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Maritime Terminals Create Good Jobs, Says Research Institute; Idea to "Double-Deck" 10th Ave. Terminal Would Hurt Economy
Trestles, About 10 years ago I received a solicitation from the San Francisco FD. Top step firefighter/paramedic pay was $99,000/year. Yes, that was a decade ago.— August 22, 2008 5:08 p.m.
Co-Counsel in District Attorney's Pension Conflict of Interest Case Takes Job with Superior Court
Don, Again, I recently talked to a friend who works for Orange County Fire. Although he's the same rank that I am here, he's made double what I've made this year just in salary and OT. Plus he pays $500 less a month for medical and about $500 less a month in retirement. Do you really think the quality of life is that much better here than in the OC? If so, why are you living in Colorado?— August 22, 2008 10:50 a.m.
Maritime Terminals Create Good Jobs, Says Research Institute; Idea to "Double-Deck" 10th Ave. Terminal Would Hurt Economy
3%@50 is the same all over the state, and that is the MAIN benefit, the jobs both provide medical and dental and therefore the benfits are identical. ============================= Johnny, I'll try this slowly. Retirement and benefits are different for each municipality. Each union or association negotiates their own benefit package. Just because they all have "medical and dental" doesn't mean that the individual receives the same benefit statewide. Many fire departments across the state provide fully paid medical and dental packages to their employees. The city of San Diego does not. The vast majority of San Diego employees have to pay out of pocket for their medical benefits. They have to pay even more out of pocket for dental and vision. In other words, SD does not PROVIDE dental and vision coverage, they make it available for purchase. Likewise, retirement is not the same across the state. State of California fire employees have 3% at 50 and many fire departments do, but not all. Most fire departments cover the employee's contribution to their retirement system in full. The city of San Diego does not. This alone results in about 10% lower pay for San Diego firefighters. See, if all fire departments paid the same and had the same benefits then there would be no problem recruiting. However, currently SDFD employees make less up front, pay more into retirement, pay more into their medical coverage and pay more for housing. You may wish to hire folks from out of state, but why would they come to San Diego when they can make twice as much an hour up the road?— August 22, 2008 10:40 a.m.
Maritime Terminals Create Good Jobs, Says Research Institute; Idea to "Double-Deck" 10th Ave. Terminal Would Hurt Economy
Things that make you go Hmmmmm................... 1.) Starting pay for firefighters is $38K, not the $55K Johnny claims. That's $13.19/hr, based on the 56 hour week we work. 2.) Step increases come every year, not every six month as Johnny claims. And there are only three step increases in total. After that pay is static unless there is a negotiated raise or a promotion. 3.) I never said we couldn't find one applicant. I said we couldn't find enough qualified applicants, in part due to competition. Perhaps more people applied for the longshoreman jobs because more people were qualified for that position. I'll ask again, was the Port of Los Angeles hiring at the same time and offering twice as much pay? The city of Los Angeles is doing just that to our hiring. 4.) San Diego does not have identical benefits to the cities or counties named above. The city's own salary survey showed that. Yes, the retirement benefits are the greatest part, but health benefits and vacation days add a lot too. We're way behind on those benefits. Yes, things that make you go hmmmmm. Like why Johnny can't seem to get the simple facts straight.— August 21, 2008 6:04 p.m.
Maritime Terminals Create Good Jobs, Says Research Institute; Idea to "Double-Deck" 10th Ave. Terminal Would Hurt Economy
Gee Johnny, aren't you the one who keeps saying that we can't afford benefits like that here? That we're not Orange County or LA or Contra Costa County? Well you're partially correct. We don't have benefits like that here. Don't you think Aguirre would post that if we did? Oh, and the longshoremen don't pay a dime for their medical. Plus they have no deductible and $1 prescriptions. Plus they have retirement, a fund that pays them if they don't work and an employer funded 401K. That's way better than city of San Diego employees. About 20 times better on the prescription front.— August 21, 2008 6:40 a.m.
