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San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
You say that 2/3rds of the crew is off-duty at any given time. How about cutting that back to half? ========================= That does several things. It increases our work week to 84 hours/week from the current 56. That would require a pretty healthy amount of overtime to accomplish. FLSA law provides for OT for firefighters after 52 hours, rather than the 40 hours of other professions. I'm thinking that we should lobby to change that back to 40 hours under the current labor friendly Congress. Instant pay raise! (Yes, I'm being tongue in cheek there) Second, you decrease the reserve force by half. Remember, that's actually 2/3 who are scheduled to be off. Some are already working OT. Some have child care issues and cannot come back to work. Etc. Third, you'd have zero applicants for new positions given that other department already get paid more and have better benefits. Increase hours by 50% and you'd remove any possible reason to come work here. You keep claiming that you know dozens who would work for less pay than we make. Where are they? Why can't you explain why we only had 200 folks make it through the academy?— January 8, 2009 11:07 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
What do you suggest? ========================== Do as Orange County has done. Split the fire service away from local government. Form a countywide fire authority with it's own taxing ability. Quit spending money on those stupid Superscoopers. Eliminate some of the redundant administrative chiefs and replace them with savvy field chiefs. The model for deployment of firefighting resources has been developed over many years. You, the citizen, needs to decide what level of protection you want. From the protestations after major fires, it would seem that you want a very high level of service. Given that, you'll need to fund the additional 20+ engines and other equipment that this city needs. To do that you'll need to raise taxes. You could cut one person from each engine and save about 15-20% on payroll. Several staffing studies have shown that cutting that one person caused a 50% drop in efficiency on the fireground. So you'd need to call double the number of engines to do what we currently do. Then your response time for medical emergencies would be unacceptably high. Also, time lost to worker's comp injuries skyrockets. Basically, you'd likely have a wash financially. Fred, the fire service in San Diego is so stripped it's pathetic. The mayor paid a crony of DeMaio's to do a study of the department here. (Yes, on a typical DeMaio no bid contract) Even the hand-picked consultant couldn't believe how thin this city is. His report was never released. Maybe you can file a FOIA request for it. We're already lower paid and lower staffed than any comparable major city in California. Sorry, but there's simply no more to cut. Again, we're already 50% understaffed. That is not a function of paying us too much... it's a function of decades of neglect by the city fathers in the interest of development. My change to the status quo is simple. Raise the taxes needed to have the fire department that San Diego needs and deserves. Apply that increase to increasing staffing, not increasing benefits.— January 8, 2009 11 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Don also wondered about higher education in the fire service. Well, there are a lot less firefighters than lawyers, thus there are less colleges. However, as jamesems pointed out, Don seems to like to throw barbs without any research. A five minute search on Google located the following list of colleges offering doctorate, masters, bachelors and associates degrees in Emergency Management. http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/collegelist/ Several of those specialize in firefighting. Off the top of my head, the CSU Sacramento, the University of Maryland, Oklahoma State all offer degrees in fire service management specifically. Texas A&M and ASU both offer programs. CSU Long Beach offers a Masters in Emergency Management. George Washington offers a Master's in EMS Management. The Naval Postgradaute School in Monterrey offers a Master's in Homeland Security. (For free!) Let's see... all classes at the National Fire Academy are good for upper division credit, should one want to develop their own degree program. The NFA Executive Fire Officer program requires a bachelor's for acceptance and eight post-graduate level classes. It's required for a senior position in many FD's. At least one major university accepts those as part of their Master's program. And since you don't like Ivy League schools, I'll leave out the Harvard Senior Executive Fellowship seminar at the John F Kennedy School of Government. As someone else mentioned, a Public Administration bachelors is available darn near anywhere. San Diego State has a decent program that they sometimes customize for the fire service. Any other questions about higher education in the fire service? Once again, the union has requested that a degree (AS) be required pre-hire and a bachelor's for promotion. So far the city has resisted.