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Co-Counsel in District Attorney's Pension Conflict of Interest Case Takes Job with Superior Court
Really? San Diego ran out of applicants for the fire academy in the last two rounds of hiring. And, SD has had the highest ever failure rate in the academy. Yep, plenty of applicants to go around.... Johnny, I really find it funny how you say we should pay cops and firefighters less, yet every time one of us screws up you're the first to jump up and cry incompetence. Which is it going to be? Pay more and hire the best? Or reduce pay and hire those who will work for that pay? You really have no clue what our job entails, do you? You forgot one thing in your BK/McD analogy. There is one poorly paying place it town... and dozens of well paying, well financed places. Speaking of Vallejo, I'm sure you saw this article entitled, "Bankrupt Vallejo losing cops amid rising crime rates" http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/08/17/news/s…— August 19, 2008 10:31 a.m.
Co-Counsel in District Attorney's Pension Conflict of Interest Case Takes Job with Superior Court
Johnny, you speak of this 40% increase in retirement benefits as though it happened overnight. That 40% bridges time from 1981 to now -- almost 30 years. That's a whopping 1.x% per year. That retirement increase was given to firefighters in lieu of pay raises. As numerous studies have shown, we are way behind the rest of the state in pay. We are roughly the same or slightly ahead in retirement. Given the "pay me now or pay me later" choice, the city decided to pay later. Just as a matter of comparison, I recently spoke to a friend who works for Orange County. He's already made twice what I've made this year. And they turned down a pay raise and used the money to fund retiree health care instead.— August 18, 2008 10:09 a.m.
Co-Counsel in District Attorney's Pension Conflict of Interest Case Takes Job with Superior Court
Don, as the article above states, it's already been the worst on history; in the number of fires, the amount spent, and the number of acres burned. The state has already spent more than in the 2007 fire season and the SoCal season is just about to begin. Regardless of your politics on global warming, 8 of the biggest fire seasons on record have been in the past 10 years. That's why I preach that we need additional funding for the fire service. It has nothing to do with pay raises, it has to do with numbers of firefighters. We've seen over and over how thin SD for fire protection -- how we have not kept up with population growth. The state and the feds are the same. Fuel moistures in SoCal got a bump in June when we got that freak 1/4" of rain. That postponed fire season down here a little. But now things have dried out. We are still in a major drought, but the early rain this season caused explosive growth of now-dead grasses. Those will cause explosive fire growth. The only question is how much wind we'll have. At one point this season we had 20,000 firefighters on the line in NorCal. Imagine if that happened while Santa Anas were blowing down here.— August 18, 2008 10:03 a.m.
Co-Counsel in District Attorney's Pension Conflict of Interest Case Takes Job with Superior Court
Don is correct, MP1 changed the formula from 2.77% @ 55 t0 2.9999% at 55. The formula at 50 changed from 2.2% to 2.5%. Corbett was settled in 2000, well after the 1996 MP1 agreement. That's well after the initial pension increases. I believe you must be mistaken. Corbett did give a 7% boost to those already retired. Remember, the alternative was paying out retirements INCLUDING OT. And in case you didn't pick up on it, the reason I pointed out that this fire season is so bad is so that when you whine about OT later, I can show you why. As many as 60 SD firefighters were on OT up north at a shot, which means another 60 were working OT here to replace them. And ALL of that was funded by the state or (mostly) the feds.— August 18, 2008 8:20 a.m.
Co-Counsel in District Attorney's Pension Conflict of Interest Case Takes Job with Superior Court
Get your head out of the sand, Johnny. http://cbs5.com/local/california.wildfires.battle… "Wildfire season now worst in California history" Define "old pension". When I was hired - pre-MP1 and MP2, the pension ranged from 2.2% at 50 to 2.77% at 55. I believe that percentage was instituted in the early 80's. MP1 changed that to 2.5% at 50 to 2.9999% at 55. In other words, the net change at 55 was a less than 10% increase. (2.99-2.77=.22 increase) See the exhibits for Interim Report #6 if you don't believe me. MP1 also allowed POSC and created the DROP. It wasn't until the city lost the Corbett case that the 3% at 50 was instituted. It was the city losing that case, not MP1 that caused the biggest increase in pensions. Quoting from the Corbett settlement "Your Retirement Calculation will increase from 2.5% at age 50 to 3% at age 50". Corbett also increased payments to previous retirees by 7%. You want so badly to blame crooked unions and MP1, but it was the courts who instituted the biggest changes.— August 15, 2008 2:53 p.m.
Co-Counsel in District Attorney's Pension Conflict of Interest Case Takes Job with Superior Court
Don, I'm thinking the results of a public poll on the city attorney's web site have a little less sway than an editorial writer from the U-T. Hopefully, anyway. I really don't see the point behind his poll, unless he's trying to track the IP addresses of those voting and bust city workers voting on duty. In a side note, the makeup of almost the entire FF union board changed in the past two months. There is no plot by our union to skew the results.— August 15, 2008 9:55 a.m.
Co-Counsel in District Attorney's Pension Conflict of Interest Case Takes Job with Superior Court
Johnny, you may not have heard, but large portions of CA are/were on fire. Firefighters from SD have been working across the state for the past two months. So what was your question? Oh, and sorry, I haven't voted in the poll as I haven't read the statements yet. So are we doing justice by popular vote now? Will Aguirre drop his suit if "the people" want him to? It seems as though the case is slowly fading away. The feds are waiting until the state case is done. The state case is just waiting...— August 15, 2008 9:49 a.m.
San Diegans pay sunshine tax
So how does SD compensation compare to similarly nice places like Orange County?— August 14, 2008 9:57 p.m.
Co-Counsel in District Attorney's Pension Conflict of Interest Case Takes Job with Superior Court
Thanks for the tip, guess I'd better go vote. And since I didn't know about it until you posted, I guess the firefighters' union is not stacking anything. Obviously, I can't comment on the other unions.— August 14, 2008 9:51 p.m.
County Retail Sales Dropping Sharply; Tax Receipts Will Feel It
Sorry, it was early when I was typing this AM. The Corbett case essentially ratified MP1 when the settlement was reached in 2000. It increased benefits by creating the 3% at 50 that you so despise. MP1 increased benefits by a whole 10% or less as I mentioned earlier. Hardly enough to break the bank. Plus... it also created the 90% cap. Prior to that, employees were retiring as high as 120%.— July 19, 2008 9:42 p.m.