Posted on 12/28/2010 3:28:47 PM PST by artichokegrower
Hes the fire chief.
lol....
So your OK with a fire chief from a smallish sized town making these kinds of dollars?
“Thats not how your retirement is figured. You cant cash out anything until you are retired. It does go on your income tax though but not on your retirement plan.
Of course in the private sector you dont run into burning buildings often either. “
From the State of California Department of Personnel Policy website
When you retire, unused sick leave is converted to retirement service credit. At the current formula, 2,000 hours of sick leave equals one year of CalPERS service credit.
We residents of California are living in a burning building
I'm tired of people complaining about CEO packages. CEO's (usually) actually produce something of value. Or they're out the door. And, yes, if the CEO ran his company into the ground but still collected literally millions of dollars in a pension, he'd be considered a crook. And the goverment would go after him and "claw back" his $. Who ever heard of an employee getting 90% of their final salary for life in the private sector, or their spouses, until THEY die?
If they don't like the work, they are free to work in the private sector...Maybe a cab driver...
Did ya know in many regions of this country, being a cab driver is considerably more dangers then being a fire department employee?
The city makes bad investments or the stock market tanks and the fund loses money. All of a sudden people like you start screaming rip off. Not so much when the fund makes money for the city and roads are built or libraries are opened.
Same with any large company and its stock holders.
BTW its not mandatory that an employee contribute to his or her retirement. Your city offers this and if you choose to contribute you are told what you will receive should you last till retirement age which is based on time on the job and age.
How is that a bunch of firemen sticking it to taxpayers? Too bad if you didnt start a retirement fund where you work, though most people dont stay at one job long enough to retire there.
Try using a private fire department that pays ten dollars an hour and see what service you get. A load and go ambulance and firemen who will squirt water through the window as the house burns down around you and little johnny.
This fire chief and every county official who have had anything to do with this abomination need to go straight to jail.
I’ve seen many of these kind of things lately and I think I know what is going on. Those who are in their 50’s and qualify for pensions are taking retirement now, plus consultation jobs if they can get them, because they feel they will be grandfathered in if future changes cause reductions in these criminal pension plans.
NO, no, no, no, no...lol....
Ya see this goes far beyond this one guy.
Ya see, there are tens of thousands of rank and file government employees on the fire department and cop departments who are retiring at 50 years old, and getting $60,000 to $250,000+ every year in government retirement pensions.
Once again, are all these cities, fire department employees and cop department employees investing in drug cartels?
Where is the money coming from???
What do you think a bomb tech ought to get paid? What about the hazmat tech who cleans up after a major incident involving toxic shit you might dive through? Do you seriously want JoeBob off the street to give you cpr, or intibate your wife, or hope he will crawl through a burning house to find you.....when he only makes 10 bucks an hour any f'ing way?
I agree...But there are some biggov supporters right here on this thread, that think it's perfectly OK for a fire department chief of a small town, to rack in *hundreds* of thousands per year in bloated, tax paid retirements...
Better check your facts. Santa Clara has outsourced its pension programs to CalPERS which does not see the public as part of their constituency. CalPERS sees itself only responsible to its enrolled members—meaning the government sector.
You'll get no argument from me about the level of the salary. It does seem excessive (it certainly is, by Canadian standards). Even if the county could afford these salaries (which, apparently, it can't); they need to be reviewed.
My point concerned the issue of “double dipping”. If (and there's nothing in the article to state otherwise), the Chief is entitled to the pension; and if he was hired to do a job, that needed doing (again, nothing says otherwise) — then there's no “double dipping”. He's getting paid his pension. He's getting paid for a job.
No one would be complaining if the Chief were working somewhere else, and collecting his pension. No one would be complaining if the Chief collected his pension, and retired to some tropical isle — while someone else was hired to do the job.
Public employees are required to contribute to a government pension plan. If the Chief had had a private retirement account, instead of the government pension; no one would be able to say he was “double dipping”. He could collect a pension, or he could just let his account accrue interest, while he worked at whatever job he could get. The same goes for anyone in the private sector, with a private retirement fund — or with any sort of savings account, or other nest egg.
noinfringers2 raises another point — and a good one. Everything I said above rests on the job being a necessary one, and the retired Chief being the best one to fill it. If this was just a case of cronyism, then that's clearly wrong. It's wrong, because it's cronyism — not because it's “double dipping”.
What do you think a bomb tech ought to get paid?
Please, stop with that bull shit...This county loses 150 cab drivers to brutal murders, to every one bomb guy...If that...lol
You're on the government payroll in one form or another right?
On one hand you are for small government regulations and let the market have its say then want to regulate what people get paid.
/chuckle
I agree...But there are some biggov supporters right here on this thread, that think it’s perfectly OK for a fire department chief of a small town, to rack in *hundreds* of thousands per year in bloated, tax paid retirements...
I’ve noticed the biggov supporters here and I think they are totally wrong. As Ronald Reagan said “They are part of the problem.” We should pay no attention to this kind of spin and get right to work fixing the problem. Fixing the pension problem, to me, means radically cutting existing payouts to supportable levels even if it means that jerks like this fire chief have to get by on less than $200,000.
Stop with the "smear the cops and fire employees" bullshit....You have no idea what my background is slick...
My position is government employees at ALL levels are financially gang raping the private sector tax payers...
You deny this?
“On one hand you are for small government regulations and let the market have its say then want to regulate what people get paid. “
If you are for free markets like you claim why are you complaining about the customer complaining about the wage paid. You don’t sound like you are a free market man.
Yes, I want to regulate what government employees make...You're damn right I do.
I want smaller, less costly government...We can't afford them no more...What don't you get about that?
I want government employees, cops, congressmen, fire department employees, city pound employees, city council members and the rest on the government payroll parade to earn substantially less.
I want to *eliminate* government unions and their bloated tax paid lottery style retirement pensions.
Ya got a problem with this?
To be sure, this place has it's share of big-gov hacks, and those on the bloated government payroll, masquerading as small government conservatives.
“No one would be complaining if the Chief were working somewhere else, and collecting his pension. No one would be complaining if the Chief collected his pension, and retired to some tropical isle — while someone else was hired to do the job.”
Well actually we are complaining about this. The police chief of the City of Santa Cruz, CA retired with a $225,000 per year pension and the became the police chief for the City of East Palo Alto making $200,000 plus. If the Santa Clara fire chief just retired to a tropical island and spent 30 years in retirement the taxpayers would payout $7 million to have him sit on the sand.
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