— January 8, 2009 10:41 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Then there's the bulk of what we truly need. ================= See, Fred, here's where the part about how you're a better judge of our worth than we are breaks down. There's a reason you pay us to be experts in the deployment of firefighting resources. You suggest that the same few people become the "elites". That those same few people handle all the specialty calls. We currently have one Haz Mat team to cover the county. It's staffed by San Diego firefighters, but paid for by a Joint Powers Agreement. There is one Bomb Squad in San Diego. So what if they're the same folks? What if there is a bomb call at the same time as a Haz Mat call? It happens a lot more frequently than you'd imagine, especially as both types of calls typically take hours. Frequently, calls require the use of both sets of teams. That would be a bit of a problem if the same folks did both. Then there's the issue of maintaining competence. There's not enough time to be truly an expert at both. Federal law requires ALL firefighters (paid or volunteer) to maintain a Haz Mat First Responder-Operational certification. This allows engine companies to take initial action and reduce calls for the county's single Haz Mat unit. You probably don't realize that there are around 20-30 calls/day for "unknown substance" in just the city. Don said something about "paramedicals". The use of that term shows ignorance of how things really work. Every fire engine and fire truck in San Diego has a person being paid a bonus to be a paramedic. The rest are EMTs. The EMTs support the paramedic care, help move the patient, etc. The reason that each piece of apparatus has a paramedic is because, as with firefighting, time matters. Let's look at your lower tiers. What you're talking about here is hand crews to cut fireline. The city has worked a sponsorship deal with the Sycuan tribe. During fire season we get a hand crew to staff from Sycuan. For free. We also have Sycuan's brush disposal crews available in the city for fires. We can also get their elite Hot Shot crew. All for free. We can also get hand crews from the state, again for free. And here, you wanted to pay them... Volunteers aren't really needed, except as a feel-good for community members. Again 2/3 of the fire department is off duty at any given time. We could (and have tried to) buy cheaper pick-up based fire engines that could quickly be staffed by existing firefighters in the event of a major conflagration. We wouldn't have to pay for training, equipping or insuring volunteers who would only be used every few years. It's interesting that you want to give volunteers a only one week of training a year. I assume that's in addition to their week of CERT training. And don't forget, they'd need to be Haz Mat trained. Imagine the liability if we allowed volunteers to mop up a burned out home and they got into some of the Hazmats that are in the typical garage. How much time off work are you willing to spend?— January 8, 2009 10:19 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
It was right then and there (1996) that the firefighters and police could have done the honorable thing and spoken up. =================== Look at the context of the political climate a dozen years ago. Our union received cuts in both 90 and 91. We took those cuts voluntarily to save jobs. Promises to repay the loss were broken. So when the opportunity came up to get some of that back, we did. You've continually vilified our union. But you've completely forgotten (or are ignorant of) the help we've provided the city. We are the ones who designed the current EMS system, not the city. Our public/private partnership is unique in that we have a profit sharing agreement with our private partner whereby the city gets half of the profit -- as much as $5 million a year. That system was originally staffed with higher paid firefighter/paramedics. We voluntarily switched to lower paid single role paramedics to help with funding. Find another union that voluntarily gives up positions. We also successfully lobbied to get increased Prop 172 money for San Diego. The city, not the county. The county still keeps most of the money, but we're the ones who got the half million a year that the city does get. Those are only a couple of examples...— January 7, 2009 6:34 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
