[quote=SDEngineer] the most appropriate comparison to the commander of the fire department would be a CEO of an equivalent sized company[/quote]

I don’t think this is a valid argument for two reasons

1) It implies that the CEO’s of private sector companies are fairly paid. (Highly dubious in my mind)

2) It implies that private sector and public sector are equal and comparable. (I wouldn’t call this highly dubious as I did reason one, but I think this assumption definitely needs to be questioned.)

It would seem to me that a more appropriate criteria would include questions like:

1) Does this person bring enough added value to the organization to justify their pay.

2) Can this job be filled by an equally capable person for less pay and retirement.

Question 2 would seem to me to be the kicker. While I don’t know the specifics, my bet is that there would be a number of good people in the firefighting organization that would be willing to take the job for a lesser salary and would be plenty competent to do the job.