Recent news articles and the News Tribune's Jan. 8 editorial, "With or without Miletich, retirees can help solve crisis," have blatantly criticized Eli Miletich for his part in leading a fight against current and past city administrators in their attempts to ignore legal contracts for health care for city retirees.
The coverage has left the impression that Miletich has been acting alone or with just a few fellow retirees. Nothing could be further from the truth. More than 400 retirees have contributed money to a defense fund to protect the benefit earned while working and granted through contracts at the time of retirement.
There are more than 800 retirees affected by the health care packages. I believe 99 percent of my fellow retirees want their contracts to be honored, as promised. I also believe they will all fund a defense treasury to insure compliance.
Mayor Don Ness and his administration should recognize our benefit and stop the intimidation and threats to take that benefit away. To say the least, he is causing fear among us. His refusal to acknowledge state Supreme Court rulings on similar issues by employees, which were ruled to the benefit of the employees, continues that fear. By not accepting these rulings, the mayor continues his threat to retirees. In view of the courts findings the mayor should agree to the contracts and save both the city and the retirees court expenses.
Many retirees are over 65, and Medicare picks up 80 percent of their medical costs. No one ever recognizes that. Almost all articles on this health-care issue refer to retirees as the problem.
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The administration for years did not fund this benefit and should have.
Any blame should be placed on city administration, not on us retirees.
In closing: Eli is not alone!
Patrick Alexander
Duluth
