Here's my letter to the Editor of the El Dorado Hills Village Life Newspaper regarding the articles written about El Dorado Hills Firefighter Compensation dated September 29, 2010:
Wow, to be young again and exit college with my same 4 year business degree and land a job at the EDH fire department! At the risk of going out on a limb and speaking out against what many consider a sacred cow in the community, it’s time the absurd abuses of unionized and non-competitive self-governing practices be challenged at the most basic level and yes, against our beloved and adored fire department.
Based on the figures from the firefighter compensation article, a FIRST YEAR firefighter with an unrelated 4 year degree can earn annually over $100,000 including base salary, degree bonuses, education pay, paid unused sick time, retirement and medical/dental/vision benefits. This is not factoring in overtime pay. Engineers, Captains and others do even better. According to the article 83% of the 2010-11 budget ($13.5 million of $16.3 million) is firefighter related compensation.
This compensation payout is ludicrous given many factors including a good percentage of their time “at work” is sleeping, eating, socializing and the like. According to the article, they respond to an average 1.5 calls per 24 hour shift with what I would bet are calls predominately between 6am and 11pm. So stating they “work” 70% of the time on a 24 hour shift is generous when the reality is probably even less. Granted they are at the firehouse and not free to do other things elsewhere but does that justify an equivalent “working time” compensation level of greater than $142,000 per year! Surely they risk their lives but do their job hazards really compare to that of the American soldier earning far less?
Come on, firefighters have 4 free days/nights after every shift to earn even more money should they choose to do so if they’re not feeling they make enough. It’s quite conceivable for a young college degreed firefighter to make $150,000+ per year working some overtime and maybe another job. I would guarantee that there is a way to cut 50% of the funds going to compensation and not change the level of fire service one bit within this community. There’s too much collusion and self-interest here with excessive tax dollars being assessed against our real property that perpetuates uncontrolled compensation spending. After all, what governmental entity ever said their budget was just too much and it was time to refund taxpayers?!
The unions, the firefighters association, the fire board of directors and many others are in cahoots as to how to keep things looking that they are being fairly negotiated with the public’s best interest in mind. This is an absolute false pretense. The fox is watching the hen house here! There are no competitive forces in play or sufficient independence from other agencies to make this form of governing work. Their counter argument goes something like: You don’t understand, we need to stay competitive with the Folsom fire department and others locally to attract the very best fire talent to provide the level of fire service you’ve come to know and take for granted. What’s a life worth by the way? Don’t you just hate scare tactics like this!
A new American revolution needs to take place in every town, city and county in this country that focuses on the perpetual self-interest of all local governmental entities to throw out the status quo and bring balance and independence to their governing structure. In my own backyard, our fire district is the simplest level that I can have a say in what can be done to effect change in our society.
I challenge everyone to do the same in this community and let’s turn what is believed to be a great asset into an even better one by speaking out against how things are being done. Please don’t take this personal EDH firemen and women but I would bet my life that you’d each do the same work for far less compensation if you knew all other agencies were doing the same to cut compensation levels down to some form of reasonableness. AND, you’d still think you were well compensated compared to practically anything else you could’ve done with your life. Let’s get real here! Let’s speak up!
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