want to ease the pain caused by the furlough that was caused by the sequester you must remove that which caused the sequester: that would be the GOP/Tea Party.
Before either of you open your mouth why don’t you get your facts straight? Most government agencies (Especially mine) cannot offer overtime anymore, we haven’t had a pay raise in over 4 years and now we have a 20% reduction in pay. Lets expand this scenerio a little be shall we since you both appear to be rather narrow minded, you take 12K people and cut there pay by 20%, how do you think that affects local businesses in small communities? Think about areas like Scranton, PA where the base up there is the main source of employment in the area. The furlough is hurting everyone.
If Government employee’s have it “so good” why don’t you apply? Can’t? Won’t? Everyone is willing to go out and say that we (Gov’t employee’s) deserve what we are getting (Not getting…) but we support the troops over seas, we support your sons, daughters, dads, mothers, etc. We ensure that they have every thing necessary in order to complete the mission and get home safely.
I’d like to see any of you say what you say on an internet blog to the face of a government employee who is currently serving over seas or even your neighbor who works here at APG. You’d get an ear full.
I am so sick of hearing the canned response of “why don’t you apply?”
Many government positions are filled from within or by cronies. I have applied many, many, many times until I got my position and in the end it was based on knowing someone.
You’ll take your furlough and like it, I have. I’m still making more with a furlough than I would with no furlough in my private sector job.
Maybe you needed the extra boost from someone on the inside because your merits prevented you from consideration. I’m betting Yes.
All you are doing is reinforcing my point that getting a government job is more about who you know than what you can do.
It’s all cake once you’re on the inside.
good pay
good pension
good benefits
lots of time off
huge job security
If a short term partial furlough is the price we pay then so be it.
Actually I was stating that you could not have gotten it on your merits. I was quite clear about that. You must be delusional.
You don’t need merit to keep the job and only need connections to get it.
That is the point.
You needed merit to get the job. You had none. You required a connection. You have an over developed sense of entitlement. Get over yourself.
I don’t feel entitled, I feel lucky, unlike you with your supeiority complex.
Wow. How uninformed can you be??? Is tired old cliche serious?
I think he’s too close for comfort.
The fact that so many substandard employees can slide through the system is proof that merit is not relevant. Your own posts regarding your own co-workers and supervisor illustrates the point aptly enough.
Searching through your pasts postings leads me to believe that you think you are the rock upon which your division is based and that your management is completely inept.
How can you argue merit when you counter it with your own descriptions of federal employment?
You are not building a case to support the reason you were hired was based on merit. That the system is broken is common knowledge. You are proof that you benefited from a connection instead of merit. Justify and rationalize all you want. You are as much a deadbeat as the rest of the system you seek to castigate.
I did not claim I was hired on merit. Merit didn’t work but connections did.
I claim that a majority are not hired on merit.
I freely castigate the system because it is broken.
I can do this because it is now almost impossible to fire me and that is the most absurd part of all.
If the price I pay is a furlough, I’ll gladly pay that price.
I grow tired of self justifying employees who just can’t admit that they are not as important as they believe.
This job is cake compared to other things I’ve had to do and I have no delusions with regard to being a government worker.
I got mine, merit or otherwise, and that is the bottom line.
Yeah, but I have to pay for it.
You two can stop comparing which of you has seen more federal corruption…. Congress just gave you added job security by allowing you to continue spying on all of us.
When I began my search for my first job 30+ years ago, it was widely understood that a government job brought excellent security and good benefits but lagged behind private industry for pay… it seems that distinction has pretty much disappeared. DOD is the largest employer on Earth. Since DOD is just a portion of the Federal Government it’s clear that a surprising percentage of the Earth’s population is in its employ – the only solution that Washington can come up with is to hire more… it calls to mind the old joke of the CEO that leads a group through the building and when he’s asked “gee, how many people work here?” he responds “oh, about half”…
Civilian workers have been displaced by contract workers. I hope this satisfies your need for more private sector spending and earning potential, even though it is on the teet of the Government.
http://nation.time.com/2013/06/04/are-pentagon-civilians-really-behind-the-pentagons-money-woes/
Another false premise presented by parties that suggests costs can be reduced be replacing federal employees with eager motivated contractors that cost much more to employ.
