Dear Members,
It is with sadness that I inform you of the passing of former Association President and Vice President, Raymond “Jay” Wendling. At this time, we do not have additional information regarding any potential memorial services/celebration. We will inform you if we receive any information.
Jay served as Association President and Vice President during some of this organization’s difficult political battles. This included attacks on retiree benefits such as our COLA, retiree medical benefits, and the SRBR benefit from former Mayor Chuck Reed, former Councilmember Pete Constant, and their allies. It also included fighting off the proposal to completely eliminate retiree and active employee representation on the Police & Fire Retirement Board, which we later negotiated to expand retiree representation from one retiree to two.
While we did not prevail in every fight, we did protect fundamentally critical benefits such as the COLA and protection of retiree medical benefits. This was a particularly difficult time for public employees and retirees, yet our Association was a fierce advocate against a very anti-employee city leadership. Jay and the Board’s leadership team during those times was critical.
Personally, I will remember Jay for his work on our member’s behalf and I thank him for fighting alongside all of us when we needed to fight.
Sincerely,
Ray Storms
President
