City of Vallejo files for bankruptcy

[michael]

I personally don’t see why police and fire people get paid what they do. Dangerous work? Sure. So is working at 7-11. The way I see it, everyone makes decisions. Cops and firemen make a decision to be public servants. If they wanted to make money, they could have chosen a different career. Lets admit it, they ain’t the sharpest tools in the shed (as a group).

A cop or fireman dies, big funeral, family taken care of to some extent by tax payers. Military service man or woman dies, not much attention, family left to themselves.

I have friends that are firemen and cops. Some even admit that they are overpaid. Perhaps the Vallejo example will help shed light on the “abuses” of unions and incompetent public officials.

[Borat]

They probably get paid well for working lots of overtime, I don’t think the base salaries are that high. But a lot of them do bring home a good amount of dough. It is probably hard to vote to cut pay for firefighters or cops if you are on the city council so that might be how they’ve gotten so well paid. And they have unions to help organize and petition for more benefits and pay so that helps them too. Of course it is always politically popular to give police and firefighters raises.

Do you want to know who really keeps you safe? It’s the people keeping your fresh water coming into your house and the waste water leaving it. Also the sanitation department for picking up the trash, and the truckers and grocery workers that make sure you have food to eat. Most of us would survive with no police or firefighters but without any of that other unglamorous stuff we’d all be dying of starvation or cholera.

[Borat]

They probably get paid well for working lots of overtime, I don’t think the base salaries are that high. But a lot of them do bring home a good amount of dough. It is probably hard to vote to cut pay for firefighters or cops if you are on the city council so that might be how they’ve gotten so well paid. And they have unions to help organize and petition for more benefits and pay so that helps them too. Of course it is always politically popular to give police and firefighters raises.

Do you want to know who really keeps you safe? It’s the people keeping your fresh water coming into your house and the waste water leaving it. Also the sanitation department for picking up the trash, and the truckers and grocery workers that make sure you have food to eat. Most of us would survive with no police or firefighters but without any of that other unglamorous stuff we’d all be dying of starvation or cholera.

[Borat]

They probably get paid well for working lots of overtime, I don’t think the base salaries are that high. But a lot of them do bring home a good amount of dough. It is probably hard to vote to cut pay for firefighters or cops if you are on the city council so that might be how they’ve gotten so well paid. And they have unions to help organize and petition for more benefits and pay so that helps them too. Of course it is always politically popular to give police and firefighters raises.

Do you want to know who really keeps you safe? It’s the people keeping your fresh water coming into your house and the waste water leaving it. Also the sanitation department for picking up the trash, and the truckers and grocery workers that make sure you have food to eat. Most of us would survive with no police or firefighters but without any of that other unglamorous stuff we’d all be dying of starvation or cholera.

[Borat]

They probably get paid well for working lots of overtime, I don’t think the base salaries are that high. But a lot of them do bring home a good amount of dough. It is probably hard to vote to cut pay for firefighters or cops if you are on the city council so that might be how they’ve gotten so well paid. And they have unions to help organize and petition for more benefits and pay so that helps them too. Of course it is always politically popular to give police and firefighters raises.

Do you want to know who really keeps you safe? It’s the people keeping your fresh water coming into your house and the waste water leaving it. Also the sanitation department for picking up the trash, and the truckers and grocery workers that make sure you have food to eat. Most of us would survive with no police or firefighters but without any of that other unglamorous stuff we’d all be dying of starvation or cholera.

[Borat]

They probably get paid well for working lots of overtime, I don’t think the base salaries are that high. But a lot of them do bring home a good amount of dough. It is probably hard to vote to cut pay for firefighters or cops if you are on the city council so that might be how they’ve gotten so well paid. And they have unions to help organize and petition for more benefits and pay so that helps them too. Of course it is always politically popular to give police and firefighters raises.