We need more FF volunteers -- throughout the county, actually. =================== And that's the whole thing, Don. The fire service has taken on a lot of challenges lately. In days of yore, the volunteer fire service was largely a social club. We used to have a beer machine in my old volunteer fire hall. Today's fire service is responsible for paramedicine, haz mat, WMD, technical rescue, etc. It's virtually impossible for a volunteer to maintain their proficiency. Further, volunteerism in America is down in whole. As I posted earlier, the average person who does volunteer does so for only an hour a week. That's one training drill or one call per week in fire terms. I do agree that we need some sort of reserve. But consider this, we'd be training those people to respond to the once every five years event. We'd be equipping them as well. Wildland gear alone costs well over $1000/person. In the meantime, we only have enough fire engines for 1/3 the department to use. Wouldn't we be better off slowly building our mothball fleet so that we could easily double (or triple) the size of the department with already fully trained and equipped firefighters?— January 7, 2009 6:27 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Fred, You wrote, "I suggest it could be overcome by recognizing that many of the jobs and functions assigned to very expensive union firefighters could easily and cheaply be performed by others." Exactly which jobs do you recommend we replace? Remember, we are the leaders in the city in managed competition, which we've been doing successfully with paramedic care for 11 years now. Then you wrote, "I think that actually makes me a better judge of the value of your services." Maybe. But the people in general are not good judges of how much fire protection is needed in this city. They always think, "It will happen to someone else". That's why I advocate so much for increased fire protection, even at the expense of my own pay.— January 6, 2009 6:18 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Fred, First, I'm on a day off today, so I can pretty much do what I please. Second, I'm not a union representative, though I do have the ear of a few of them. You seem to like putting words in my mouth almost as much as Johnny Vegas. I fully accept that benefit increases are part of what put the pension system in the red. According to the document Johnny posted, 41%. Remember, however, that MP1 would never have happened if McGrory had not come to the union and asked for relief. You seem to forget that we endorsed Sanders' opponent We also endorsed the opponents of Sanders' cronies in most races. Just not the one in your district. How exactly do we have quid pro quo with him? By the way, you forgot to answer my question regarding political power vs pay. Once again, if we're so politically powerful, why are we underpaid compared to other departments? Remember, politics is a two way street. The people can make any decision they want in electing their representatives. You have chosen to be involved and I commend you for that. Regardless of their position, I respect people who actually care enough to become involved. Most do not. I'm still awaiting this uprising you speak of. It hasn't happened in local politics yet.— January 6, 2009 6:14 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Fred, If we're so connected politically, why are we among the worst paid departments in the state? The city funded a survey of firefighter benefits. The mayor chose to include cities such as Phoenix and Houston where the cost of living is considerably lower. He also chose to not include municipalities such as San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Clara County. Even so, SD firefighters came in at the 40th percentile. If I recall, captains came it at the 30th percentile and Battalion Chiefs at to 10th percentile. Yep, we're really working the city over for higher pay! I assume you've read the report "The Bottom Line" by the Center for Policy Initiative? http://www.onlinecpi.org/downloads/THE%20BOTTOM%2… If taxes in San Diego matched the average of the ten largest cities in CA, the city would have around $280 million more in income. We wouldn't be having this conversation because the FD would be fully funded, the pension system would be fully funded, potholes would be fixed, etc. As I mentioned, FD employee pay is essentially unchanged over the past 5 years. Add in some of the taxes above, some of the staff changes you suggest, end funding of corporate welfare etc. and you'd have something. Everyone needs to share in the cure, not just city employees. There are 12000 of us and 1,200,000 citizens. The basic view of the unions is that we've taken a hit already. The city could choose to not spend $25 million on the Balboa Theatre, not spend money on pedestrian bridges, libraries, corporate welfare, etc. and there would be plenty of money for salaries and the retirement system, as well as for infrastructure. Go back and look at the article I posted about Mayor O'Connor. She chose to cut firefighter and police funding in favor of restoring funding for the arts. That is a simple lack of setting proper priorities.— January 6, 2009 4:44 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
I would bet a C-note that NOT ONE had a JD at hire =========================== Want to make that bet for the FD? I'll bet another C-note that we have a Harvard MBA working for us -- and yes, he had the degree before joining the dept. I'll bet a third C-note that we have a guy who had a MFA and were published authors before hiring on with us. Of course, I'm not going to name those folks and you wouldn't pay anyway. Sorry, Johnny, but most firefighters have at least a 2 year degree and many have bachelors at the time of hire. It's not all that unusual for folks to have master's degrees. I can think of a dozen just off the top of my head.— January 6, 2009 3:34 p.m.