Best wishes to Deputy Chief Kevin Masters

After 27 years of service to the Kansas City Missouri Police Department, Deputy Chief Kevin Masters is retiring today. I thank him for all he has done for this police department and the community. Below is a story from our latest Informant newsletter describing what he has accomplished and what he has meant to this department and Kansas City:

One of the department's youngest-ever commanders to be named deputy chief will retire from KCPD on Oct. 8 with 27 years of service.

When Deputy Chief Kevin Masters joined the police department in 1985, he had a degree in communications and journalism and dreamed of working in the Media Relations Unit.

"When I got in the field at Metro Patrol, it was a whole different story," he said. "At that point, media became a passing fancy."

He started as a dispatcher to get his foot in the door to Media, but the excitement of what he heard on the radio – as well as a couple persuasive recruiters— got him to enter the Academy. As soon as he hit the streets, Masters said he was hooked.

"It was so much fun," he said. "We were making lots of arrests. And I really like people, and I was getting to know a lot of people. Being on the streets energized me and really fit my personality."

After five years in patrol, D.C. Masters became a homicide detective. He said that assignment gave him the biggest range of emotion he has experienced.

"There is no worse feeling than going into someone's house, looking them in the eye and telling them their loved one has been killed," he said. "... But the most rewarding feeling is when you can go back to that same person and tell them you found who did it, and you're going to get justice for them."

Knowing what he went through emotionally, Masters said he made it a priority as commander of the Investigations Bureau to improve homicide detectives' quality of life. He worked with his staff to re-organize the unit in 2011 to give detectives more time and resources to solve cases as well as more time with their families. Homicide clearance rates have improved steadily since the change. Masters said that change is one of the most personally meaningful of his career accomplishments.

After he was a detective, Masters climbed the ranks quickly. Now-Retired Chief Rick Easley promoted him to deputy chief in 2002. Masters had been on the department for 17 years at the time and was 38 years old.

"Kevin was always a hard worker and extremely dependable," Easley said. "He always gave me the impression he was working hard at trying to do the right thing."

Easley said Masters could think on his feet, made good decisions and dealt well with others. But not everyone was excited to see such a new, young face as deputy chief. Masters said he faced some backlash, but he knew he'd earned the spot.

"I worked my tail off everywhere I went," he said. "I've always put in an honest day's work for an honest day's pay."

Among some of his accomplishments were the implementation and development of the Shoal Creek Patrol Division and the Mounted Patrol Unit.

Through it all, Masters said he most liked meeting people— from Fortune 500 Company CEOs to people at the end of their ropes. That's why he's looking forward to his new job as director of government relations for the Kansas City Missouri School District.

Masters will be the main point of contact for the district for elected officials at the local, state and federal levels. But what he's most excited about will be his duties building relationships between the district's schools and the neighborhoods around them. He will be trying to connect school administrators to the business owners and residents of the communities they serve.

And although Masters never worked in Media Relations at KCPD, he said he got to use the communication skills he learned in many facets of his job.

"It has been a very rewarding experience," he said. "My life has been blessed personally and professionally."

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An alternative voice on public pensions

On Tuesday, Aug. 30, the City’s Pension System Task Force got to hear an alternative viewpoint to what they’ve been hearing about public retirement systems. Hank Kim made a presentation to the group, and he is the executive director of the D.C.-based National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems. NCPERS is a “nonprofit network of trustees, administrators, public officials and investment professionals who collectively manage nearly $3 trillion in pension assets held in trust for approximately 21 million public employees and retirees – including firefighters, law enforcement officers, teachers and other public servants.”

On Monday, Aug. 29, Mr. Kim wrote a response to the Kansas City Star’s Sunday editorial that said he would present “one-sided points.” His letter made solid, well-rounded arguments, and here’s what it said:

“To the Editor:

"Despite the unfair assertion in your Sunday editorial (Don’t accept ‘What, me worry?’ pension views), I will not be presenting one-sided arguments to Kansas City’s Pension System Task Force on Tuesday. The task force has invited me because its members want to be fully informed about all available options before making its recommendations to Mayor James and the City Council – an approach for which they should be applauded, not criticized.