Do you want to know who really keeps you safe? It’s the people keeping your fresh water coming into your house and the waste water leaving it. Also the sanitation department for picking up the trash, and the truckers and grocery workers that make sure you have food to eat. Most of us would survive with no police or firefighters but without any of that other unglamorous stuff we’d all be dying of starvation or cholera.

[j]

San Diego has the same issue with its firefighters and police. They are by far the highest paid employees for the city of San Diego http://www.10newsblogs.com/pdf/earnings.pdf, and they are crying for raises every year with the politicians rarely saying no.

Sanders is willing to cut back on non public safety pensions and say no to non public safety raises. There must not be any money for a 4% raise for street workers, after the firefighters got 20% raises over a 4 year period. They got a 13% raise 3 ago and just got a 6% raise. Only the police have gotten a raise since the 13% raise, and the firefighters were all over the news saying they deserve a raise too.

I guess it is more important to have guys to clean fire trucks, than roads to drive them on, or working water lines to hook their hoses to.

This city has a crumbling infrastructure that needs to be addressed, but the police and fire unions take all the money first. All that money and they cannot fight wildfires, because their approach is all wrong. Firefighters will never be able to stop a wind driven wildfire. It is all about proper fire codes, and proper enforcement of fire codes.

[j]

San Diego has the same issue with its firefighters and police. They are by far the highest paid employees for the city of San Diego http://www.10newsblogs.com/pdf/earnings.pdf, and they are crying for raises every year with the politicians rarely saying no.

Sanders is willing to cut back on non public safety pensions and say no to non public safety raises. There must not be any money for a 4% raise for street workers, after the firefighters got 20% raises over a 4 year period. They got a 13% raise 3 ago and just got a 6% raise. Only the police have gotten a raise since the 13% raise, and the firefighters were all over the news saying they deserve a raise too.

I guess it is more important to have guys to clean fire trucks, than roads to drive them on, or working water lines to hook their hoses to.

This city has a crumbling infrastructure that needs to be addressed, but the police and fire unions take all the money first. All that money and they cannot fight wildfires, because their approach is all wrong. Firefighters will never be able to stop a wind driven wildfire. It is all about proper fire codes, and proper enforcement of fire codes.

[j]

San Diego has the same issue with its firefighters and police. They are by far the highest paid employees for the city of San Diego http://www.10newsblogs.com/pdf/earnings.pdf, and they are crying for raises every year with the politicians rarely saying no.

Sanders is willing to cut back on non public safety pensions and say no to non public safety raises. There must not be any money for a 4% raise for street workers, after the firefighters got 20% raises over a 4 year period. They got a 13% raise 3 ago and just got a 6% raise. Only the police have gotten a raise since the 13% raise, and the firefighters were all over the news saying they deserve a raise too.

I guess it is more important to have guys to clean fire trucks, than roads to drive them on, or working water lines to hook their hoses to.

This city has a crumbling infrastructure that needs to be addressed, but the police and fire unions take all the money first. All that money and they cannot fight wildfires, because their approach is all wrong. Firefighters will never be able to stop a wind driven wildfire. It is all about proper fire codes, and proper enforcement of fire codes.

[j]

San Diego has the same issue with its firefighters and police. They are by far the highest paid employees for the city of San Diego http://www.10newsblogs.com/pdf/earnings.pdf, and they are crying for raises every year with the politicians rarely saying no.

Sanders is willing to cut back on non public safety pensions and say no to non public safety raises. There must not be any money for a 4% raise for street workers, after the firefighters got 20% raises over a 4 year period. They got a 13% raise 3 ago and just got a 6% raise. Only the police have gotten a raise since the 13% raise, and the firefighters were all over the news saying they deserve a raise too.

I guess it is more important to have guys to clean fire trucks, than roads to drive them on, or working water lines to hook their hoses to.

This city has a crumbling infrastructure that needs to be addressed, but the police and fire unions take all the money first. All that money and they cannot fight wildfires, because their approach is all wrong. Firefighters will never be able to stop a wind driven wildfire. It is all about proper fire codes, and proper enforcement of fire codes.