I’d like to see the numbers sans the bloated combat theater contractors such as Blackwater, etc..
Iraq and Afghanistan contractors, military and civilian, are paid very far above what the military equivalent is paid.
Not so for those back home that are working by your side Mr.Porter.
I should add, those who ‘used to be’ working by your side.
How many contractors has your department lost, not furloughed?
Sorry for the typos, I’m on my phone…
I have always been in the private sector of employment and since this administration has been in office, the company I worked for had to close its doors. For the first time in my life and working for 31 years continuously, I became unemployed. When I did get back into the workforce after sending countless resumes a week for 5 months, I was forced to take a job 32 miles away from my home at a 40+% cut in pay( and not only 11 weeks worth). And now again, 3 years later I find myself unemployed because of cuts… I don’t begrudge anyone for making a great living or working for the government, but the private sector jobs are important too. I think what people are upset about is that although ours in the private sector is not called a sequester, we are affected by the actions of the administration also. Loss of jobs, cuts in pay are affecting all of us and it’s hard to understand why the government workers deserve these discounts and preferential treatment but we who are in the private sector do not. I commend the businesses for offering these discounts but I feel it should be an across the board, help everyone in need.
It is little more than a publicity stunt to garner traffic to Havre de Grace.
Baltimore has been hosting ‘furloughed’ and ‘sick day’ APG workers for quite awhile given the number of them I run into on my days off.
-“Hey —–, how’s it going?”
“ugghh, dude I’m out sick today”
“I’m on my lunch break”
“I didn’t know you lived down here” – “and I don’t remember you having off today”
so on and so forth etc…
Here’s a big hint for you employees on a long lunch break, put away your badges.
Given the opportunity, I would relieve you of your job that you obtained by exploiting the failures of the system that you now benefit from. You are simply an opportunist looking for any edge to satisfy your own selfish needs. And that is the principal cause for the downfall of our country. We need fewer of you in the workforce and in society, wherever they may be.
Get off of your soapbox.
The hurt for private sector employees has gone on for a lot longer than it has for government employees – and theirs is temporary… where was all the teary eyed outreach for the rest of us for the last 5 years? Welcome to the real world – however brief your visit will be…
I’ll bet all the idiots who voted for OWEbama and OWEmalley want to do a “redo” now!
Think hard before the next election day! Just because the guy is a of a different color, doesn’t mean he is the next coming!
He has failed to live up to SH1T he has promised, including “I will not let sequestration happen”…just like “I will not let Detroit go bankrupt”.
How about someone spray him with Liquid Ass.
You use federal employees as a scapegoat for whatever your source of bitterness. But truth be told, a professional scientist/engineer with the federal government makes less than their private sector counterpart. However, non-degree administrative positions/labor positions pay better in the federal government. It is not an across the board comparison; it’s apples and oranges.
Also, another myth is the “great” benefits package. I pay more now for benefits that aren’t as good as when I worked as a contractor in the private sector.
So this year it’s 11 days of furlough. Apparently, next year it is going to be more furloughs with even more RIFs. Then to add to this their are people like you constantly bashing us for choosing civil service. So while morale stinks there are still important tasks to be accomplished. I interact on a daily basis with our troops around the world to provide them the support they need to keep them safe. Yes, I am fortunate to have received this position, and yes I feel honored to serve in such a role. But if you don’t think that’s important, that’s fine. But, I am sure there are a lot of people in uniform and otherwise who would disagree.
Amazed, you just speak of being a “hurt private sector employee.” However, that is becoming a cliche because of people like you who throw it around all the time. All private sector employess just now say that as a fact regardless of it’s actual merit or applicability. Yes, everyone has suffered, even government employees, during the past 5 years
It all comes down to one simple thing.
