TKC QUESTION OF THE DAY: SHOULD KANSAS CITY TAXPAYERS GRANT KCFD PAY RAISES AMID ONGOING AUSTERITY AND HARSH CITY HALL BUDGET CUTBACKS?!?!?
Think of this as market research . . . I'm trying to be as objective as possible on this one (not really) because the question is too important to clown.
A Sunday Star editorial earned almost no play despite the fact that it notes a really important topic and highlights potential pay raises for the KCFD and other City Employees . . .Check it:
"The fire union, however, is pushing for good-sized pay increases, as spelled out in its May 2009 collective bargaining agreement. That pact was a sweet deal. It actually promised that Local 42 members would “be made whole” after a series of pay freezes were instituted during tough economic times at City Hall. The agreement also prevented the city from reducing the firefighting force during the economic downturn, even as hundreds of other workers were laid off."
Once again, in local elections Local 42 was a major force and nearly every politico at City Hall owes them something. That's just a fact of life.
Nevertheless . . . There's no money.
Kansas City is still on the line for FAILING P&L District and so many other pricey projects that have yet to pan out i.e. produce revenue.
This town is now in a PR Biz poaching war with Kansas that we couldn't possibly have the cash or support in Jeff City to win.
Think Globally: Greece is soon to default and send the European markets into free-fall . . . It's a round world after-all and still sinking housing prices point toward a not so tasty double-dip recession.
Nevertheless . . . Pay raises for the KCFD could start some rather pricey commitments from Kansas City. Sadly, money for City Hall employees and services that are so desperately lacking in KCMO are last on the list given that this is mostly about political paybacks.
To wit . . .
WHAT DO YOU D-BAGS THINK ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF KCFD PAY RAISES?!?!
It's something to consider despite the fact that financial questions at City Hall don't really draw a lot of interest . . . And it's probably a done deal given that the MAYOR PRO TEM Cindy Circo might as well show up in Firefighter gear.
DEVELOPING . . .
They'll get it.
ReplyDeleteHow about they don't get raises and I get 1% of my paycheck back?
ReplyDeleteMore productive Tony: An E-Tax refund sign up sheet.
ReplyDeleteHow about they get what they agreed to when they accepted their latest contract with the city (3 years of pay freezes). Now that bill is due. However the mast pensions causing the bill to be too high for the city to pay both, so guess who gets fu*ked? The firefighters.
ReplyDeleteThanks Louie, you screwed us agin!
Pay raises? KCFD gave up pay raises for three years in addition to other benefit reductions. KCFD did their part when the city needed help, why should they not be held accountable to what was agreed to? City has no money? Any one remember how much The Funk spent renovating his office?
ReplyDeleteALL public sector employees and retirees -- teachers, fire, police, city, county, state, federal etc. -- should get a pay raise every year equal to the annual COLA received by seniors on Social Security. That seems more than fair.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the Social Security COLA for the last two years was 0%.
A taxpayer
why "some" and not all city hall employees? "some" will get raises and others will get laid off. that seems fair.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the city should stop filling the pockets of developers who are building facilities that do nothing for the city. Maybe the city would have money to pay the middle income families it owes money and benefits to. Just a crazy thought. Why are we holding these people accountable for the city's problems? They didn't create them.
ReplyDeleteFirefighters don;t get paid enough.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am not a fireman - couldn't pay me enough to do that work.
no.
ReplyDeleteNO
ReplyDeleteLike who's getting raises in this economy?
ReplyDeleteNope.
ReplyDeleteKansas City firefighters are not overpaid like in other cities. But if we don't have money for more City employees than the firefighters shouldn't be first in line.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the folks of local 42 helped the city by not taking their contracted raises for three years. That's probably a pretty big chunk of change the city hasn't had to pay for three years. I say give them what they got coming. Its only fair
ReplyDeleteWho pays Tony's paycheck? How does he eat, pay bills, buy internet access, cell phone, clothes, health insurance, car insurance, what does he drive? Does he live off tax payers, he sure does a good job of being a low life. I don't know who is stupid us or him. leaning towards us for reading and commenting letting this fool control our lives and conversations in our daily lives.
ReplyDeleteif Tony really controls your lives you are a fucking idiot.
ReplyDeleteIt's a blog asshole.
Usually when someone uses language like that they are...
ReplyDeleteI got five bucks he comments back, now I control his life..
