This comment was posted elsewhere on the blog. I think it deserves more attention:
After the pension workshop I had a few thoughts I felt compelled to write down… you; however, are not compelled to read this. Feel free to share this page of ranting… I type fast…
I appreciate the forum the City Council provided for the city employees to present their pension models and to rebut the criticisms of certain media outlets. I have great respect for all of the employees of the City – whether one works at the airport or for parks or sanitation… all are important positions which make a city a clean and civilized place to be proud of. Since I can’t intelligently defend their jobs or pensions I’ll simply leave it at that. In no way do I intend to take away from their hard work or from the economic predicament we all share.
September 13, 2001 I sat in a fire truck at 9th Avenue waiting at a red light. A man in the car in front of us got out of his car – turned to look at the fire truck – and with tears in his eyes, started clapping. Quickly, two other vehicles drivers exited their cars and did the same. Was this because 10 months prior the Pensacola Fire Department lost one of its bravest searching for lives in a fire?
No, but it was a surprising and moving show of respect from the city residents who perhaps realized something they once took for granted. My things have changed.
So Resident X decided public service was some form of lower employment. He chose to take a private sector position making a killer wage – watching his mutual funds boom, driving a loaded SUV, and living in a $400,000 home… rarely saving or considering that he may be living above his means. Then, the market takes a dive – his mutual funds are kaput – his firm is making cut backs. Private school for the kids is expensive – and so is their Mother’s Lexus. What will all of his friends in the subdivision think when they find out he just lost his job?
Now he picks up the PNJ and sees that some city police officers are getting over 100% of their salaries in retirement! Pensions! He’s mad – because he pays his taxes to live in the city. The city’s $14 million in the hole for pensions! What?!
Resident X doesn’t realize (exorbitant police pensions aside)… we chose to be firefighters. We chose a high hazard occupation. I wonder if 6 people have died at his firm since 1940 in the line of duty; six have died at The Pensacola Fire Department.
We chose to work for a city that did not pay the top firefighter wage – but had a decent benefits package. We chose a pension, and tuition reimbursement, and a modest starting salary – confident in the chance to someday break-even with other area fire departments because of our annual raise. We chose to continue to be highly trained, skilled firefighters and medical professionals. We chose to work 24 hours on and 48 hours off. That’s 1/3 of every month away from our families for 25-30 years! That’s 120 whole 24 hour shifts a year at the firehouse.
Are we skating by now with ‘fat’ pensions? No. The benefits to remain a city firefighter are almost gone… No raises. No tuition reimbursement. No chance for promotion because positions have been deleted – our minimum staffing reduced to save money. Our training budget reduced to bare bones.
The only benefits that remain are our pension and the opportunity to work with some of the most dedicated and kind firefighters in the world. Men and women who will happily help your grandmother up off the floor – and even put her groceries away.
And… of course, we will be there when you don’t know who else to call – when your kitchen is flooded, your smoke detector is chirping, or your child just wants to sit on a fire truck. All of this we do gladly because the city residents have entrusted their MOST valuable possessions to us – their lives.
We never wish for horrible events. When you are having the worst day of your life; we want to be there. We want to be the first at a fire – because we’re great at putting them out; we want to save lives and property.
We want to arrive quickly when you have stopped breathing so that we may do all that we are trained to do – and give you the best chance of survival. We want to be at work when you need to be cut from your car after a terrible wreck. And yes, we even want to be there to help you give birth – even though you never planned it that way.
We love our city – and its residents. We’ve memorized its streets and special buildings – we know its waterways and train tracks. We feel the squeeze of tightening our belts. We feel it as you do – at the grocery store and the gas pump and trying to pay for an education.
We are thankful to have jobs while so many search for them. And we are thankful to have jobs we love. We know times are tough – please don’t think your fire department hasn’t given anything up to help with the budget. We have given so much.
Brothers and Sisters – let’s stick together… please.
Ginny Cranor
‘When fire is cried and danger is neigh,
“God and the firemen†is the people’s cry;
But when ’tis out and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the firemen slighted.’
~Author unknown, from The Fireman’s Journal, 18 Oct 1879