[j]

San Diego has the same issue with its firefighters and police. They are by far the highest paid employees for the city of San Diego http://www.10newsblogs.com/pdf/earnings.pdf, and they are crying for raises every year with the politicians rarely saying no.

Sanders is willing to cut back on non public safety pensions and say no to non public safety raises. There must not be any money for a 4% raise for street workers, after the firefighters got 20% raises over a 4 year period. They got a 13% raise 3 ago and just got a 6% raise. Only the police have gotten a raise since the 13% raise, and the firefighters were all over the news saying they deserve a raise too.

I guess it is more important to have guys to clean fire trucks, than roads to drive them on, or working water lines to hook their hoses to.

This city has a crumbling infrastructure that needs to be addressed, but the police and fire unions take all the money first. All that money and they cannot fight wildfires, because their approach is all wrong. Firefighters will never be able to stop a wind driven wildfire. It is all about proper fire codes, and proper enforcement of fire codes.

[EconProf]

BobS
It is pretty widely agreed that government employees are better compensated than their private counterparts. Let’s remember that “compensation” includes not just pay, but fringe benefits, retirement benefits, job security & stability (sometimes including tenure), and even difficulty of the job itself.
One source of this imbalance is that private, profit-seeking companies engage in a natural and healthy competition with their unions, or individual hires, while the public employers (city councils, state legislatures, school boards, etc.) do not. The end result is that the public employee unions run roughshod over their counterparts. They are highly mobilized, vocal, and each employee has a lot at stake. The taxpayers each have very little at stake, are less organized, and are often duped by the media and the PR abilities of groups like the public safety unions.
Groups like the Taxpayers Association can try to speak up, but it is an uphill battle. So far they are losing.

[EconProf]

BobS
It is pretty widely agreed that government employees are better compensated than their private counterparts. Let’s remember that “compensation” includes not just pay, but fringe benefits, retirement benefits, job security & stability (sometimes including tenure), and even difficulty of the job itself.
One source of this imbalance is that private, profit-seeking companies engage in a natural and healthy competition with their unions, or individual hires, while the public employers (city councils, state legislatures, school boards, etc.) do not. The end result is that the public employee unions run roughshod over their counterparts. They are highly mobilized, vocal, and each employee has a lot at stake. The taxpayers each have very little at stake, are less organized, and are often duped by the media and the PR abilities of groups like the public safety unions.
Groups like the Taxpayers Association can try to speak up, but it is an uphill battle. So far they are losing.

[EconProf]

BobS
It is pretty widely agreed that government employees are better compensated than their private counterparts. Let’s remember that “compensation” includes not just pay, but fringe benefits, retirement benefits, job security & stability (sometimes including tenure), and even difficulty of the job itself.
One source of this imbalance is that private, profit-seeking companies engage in a natural and healthy competition with their unions, or individual hires, while the public employers (city councils, state legislatures, school boards, etc.) do not. The end result is that the public employee unions run roughshod over their counterparts. They are highly mobilized, vocal, and each employee has a lot at stake. The taxpayers each have very little at stake, are less organized, and are often duped by the media and the PR abilities of groups like the public safety unions.
Groups like the Taxpayers Association can try to speak up, but it is an uphill battle. So far they are losing.

[EconProf]

BobS
It is pretty widely agreed that government employees are better compensated than their private counterparts. Let’s remember that “compensation” includes not just pay, but fringe benefits, retirement benefits, job security & stability (sometimes including tenure), and even difficulty of the job itself.
One source of this imbalance is that private, profit-seeking companies engage in a natural and healthy competition with their unions, or individual hires, while the public employers (city councils, state legislatures, school boards, etc.) do not. The end result is that the public employee unions run roughshod over their counterparts. They are highly mobilized, vocal, and each employee has a lot at stake. The taxpayers each have very little at stake, are less organized, and are often duped by the media and the PR abilities of groups like the public safety unions.
Groups like the Taxpayers Association can try to speak up, but it is an uphill battle. So far they are losing.

[Author]

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