ReplyDeleteFirefighters are overhyped and overpaid for their education and skills. A bunch of ex-high school jocks that couldn't earn a college degree. When they are not pumping iron in the firehouse on the taxpayers dime they are undercutting deck and driveway contractors by taking advantage of taxpayer provided benefits. They act like they are victime because they didn't get pay raises for three years. Guess what? In the last three years, those who are lucky not to be laid off didn't get pay raises either. Public sector unions are ruining the U.S. and firefighters are the worst offenders.
ReplyDeleteLocal 42 wants a return on their investment. They elected sly and they renewed the e tax.
ReplyDeleteSly is in their pocket.
Not opposed to raises but those bastards need to realize that everyone is going through a tough time. This is not the time to demand a raise.
Is there any meaning to a blog? What purpose do they serve, are they for the geeks that went to college and don't pump iron?
ReplyDeleteYou got it and you wouldn't want to bang Tony's girl, because she is his hand.
ReplyDeleteBwahahahahaha!
So the firefighters agreed to a pay freeze with the stipulation that after three years they get all of their raises? Now the city is offering 4% as opposed to the 12% that they are owed? All of the articles indicate that there is a tentative agreement to accept the 4%?!?
ReplyDeleteFirefighters , you are getting tentatively screwed in your collectively bargained asses! Whoever accepted this offer on your behalf should be lynched!
WOW raise?
ReplyDeleteI work in the private sector and have not seen a raise in 7 years.
Now that is a dumbass while your private company is making hand over fist. Wake up america, you Walmart shopping fools.
ReplyDeleteHow many of you with your negative comments about Firefighters have the balls to climb on a ice covered roof of a burning 3 story house. When you do that then you can bitch. Its not like sitting @ a desk and posting comments on your computer when you are suppose to be working.
ReplyDeletequit whinning about your job, if you dont like it get out.
ReplyDeleteI gave up a pay raise for 3 years too only to learn that the union employees will get a 2% pay increase, but not me, I am exempt. Good thing i am actively job hunting- I am the only one in my area who performs the function that I do...sorry let one of the union people do it...
ReplyDeleteI thought most KC firefighters just break windows and stick a nozzle in there and ruin everything with streams of water....no risks for property. You guys don't really go in until the fire's burned out, do you?
ReplyDeleteUnlike big urban cities like NY and Chicago who have to be aggressive because they'd spread. I thought KCFD just isolate them and let em burn.
Course you'll never get a TV station to say that, but surrounding departments do!!
Hey proud could you do it if the Water dept. employees did not climb down 30ft to maintain the distribution pipes that transport the water?
ReplyDeleteFirefighters are often overpaid for the work they do. Check out Circo's husband, makes nearly 90 grand. Work two days a week and great a great salary and benefits. And calls for fire service are going down while we are building new stations! Local 42 has held up the city for years. When are Marcason and Co. going to say enough?
ReplyDeleteI don't get it. Two sides come to an agreement about how to deal with raises over three years and when the bill comes due, the city balks and everyone is mad at the union. Seems to me that the city got snookered at the table. I think they need to hire better negotiators and grow a spine. I don't understand being mad at the union. They are ony asking for what the city agreed to give them - three years ago.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that everyone forgets when they start saying that firefighters only work 2 days a week is that we work 50 hours a week and thanks to the current contract we don't receive overtime. I missed both of my son's first christmases and it never fails that I have to work on there birthdays. I can't coach there baseball teams because I will miss so many of there games and practices. We have no choice but to work on the days off from the firehouse just to make ends meet. Were not trying to undercut the deck guys or the painters but trying to feed our family.
ReplyDeleteOver the last 3 years not only have our wages froze but our overtime has been taken away, we have agreed to work more hours with no increase in pay (a pay decrease If you will), and the list goes on. We have not been complaining about these things we have just adjusted and now it is time for the city to follow through with what they agreed to do. The top paid people like (Circo's Husband) aren't going to be getting these massive raises like all of you think, the ones that are going to be getting the raises are the young guys who need them. 50% of the firefighters have less then 8 years on the job and are making less than $16.00/ hour. I think some of you need to put our lives in perspective when you start making your comments about us being overpaid and underworked.
First of all, I'm not a Firefighter. I never said anything negative about the Water Dept. I do work in a Emergency Room and have taken care of Firefighters who have been burned, or have fallen through a roof and broke their back and even been their when they died! Ask a Firefighters wife what it is like to have a Batallion Chief show up at her door to tell her that her husband has been seriously injured. All of you guy's bitching and saying they get paid too much would never risk your life to save a complete stranger. You are probably the over weight guy who can't do anything except sit at a computer and has to hire Firefighters to mow your lawn.. Hey at least it gives your wife a chance to look at a real man.