It is extremely difficult to fire a federal employee.
You’re taking a temporary furlough while other people are taking a permanent one.
If our jobs were open to competitive replacement quite a few of my coworkers and perhaps myself included would be replaced with equally skilled workers who would do the job for less.
I make no apologies for how I got here but at least I am humble enough to know when I’ve got it good and don’t go whining about it to friends, family, and complete strangers on the internet.
It goes back to my point about self justifying employees who feel they are entitled to moan about problems that other people wish they had.
Enjoy the day, other people are working hard for a living.
I would be working hard, but legally, I am not allowed. Jerk. Who is taking a permanent furlough? Contractors? Guess what? They are working on a contract that is set for a finite time. If they can’t bring in work, that’s what happens. Sorry, but that is the world of government contract work. They are brought on for a specific task or time.
Would you take a 10% pay cut across the board so that some federal fte employees can keep their jobs or would you rather that some percentage of the federal workforce be fired so that you can maintain your salary?
presuming of course that they could be fired
Stop presenting mock outrage, you are in it for yourself just like everyone else. You don’t like the forlough despite the fact that it offsets the cost of not firing one of your coworkers. You would just as soon see someone else lose their job then for you to take a furlough. civil service….self serving clap trap.
We’re here because we get paid to be here and paid well at that.
TOC, a RIF, aka Reduction in Force. They aren’t firing people, it’s equivalent is a layoff in the private sector. That is the plan next year. And yes, I agree we could do without some folks, for sure. Some who are paid a hefty salary. Unfortunately they won’t be RIF’d because they have been in the system so long. From what I read on OPM there is a formula to determine who is RIF’d and the biggest factor is length of service. Now that is BS…equate time in service to work place value!!!
According to the news today, the plan for FY14 is layoffs, not furloughs.
http://www.armytimes.com/article/20130724/NEWS05/307240011/House-votes-block-more-DoD-furloughs-2014
All I did was point out the same thing you point out – everyone has suffered in this economy. The difference is that some think one group is entitled to this gesture while the rest are not. I have never met someone who was fired from a government position so I can only assume that either the vetting process for job candidates is without equal or it’s somewhat more difficult to get fired there than from a private industry position. That in itself is a benefit – a tremendously valuable one for some I’ve met. I didn’t bash anyone over their choice of civil service, but I hope that’s a choice made for your own reasons and not some need for gratitude from others – since it wouldn’t have any bearing in the debate. I volunteer at Church… so what? The Federal Government spends about 1 Trillion dollars more EVERY year than it collects… at what point do people decide that maybe that’s not really sustainable? 1.5T? 2T? You refer to your benefits and their cost when you were a contractor… if that’s a government contractor you’re still not talking about real world private industry numbers. I have some friends that are furloughed and some that have lost contractor jobs and they tell a lot of very interesting stories about what sometimes passes for work in those arenas. I’ve lived here long enough to hear hundreds of stories of the waste and theft that takes place. If folks can earn more in private industry I heartily invite them to join the party. Private industry is all about the bottom line but the government has no bottom line. There is little impetus to be thrifty when the taps are full open. RIF’s next year? I hate to tell you, but many of the folks paying for the party would welcome that.
It is a herculean task to get someone fired from a federal position. it requires long paper trails and repeated warnings, reassignments, counseling, and never ending oversight.
I feel quite secure.
I am sorry for you but that’s the way it is until people reach their limits with the system.
If you can’t beat’em then join’em but you’ll likely need a connection to get invited to the party.
I did.
You want to talk about waste? Talk about Office Eagle where we are forced to get office supplies. It is contractor run, and easily 2-3x what you can get on Amazon or Newegg.com. But nope, that’s where we have to buy our stuff. Waste. There are plenty of wasteful things, but for some reason these continue while mission-related functions are cut back or axed all together.
sweetheart deals with product suppliers – SOP unfortunately
reverse auctions have not remedied that situation
As to government or contractor managed warehousing and supplies, you are paying a convenience fee for what was originally intended to provided uninterrupted supplies to stay on mission.
