Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Someone asked what the failure rate in the fire academy is. It's currently around 30%. That number is up from around 20% a few years ago. And... we made the academy easier. There are three final exams in the academy. One written and two practical. It used to be that a failure of any of the three was cause for dismissal. Now, as long as you maintain an overall 70%, you pass. The increase in failure rate is directly related to the decrease in applicants available to choose from. So... 200 applicants make it to the interview. Of those, a few won't pass the background or medical. 30% won't pass the academy... yep, thousands lining up for the job.— January 8, 2009 5:43 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Johnny wrote, "Are you saying only 200 applicants made it to the interview?" ======================= This is a prime example of your hard headedness, Johnny. You hawen't noticed me saying that for a year now. You keep shouting about how you could find 1000 applicants for every job at half the price. It's simply not true. Maybe if you actually read what I wrote, you'd learn something. That number is from the last test. That test replaces a test a year earlier when there were even less applicants. You say we need to advertise more. I assume you're familiar with our community outreach program in which our members volunteer to go to local schools and colleges to recruit young people. Yes, I said volunteer -- as in free. I assume you're familiar with "Public Safety High", a magnet school where our members volunteer to teach highschool age folks with an interest in the fire service. There they can get their EMT certificate for free. I also assume you're familiar with our Cadet program, where our members volunteer their time to teach young people to become a firefighter. We advertise in trade magazines and all over the place. All that and only 200 made it through the written test. Maybe there is something to my claims that competition from other agencies has hurt our recruiting.— January 8, 2009 5:38 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Fred, First, you're not that old. We recently had a 46 year old graduate the academy. I had three 41 year olds in my academy. But you help make my point. You can claim all you want that there are a ton of applicants. That isn't true for a variety of reasons. But the biggest is that people like yourself make excuses. "My talents are served elsewhere... I'm too old..." etc. How is the culture to change without outside influence? The firefighter's union has NOT made the process more difficult. The union does not have any influence on the hiring process no matter how it has tried because pre-hires are NOT represented by the union. The hiring process is determined solely by the city. The only semi-difficult step to getting hired is passing EMT class. And you have to be well spoken enough to make it through the interview. Anyone at your local fire station will help you with that.— January 8, 2009 5:29 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Response time is a major consideration in how many fire departments you need, and although the population has grown the geography has not. Infill does not increase response times except in consideration to traffic. ==================== Paul, yes, you're correct that population alone in not justification for additional fire protection. The geography does not change. It could, though, with bridge over a canyon. ;) One of the bigger considerations is the number of responses that come with additional population. Those additional responses cause engines to be unavailable. Then engines are sent from the next area over. And so on, and so on. A structure fire or two really screw up engine availability. Recently, there have been several times when 40% of the city's resources have been tied up with only two structure fires. Luckily, they were on opposite ends of the city.— January 8, 2009 5:19 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Paul, Johnny has argued against civil service protection for firefighters. You are showing exactly why we need civil service protection. The fire chief has a boss, i.e. the strong mayor. He needs no further reason other than "incompatible management style" to fire her. Does that answer your question? She cannot tell the truth of how pitiful fire protection is in this city. Here's my question of you: Are you willing to pay more for that station? Maybe enact a Mello Roos tax to pay for the property, station and equipment so that the city has to pay only for personnel? Or the converse -- are you willing to close that station to save money?— January 8, 2009 4:46 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Johnny, I'm still waiting for your answer on why there were only 200 applicants who made it to the interview. You keep talking about these thousands of people who would take the job... where are they? Fred, how about you? You've got the intellegence, Navy background... you could still operate your business on your days off... why not take the job? Also... I'm still waiting for your proof that San Diego firefighters make an average of $200K per year. That's BS and you know it. Go ahead and post a link proving your point. I already posted the link showing exactly what retirement costs are and that your 60% bit is BS, so prove me wrong or quit with your BS. You are so full of crap... and everyone knows it.— January 8, 2009 4:41 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Boiled down, you just keep repeating the tired mantra that you deserve even more money from the City of San Diego. =========================== Fred, please point to my statement above where I said that any of that money would go into my pocket? Instead, perhaps you should look at my statement from 11AM this morning, "Apply that increase to increasing staffing, not increasing benefits." Perhaps a college level reading class would help with your comprehension skills. Speaking of tired mantras....— January 8, 2009 4:36 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Don, One of the biggest crimes by councils past was not requiring developers to provide fire protection, be it downtown or elsewhere. The people of University City should be furious at their lack of fire protection. There are less firefighters downtown today than there were in 1970. In 1976, there were 750,000 residents in San Diego and there were 36 fire stations. Today there are roughly double that number of residents and only 10 more fire station. Yes, some of that population increase is infill, but then those areas need additional fire protection. The city needs to use Mello-Roos and developer fees to provide for fire protection.— January 8, 2009 2:05 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Fred, I do have one idea I'm sure you'll agree with. Have CCDC and SEDC pay for all of the firefighters working within their respective areas. They seem to have no problem paying for security guards on Segways to run around downtown -- why not fire protection? There are a few other places in the city that should be paying the city for fire and EMS protection. The city needs to collect on that.— January 8, 2009 1:51 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
There have to be cuts in government, including the fire department. =========== Right now the SDFD is unable to meet response time contract compliance in every area north of I-8. Which community do you suggest that we strip coverage from? How about the areas with good coverage? Fred, will you volunteer to allow the station on Felton and Adams to be closed to save money? It's one of the slower engines south of 8. How about the engine in Oak Park? The engine in Mission Valley? I tell ya what. Get 5000 people from Normal Heights to sign a petition requesting that the fire station there be closed. If the stations on Chamoune or 32nd Street (First and third busiest in the city) are available, they can send help. See... no community is willing to give up it's level of service. Many want more service than they currently have. You're not going to get major savings in labor without layoffs, yet the citizens want more firefighters. Bit of a Catch 22 there, isn't it. I do have one more proposal. Cut the Fire Prevention Bureau. The response side of the dept. is already stripped, so go for the prevention side. Assume that developers will meet the codes of their own volition. Quit doing inspections of the Hazardous Materials facilities in the city. Quit doing brush inspections. That would save a few million.— January 8, 2009 11:19 a.m.