Doesn’t strike me as too out of line for the job and responsibilities. Considering the most appropriate comparison to the commander of the fire department would be a CEO of an equivalent sized company, it appears to me that like many in public service (not all, particularly politicians for life) they are a bit underpaid in comparison to the private sector equivalent, but the defined pension benefit largely makes up for that. I imagine a CEO that made it up the ladder quickly enough and retired in his/her mid-50’s if they lived at a similar standard of living to the 165K/yr would probably have enough in retirement accounts to be able to count on a similar retirement income.
It really depends on whether you want your money front or back loaded – private sector tends to front load careers by paying higher salaries, but in turn requires that employee to largely fund and manage their own retirement.