ReplyDeleteKC Radioman KCFD is known throughout the country as a aggressive interior fire department. Sorry, but you don't know what you are talking about.
ReplyDeleteLet's pretend that this is the real world: If you have a job, be damn grateful. If you have a good job, be humble. Nobody on this planet needs or deserves a raise. All jobs are hard, that's why its called 'work'. Everyone can be replaced by any of the hundred people who would like to have your job. There's no money. There won't be any money any time soon. Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets hit with a hammer by someone who has lost patience, like John Q. Public.
ReplyDeleteAggressive, meaning other FD's dont want to call them in for mutual aid, maybe, because they're not on scene to 'assist', rather to take over. But I didn't hear that 'interior' part. I heard the opposite. Maybe it's just anecdotal opinion, hard to say.
ReplyDeleteI don't notice firemen say much about other departments publicly other than generally support the service, whether they do a good job or not. It would be interesting to see what reps various departments have.
The only think I personally know is that I have yet to find a paramedic off of an ambulance that doesn't wish they still worked for MAST. And I always ask; they don't say it openly but they do admit those are their feelings.
Thanks for that legacy, Funk.
Its called surround and drown, if you can hold a garden hose then you too can do it.
ReplyDeleteTo the firefighter who works 50 hours a week. Don't you sleep half of those?
ReplyDeleteHow about those Hyvee hours do those count in you 50 hours?
ReplyDeleteThere is no set number of hours of sleep that we get some nights we go to bed at 10 and sleep all night long, other nights we get maybe a few hours of broken up sleep. That's the nature of our job. It still doesn't take away the fact that we are away from our families which was the point I was trying to make.
ReplyDeleteRadioman,
ReplyDeleteYou are wrong. I am a paramedic on the ambulance and i am thrilled I don't work for mast anymore. There are more medics and emts who would agree with me than Lesa Gonazles will admit to.
We are there for 24 hours, we have to eat. We take our own money, put it in a pool, and make lunch and dinner with it. Just about every major metro fire dept in the country does this. Yes we get time to go to bed in a 24 hour period, from what I am told, humans are supposed to sleep daily. Its depends on what station you work at. Some stations run calls all night long and get almost zero sleep, and some stations don't run as many calls and get more sleep. Whats up the all the hate? Did your wife leave you for a firefighter or something?
ReplyDeleteJust for the record, here's what people pay out of pocket for at the fire station. I know this because I have family that works for a fire department in the area.
ReplyDeleteCable TV - out of pocket.
Mattress - one from the city, the rest out of pocket when they need replacement.
Internet -- out of pocket.
Computer -- out of pocket.
Kitchen table -- first one free, rest paid for by the crew out of pocket.
Chairs -- a few provided, that are ho hum, the rest out of pocket.
Newspaper -- out of pocket.
Fridge -- one paid for, but there's three shifts so the rest paid for out of pocket.
Telephone -- one "business line" for official purposes only paid for by city. Other one out of pocket.
Microwave -- paid for out of pocket.
Pots and pans -- very basic ones paid for by city, the rest out of pocket.
All food, spices, condiments, etc -- paid for out of pocket.
Workout equipment -- a single treadmill provided by city. Weights, bench, anything else to actually do a real workout paid for out of pocket.
Nobody is whining about this. But there's a misconception that people walk into some fully furnished palace and have a concubine feed them tender cuts of sirloin all night long while massaging their feet.
I think depending on the station, the aforementioned expenses work out to about $30-$50 per person per month in addition to about $10 per person per shift for food.
A garden hose.. are you kidding me.. maybe thats all you could hold.. You are the type who would stand by and listen to the people scream BC they are trapped in the fire.. Try running in to the fire..
ReplyDeleteHow can city employees even bring up the subject of pay raises during the Obama depression?
ReplyDeleteThey're lucky to even have jobs.
I wish the firefighter apologists could list to themselves. Maybe they could serve a tour of duty or be a garbage man for a week so they could appreciate how good they have it. The joke is on us. You get to politic while the rest of us actually have to work to get paid. Maybe I'll ask my employer if I get paid to sleep next time I am on a business trip. Spoiled brats. One question, do all firefighters swap wives or just the ones in the northland?
ReplyDeleteWell hey, it's pay for performance and therefore they are owed it! The fire fighters and their families have sucked it up for the last few years and now it is time for them to get what they have earned!! This is not even to mention the fact that they need a little moral lift after they have had to deal with what was MAST paramedics being crammed into their fire stations with no transition training. I say THANK YOU Kansas City for showing how much you appreciate your fire fighters!
ReplyDelete