"The fact is there are a number of effective strategies for securing the health and sustainability of a public pension plan before taking the drastic and costly step of converting it to a 401(k)-style plan. Many public pension plans around the country are employing those strategies.

"It’s important to remember that public employees routinely contribute to their pension plans, paycheck after paycheck, while many government bodies – including Kansas City – have not made their required pension contributions for years. Before scapegoating public employees and threatening their retirements, policy makers and the general public should become fully and adequately informed of the facts and the available options. I hope to help with that process on Tuesday.

"While revenue shortfalls have prompted government officials to scrutinize public pension plans, we believe their focus is too narrow. The U.S. is facing an overall retirement crisis as record numbers of workers enter their retirement years. Retirement security for all Americans –whether they work in the public or private sector – must become a national priority.”


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My impending retirement

I am announcing today that I will retire as Chief of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department on September 16, 2011. That will be the final day of my 32^nd year with the department, and I will leave in compliance with the 32-years-of service mandatory retirement policy. In the mean time, I will work closely with the Board of Police Commissioners to make the transition to new leadership as smooth as possible. Thank you all so much for your support throughout the years, especially the last seven that I have been Chief. Serving alongside the incredible men and women of this police department has been one of my greatest honors.

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Police retirement system is responsible, well-managed

I wrote the below as an As I See It column that was published in today's Kansas City Star:

Recent editorials and columns in the Kansas City Star proclaim the need for public pension reform in Kansas City. These articles left out some important information about the Kansas City Police Employees’ Retirement System (KCPERS) for sworn officers. The Board of Police Commissioners and I strongly stand behind our retirement system and ask you to consider some of the below facts.

Police officers contribute 10.55 percent of every paycheck to KCPERS. That is more than many other public employees pay: According to their respective web sites, Alabama teachers contribute just 5 percent of their salary to their pension system, New Jersey police and firefighters contribute 8.5 percent, and Ohio police and firefighters contribute 10 percent. Missouri just began requiring new state employees in 2010 to contribute to their pension. Previously, it was entirely state-funded.

The editorials also mentioned that the City has been under-funding its system. Actuaries, as part of their annual analysis, determined the City should have contributed more. The City has under-funded the police pension system, based on actuarial analysis, the last eight years.

Police do not pay into Social Security and thus do not have it to fall back on when they retire like most other U.S. workers. The most an officer can receive at his or her retirement is 75 percent of his or her annual salary at the time the officer reached 30 years of service. One Star column even said, “These figures do not include money invested by officers in individual retirement accounts. They also don’t account for salaries and retirement benefits retirees receive from any jobs after leaving the Police Department.”

I find it strange anyone would take issue with a strong work ethic and sound money management practices.

The Board of Police Commissioners recently voted to extend mandatory retirement from 30 to 32 years of service, thus reducing the amount of time police will draw on the pension. Board Vice President Alvin Brooks said at a recent meeting that being a police officer “is a young man’s game.” He is right. It is a physically and psychologically demanding position that generally requires an earlier retirement than a standard desk job. KCPD retirees live to an average age of 72. That’s six years below the national average life expectancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Today, officers are held to a high standard and subjected to intense public scrutiny, as they should be. But reasonable pay and retirement benefits are necessary to attract and retain quality employees. Additionally, providing those who have served the community for decades with a reasonable standard of living is good not just for the retiree but for the whole community. It keeps retirees living, paying taxes and spending in the city. 

Many public pension systems are under attack nationwide right now, and some do deserve scrutiny. The Kansas City Police Employees Retirement System, however, is by no means the kind of extravagant, Cadillac plan that has come under fire in other cities and states. It is very transparent and managed by a board composed of local business leaders and retired and active police employees. Cost-of-living adjustments are approved by the Retirement Board on an annual basis based on the previous year’s actuarial analysis. Based on this analysis in 2009, there was no increase in 2010, for example. You can learn all about the plan at www.kcpers.org.  

