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California Is in Such a Financial Quagmire That There Could Be Municipal Bankruptcies
My point is that you're comparing apples and oranges. Vallejo is 1/10th the size of SD, yet has dozens for public safety personnel making in excess of $200K. San Diego has one, at least in 2006. It's no wonder they're facing bankruptcy. Vallejo has lost it's primary (and only) industry. Read some of the comments from folks up there. None of the redevelopment that was supposed to happen has, so the tax base is low. San Diego hasn't diversified itself as it might have after GD pulled out, but we're still more stable than a one industry town. So you want supply and demand. OK, the city has extended the hiring deadline for applicants the past two years now because not enough folks applied. I don't have the numbers for this year, but I believe that last year 77 applied before the deadline. The mayor claimed that over 2000 applied after the media blitz. Well, yes, but most weren't qualified. City personnel didn't check qualifications when people applied, they just took the apps, gave the mayor the numbers and then disqualified them later. There was a 40% no show rate for those offered an interview. And long term employees are leaving, four in the past month. That's a new record high number. The city can barely get the folks to fill the academy. The city had to lower the pass rate for the written exam to get more candidates. The city had to lower the bar for the final academy exit exam because the failure rate was up. You can say I'm crying Chicken Little all you want. Perhaps you should ask the folks in Rancho Bernardo if any part of their sky has fallen recently. Fire protection in this city needs a lot of help.— April 7, 2008 8:35 a.m.
California Is in Such a Financial Quagmire That There Could Be Municipal Bankruptcies
Johnny, You might point out that your list is from the city of Vallejo, NOT the city of San Diego. You might also point out that only one SDFD employee made over $200K in 2006. As you well know, Vallejo is less than 1/10th the size of SD. The median income is also 25% higher there. ($56K/year vs $47K/year) And I'm sure you know that the sole reason those folks in the PD and FD made so much was that large numbers of employees left so those remaining worked OT to cover the city. You might also point out your fallacy when you state that employees are skilled only after the academy. (Which still blows holes in your "no pay raises for non-skilled job" since you just admitted that firefighting is a skilled job) All new firefighters must attend college and get a EMT license prior to hiring. Again, I don't mind if you don't like my job or pay scale, but at least tell the truth.— April 7, 2008 7:56 a.m.
California Is in Such a Financial Quagmire That There Could Be Municipal Bankruptcies
Response to Burwell: I'm not quite sure what you're talking about. I'm required to be on duty for 56 hours/week. That's 16 more (or 40%) than a PD officer who makes more money than I do. I'm sure at some point in here, Johnny will jump in and claim we shouldn't get paid because we're playing checkers or something like that. OK -- when you don't pay Marines unless they're actually pulling the trigger you can not pay me unless I'm on a call. Speaking of which, Burwell, I assume you're also in favor of cutting military retirements if retirees have another job? Or cutting military pay if active duty folks have another job? I don't know of any firefighters operating construction companies large enough to do business with Moores. Every last one of us who do have outside jobs are required to file paperwork giving the details of outside employment.— April 7, 2008 7:47 a.m.
California Is in Such a Financial Quagmire That There Could Be Municipal Bankruptcies
Don, To the best of my knowledge, no San Diego firefighters have even applied to Chula Vista, no less taken jobs there. You might be thinking of the PD. I don't know a lot about the county islands within the city. I do know that the Scripps family ranch is one of them, as is Greenwood Cemetery and perhaps a few others. Older firefighters have told me that back before automatic aid agreements, if the Scripps family called for help a county engine (when there was a county FD) would respond from the El Cajon area. Now city funded fire equipment rolls. When there was a double fatal fire in the ranch house in the mid-1990's, the Sheriff's arson squad responded rather than SDFD investigators because it's county responsibility. Meanwhile, the SDFD extinguished the fire and treated the victims using city tax dollars rather than county money.— April 7, 2008 7:31 a.m.