Maritime Terminals Create Good Jobs, Says Research Institute; Idea to "Double-Deck" 10th Ave. Terminal Would Hurt Economy
Gee Johnny, your buddy Aguirre says that firefighter benefits are only .57 of salary. You must be so much smarter than him. Want to provide a link, or any kind of proof to back up your claims? A dock foreman without benefits still makes more than a fire battalion chief with benefits. And I'm guessing that longshoremen are not state licensed medical professionals.... so sorry your education bit is (as usual) off by quite a bit. Wait... didn't you claim that you'd go away if someone posted a blue collar non-college job paying more than $100K. I think we have a winner!— August 20, 2008 3:52 p.m.
Co-Counsel in District Attorney's Pension Conflict of Interest Case Takes Job with Superior Court
Don, you say that the private sector recruits people to San Diego all the time. OK, is there an equivalent private sector job an hour away that pays twice as much in a region where housing costs less? There's a public sector firefighter job that meets those requirements. How do we convince people to come here instead of LA or Orange county? Are those private sector jobs basically high end blue collar? Or are they tech jobs paying $200K/year? Do you think firefighters would be leaving the city of San Diego and going north if it wasn't so much more profitable up there? The problem isn't necessarily recruiting folks to come to California. It's getting them to come to San Diego. Johnny, you wrote that Rider claims he could get thousands of people to apply for half the pay. I have yet to see him volunteer to do that. We already have thousands of people apply. The vast majority are not qualified. He put ads in newspapers across the country, albeit tongue in cheek. How many recruits did he get? Don't you think he'd be crowing about that? Rider is basically full of crap about most everything. That shows in his vote counts. You say you know "PLETNY (sic) of people who can't afford a house." OK, do they own a house elsewhere when they move here and give up that American dream just to live in SD? Again, it's not unreasonable to recruit from out of state. I'm just waiting for you to tell me exactly how much we should spend to do that and for what return? What is the dollar value per candidate we should spend? $10,000? $20,000? Should we pay moving costs? Should we pay a full time fire captain to recruit out of state, or should we use that captain to staff an already stripped force in the field? Should we pay OT for people to recruit? You have all the answers, so let's hear them.— August 20, 2008 10:56 a.m.
Maritime Terminals Create Good Jobs, Says Research Institute; Idea to "Double-Deck" 10th Ave. Terminal Would Hurt Economy
Holy cow... don't tell Johnny Vegas that high school educated folks are making that kind of money. A dock foreman makes about the same as the fire chief.— August 20, 2008 10:35 a.m.
Co-Counsel in District Attorney's Pension Conflict of Interest Case Takes Job with Superior Court
So let me get this straight, you want me to tell firefighters in other parts of the country that they should sell their house and come here where they can't buy a house? They may be working for peanuts, but they have a better lifestyle there than here. Just how aggressively should we pursue firefighters from out of state? Off the top of your head, how much should we spend on that? Say ten recruiting trips of two Captains each? Four days in each place? That's 80 days worth of pay for a Captain. We can't afford that. Further, why wouldn't those folks interested in coming look at SD then look at LA, or Orange County, or LA County, or Pasadena, or Anaheim and go there instead of here should they get the urge for the California lifestyle? Heck, we can't even recruit Forest Service firefighters from here in California, and they're the lowest paid out there. Sorry Don, this wasn't one of your best ideas ever.— August 19, 2008 3:30 p.m.
Sempra spins Sunrise Powerlink in the Union-Tribune
Paul, I guess you missed the point where city leaders have spent millions on new equipment and training for the fire department since 2003. For starters, there's that shiny new helicopter sitting there, with a sister ship due to go into service any day now. I guess you also missed that the wind speeds were about twice as high during the 2007 fires than they were during the 2003 fires. Is there more to do? Absolutely -- a lot more. But nothing's going to happen unless someone opens up some purse strings. Perhaps you should ask the county supervisors why there is no county fire department.— August 19, 2008 1:57 p.m.