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Longest-retired officer reconnects with KCPD

Last month, current KCPD officers came across 91-year-old Frank Schump (Officer Terry Owens is on the left, and Reserve Sergeant Mike Coughlin is on the right). Schump is month short of being the oldest living KCPD law enforcement retiree still alive, but he does have the distinction of being the longest-retired officer still alive. Frank left the department in 1972. Here's the story of how he got back in touch with KCPD almost 40 years after he retired from our Informant newsletter:

A recent burglary in Frank Schump’s neighborhood brought Officer Terry Owens to his door. Officer Owens of the Metro Patrol Division was canvassing the area asking neighbors if they’d seen or heard anything. Schump hadn’t seen anything related to the burglary, but he pointed out to Officer Owens that he had retired from the Kansas City Police Department.

As the two got to talking, Officer Owens realized Frank Schump was pretty special. He turned out to be the longest-retired KCPD officer still alive. Schump retired in 1972 after a 27-year career on the Department. He’s now 91 years old. Officer Owens contacted Reserve Sergeant Mike Coughlin because Reserve Sergeant Coughlin’s late father, Charles Coughlin, retired from KCPD as a deputy chief in 1978 and had worked with Frank Schump. With a brand new police station to call home, Officer Owens and Reserve Sergeant Coughlin decided it was time to re-introduce Schump, who retired as a Detective Sergeant, to the KCPD.

On June 29, Owens and Coughlin took Schump on a tour of the Kansas City Regional Police Academy and the new Metro Patrol Division station. Asked to compare them to the old KCPD facilities in which he used to work, Schump said, “There’s no comparison.”

Schump started working at KCPD in 1942 as a traffic officer on a motorcycle. He left in 1943 to serve in the United States Marine Corps in World War II in the Pacific Arena. At the Academy, he saw a photo of himself along with several hundred other police officers who returned to KCPD from the War pictured in the Kansas City Star in 1945. He came back to Traffic for a while and then moved to the Detective Bureau’s Burglary Unit about the time Clarence Kelley became Chief. Schump and Kelley grew up down the street from each other near 25th and Brooklyn.

Schump said one of his biggest cases in the Burglary Unit was when detectives broke up a sewing machine theft ring and recovered $150,000 worth of Singers stolen from area businesses. After Burglary, he worked in the prosecutor’s office and was tasked with making sure officers showed up to court. When he retired in 1972, he went back to work at the state probation office.

“I was still a young man,” he said.

He spent another 10 years there working on a bond program that gave higher bonds to more serious offenders before retiring a second time in 1982.

These days, Retired Detective Sergeant Schump enjoys spending time with his wife of 70 years and keeping in touch with his children and grandchildren. And thanks to the officer that showed up at his door one summer night looking for a burglar, he also enjoyed his visit to see the latest and greatest KCPD has to offer.

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Thanks for 43 years of service, Bob Turgeon

At the last Board of Police Commissioners meeting Aug. 25, an extremely dedicated public servant quietly retired from his position.

Robert Turgeon has been on the board of the Kansas City Police Employees’ Retirement System since June 12, 1966, most recently as treasurer. He was appointed by the Board of Police Commissioners that year and has been re-appointed every two years since. He has received a whopping $10 a month for his work. And all of it was in addition to his day job as owner of Turgeon Commercial Real Estate and Insurance.

The Retirement Board oversees both the KCPD’s police and civilian retirement systems, which at last check had about $629 million in total assets serving more than 1,100 retirees. The board consists of five elected members, two members appointed by the Board of Police Commissioners and two appointed by the Kansas City Council.

I want to thank Bob Turgeon for all his work for KCPD retirees these past 43 years. He is a true public servant. I also want to welcome aboard Pat Trysla, managing partner of Frontier Investment Banking Corp., who was appointed to replace Bob Turgeon.

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