California Is in Such a Financial Quagmire That There Could Be Municipal Bankruptcies
Anon, it's not like this is anything new. Pick up your Thomas Brothers map and turn to page 1209 F6. See that big yellow area? That's the actual Scripps Ranch, owned by the Scripps family. Know why it's yellow? It's a county island -- none of the taxes for that land come back to the city. It's been a while since the city annexed everything around there. Look at your map, there are a few areas in the city like that.— April 5, 2008 6:15 a.m.
San Diego’s secret missile-testing sites
Moss, Just one little comment. I suppose you missed the fact that the actual Scripps Ranch site still exists. It can even been seen from the freeway just northeast of I-15 and Pomerado Road, up on the hill. There was a bad fire there in the mid 1990's that killed a couple of members of the Scripps family. http://www.scrippsranch.org/aboutscripps/history.…— April 4, 2008 10:02 p.m.
California Is in Such a Financial Quagmire That There Could Be Municipal Bankruptcies
Johnny Vegas as usual is being a little silly, but I'll take the bait. No city paid cell phone or car? OK, deal. No city firefighter returns to work during a major fire. That'll help keep OT down as well. Won't you be a hit with the citizens! Since all firefighter work is skilled and all ranks below Deputy Chief require a state medical license, I guess your bit about no salary increases is out. The current average retirement is about 65% right now anyway, albeit at an earlier age. The average hire age is 27, the average DROP age is 52, the average departure age is 57. Let's see, 25 years x 3% is 75%. Boy are you going to save a ton here. All of the employees who resigned last month had around 10 years service, though I believe one had only 4. Several had already been promoted above the rank of firefighter, yet are making more now as firefighter/paramedics elsewhere. I'll be glad to support a requirement to stay after the academy. Heck, I'll model it on the military. One year for each year in a military academy. So after a whole three months, employees can leave. Big deal. What are you willing to give up for that? If you want to run for city council, perhaps you should do your homework a little better. With all of your blathering you saved maybe a couple of mill a year. And you'll have a huge retention and hiring problem. You must be from the Carl DeMaio school of how to better protect the city.— April 4, 2008 9:55 p.m.
California Is in Such a Financial Quagmire That There Could Be Municipal Bankruptcies
In post #36 Don wrote, "Just because the City hires a law firm doesn't mean it backs out of the decision-making." I certainly never meant to imply that the city had no say. Rather just the opposite. The mayor know exactly what he has to offer and how far he's willing to go. So why the big bucks law firm to do his dirty work?— April 4, 2008 9:41 p.m.
California Is in Such a Financial Quagmire That There Could Be Municipal Bankruptcies
Justice, the city council is not the primary negotiator for union contracts. They simply approve or reject the contract put before them. In the past they have been able to make some changes, but I don't believe that's possible anymore. The city attorney has, what, 160 attorneys? And they can't handle a fairly simple contract? Take x salary and add x% to it? And I've mentioned numerous times that there is room for city employees to help more. But they're not likely to be amenable to that if ALL of the savings comes from them and not the other causes of financial hardships.— April 4, 2008 2:58 p.m.
California Is in Such a Financial Quagmire That There Could Be Municipal Bankruptcies
Justice, I am a member of the firefighter's union. Keep in mind that the city council does not negotiate with the unions. The mayor pays a LA law firm big bucks to say no instead. In fact, that might be a good story for Don -- how much does the city pay outside law firms to negotiate with employee? I was opposed to DeMaio long before George entered the race because of what I mentioned above. He claims to be the 'savior' for San Diego financially, yet he wishes to do all of that saving on the backs of city employees while simultaneously enriching his Republican corporate buddies with city contracts. Further, he claims to want to improve firefighting capability by reducing the number of firefighters on an apparatus. Does that make sense to you? One US city did the opposite went from 3 to 4 firefighters and found a 74% decrease in time lost to injuries. That's dangerous to firefighters and dangerous to you.— April 4, 2008 1:50 p.m.