Antiquated system.
I’m commenting on this article in lieu of work.
Some food for thought!
How about our teachers? Some businesses offer a small discount to teachers but maybe more should since they are technically going backwards in their pay in this county! They’ve been suffering longer than most employees!
How ’bout just discount to everyone? Geez—everyone has their hand out..
But on another topic; If a business can discount for one group and still make a profit; that it can discount for all. As a privately employed individual that actually pays taxes, I feel so discriminated against. Someone get me a participation trophy..Please!
Contact me.
While this is a great way to support a community, limiting it to only furloughed government employees is simply one-sided, and it is easy to see that the Town of Havre de Grace has something more in mind with this so-called ‘deal’. This type of ‘discount’ should be offered to everyone affected, or just everyone in general.
Additionally, for a Government Employee to accept such a discount closely violates the rules of ethical behavior under the Standards of Ethical Conduct. I will summarize, but a Federal employee may not accept gifts from any person or organization that —
–Does business or seeks to do business with the employee’s agency
–Gives the gift because of the employee’s official position
Look at that last bullet there, basically stating that a government employee may not accept a ‘gift’ (in the language of the rule, a discount is considered a gift) because of the employee’s official position. A clear violation.
Furthermore, the article states that in order to obtain the discount, a person must show valid ID. I am hoping that this is not meant to convey that a Federal Employee display, or show, their United States Government Official Identification Card outside of official channels, outside of the working area, and especially to gain a discount on a service or a meal. APG employees included, but ALL Federal Agencies make it clear upon issuance that the ID issued to that individual is for Official Use Only. A discount opportunity is not “official business”. Moreover, this scenario presents an OPSEC issue.
Here we are in downtown Havre de Grace, where discounts are being given to anyone who will show their Official Government ID…sounds like a ripe opportunity for a person with ill-intentions to target. All of you Federal Employees remember the mandatory Anti-Terrorism / Force Protection Training you take each year? What about those long, boring Ethics classes annually?
However, gifts are permitted where the circumstances make it clear that the gift is motivated by a family relationship or personal friendship rather than the position of the employee. This includes “certain discounts and similar opportunities and benefits”; of which the program presented by Havre de Grace businesses is not one.
Do what you will…just pointing out the rules here.
Agreed but so what?
Being a federal employee is already a gift accepted with unethical strings attached.
True, you have a good point!
Just think it is kinda messed up they are doing this only for affected Feds.
What about all those days before a holiday when federal employees are furloughed one hour early with pay…no one complained about that…now it’s payback time for all those free hours
New Years Eve and Christmas Eve were full day gifts. There’s two furlough days accounted for already.
Hey everybody, we’re in the boat and rowing as fast as we can. Did any of you know this: The State Department is exempt from the furlough??? This is not a typo, not a rumor, it is fact!!!! I have a great idea, find a person that is intelligent in your community, has community values, like the Mayor of Harve de Grace. Do a write in when voting for Congress and vote everyone of those idiots out of office. Change the laws that they exempt themselves from and really make “all men equal under the law”, make them pay for their insurance, retirment, etc. Let’s commit “CONGRESSCIDE” through our simple power of numbers. I pray for all as I see it only getting worse until we get Mr. Obama amd the slug congressional members we have put into office due our own stupity. Remeber to go for the Latino vote as well, that’s why Obama carried the day, he sucked up to them and gave them the US benefits that we have to pay for on top of the furlough. Let’s also make the Federal Government pay back Social Security for the “Loan” they took without putting it to a vote before any money is given to other countries as it isn’t used for the purpose it is meant for except lining foreign pockets. I love America, I love this country but start learning spanish or chinese as we are going down the tubes.