[quote=davelj]Why don’t we add a large volunteer component to San Diego’s fire department?
Plenty of large cities have both a full-time (career) component alongside an even larger volunteer component. 73% of all fire fighters in the U.S. are volunteers. There’s no evidence to suggest that the volunteers perform any worse than the full-timers. Why don’t we do that here? That would solve a lot of comp-related issues going forward.[/quote]
No one responded to this. As a taxpayer I’m wondering why we don’t harness the energies of all of those folks who want to be paramedics and fire fighters for free? They don’t want ANY compensation. I see no reason for San Diego’s fire department not to have a large volunteer component like a lot of other cities. Hell, Pasadena’s fire department is entirely voluntary.
