Posted on 04/01/2012 1:52:32 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Robert Stout, the former finance director of Vallejo, Calif., was talking about the spiraling public safety costs that ultimately led his city to declare bankruptcy when he mentioned a fire that broke out two blocks from his home, not long after the city had closed some of its firehouses to save money.
“The first fire truck that went by was yellow,” Mr. Stout recalled. “Our fire trucks are red. So the first fire truck to respond was on mutual aid from a town 20 miles away. That gives you some sense of what you are facing when you get into these situations.”
“This is truly a new era for dealing with troubled municipalities,” said Michael Stanton, the publisher of The Bond Buyer, a public finance newspaper, which sponsored the packed two-day conference.
Attempts to plug budget holes with one-time transactions are giving way to other approaches. The conference discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the more powerful tools being used in many cities these days, including receiverships, emergency declarations and even bankruptcy.
New woes unfolded even as a capacity crowd of government officials, investors, lawyers and credit analysts were gathered to discuss the trend.
In Jefferson County, Ala. — which filed the biggest municipal bankruptcy in American history after its sewer-construction financing fell apart and a court threw out one of its taxes — county commissioners voted to default on a general obligation bond payment.
In Detroit, city and state officials sparred over the emergency aid the city might be able to get, and how much state oversight and control would accompany it.
Stockton, Calif., was in negotiations to avoid becoming the biggest American city yet to declare bankruptcy.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the state capital, recently announced that it would default on a payment coming due to general obligation bondholders.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The first question that comes to mind is, “How bad are you underwater on your public service pension funding?” Second, “How much do you pay your Mayor, city manager, finance direct, and police chief”?
I doubt after answering these and a few other questions anyone here at FR will do much crying for them.
Hoo-rah for hard times!
So... where is their money going??
Gay bathhouses or libraries?
ethnic community centers?
bureaucrats? paper pushers?
millions of dollars to fund “studies” and stuff?
Now THAT is innovative thinking!
ie how much of you tax revenue is used for current pension expenses?
Have they considered Limited Government?
careful what you wish for.
Who’s wishing? Tough times are here!
Third question is “what are you doing about the obligations to current employees?”
“How much do you pay your Mayor, city manager, finance direct, and police chief”?
In 2009 Vallejo paid its city manager $390,000 to resign. The city manager’s salary was $341,000 per year for a city with a population of $117,000. This salary was the fourth highest in the state. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/20/BAIE17NDV1.DTL
Interesting the town spent 74% of its budget on public safety salaries prior to bankruptcy. Firefighters make over $200K per year with overtime. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/09/MNFKVEV4L.DTL
If you visit the city’s website you will see its mission, proudly communicated, “The City of Vallejo celebrates its cultural and ethnic diversity, preserves its history and maritime heritage, cares for its children and their future, and provides cost effective quality services second to none.”
It appears the people of the city are experiencing the consequences of the progressive policies of the politicians they elected for decades.
Here in NJ the firetrucks from the neighboring town are 20 blocks away instead of 20 miles, and towns insist on paying firemen very well to sleep all day in the firehouses (we don’t have many fires, and the towns are on top of each other). Many of our paid departments were set up when large companies had factories that required the departments; those companies paid a large part of the bill for the firemen.
Forty years later the factories are closed down Superfund sites, and the firemen insist they are still necessary in the same numbers. Firemen I know tell me how important a paid department is, while they live in towns that have volunteer departments; apparently my children need paid firemen to sleep safely while their children don’t. I never supported “residency laws” until this nonsense came up.
Probably set by one of the laid-off public servant "heroes".
I'm not in favor of any publicly-funded firefighters. There should only be volunteer forces or publicly-contracted fire service subject to a competitive-bidding process.
you might enjoy “The Trouble With Prosperity” by James Grant.
The farthest our department usually goes on mutual aid calls is 10 miles, average is 5 to 6. Driving rigs through traffic is a pain.
When I’ve talked to paid firefighters, you can see from their evasive responses that they know they’re not all that they’re cracking themselves up to be WRT “Why not have volunteer departments?”
Where I have lived for the last 10+ years in two locations, the departments are volunteer, and they do quite well for what they have and the amount of ground they have to cover.
It’s high time that communities start going back to volunteer fire and law enforcement groups, and if they can’t do that, then they need to crack down on unionized workforces negotiating pensions that are simply unsupportable in the long run.
Another thing that has to happen is that people need to quit buying the BS that these “public safety” types keep peddling - that they’re working oh so very hard at such a great risk to their lives and safety.
How many firefighters die on the job per year? Between 70 and a bit over 100 per year, over the last 10 years.
Now, how many farmers and ranchers are killed on the job per year?
More than 500. About 100 farm/ranch kids are killed on the farm or ranch per year.
You don’t hear of farmers or ranchers getting fat-assed pension plans, do you? Nor unionizing to demand higher food prices.
Firefighters should man up and STFU. They’re not so terribly special. Cops die in slightly higher numbers on the job per year.
Neither comes close to the rate at which loggers, fishermen, etc die per year. We don’t see loggers getting huge pension plans, either.
At some point, someone has to just lay out the facts and tell the truth. The truth is, cops and firemen aren’t all that special. Their jobs aren’t the most hazardous, they’re not all that physically demanding by comparison to logging, fishing, ranching and farming, and they can be performed by volunteers.
The USSR tried “volunteer farming” on their collectives. Didn’t work out so well.
Thx! I’ll check it out!
I agree. I am a retired public safety person. I was also a Director of Public Safety and had 25 volunteer/part paid fire fighters.
I would put my guys up against any full time guys I know. My town of 40,000 where I live could easily go to a volunteer department and not suffer. They artificially inflate response numbers by rolling on medical calls.
We need to look at things differently because we are out of money and out of options.
I agree. I am a retired public safety person. I was also a Director of Public Safety and had 25 volunteer/part paid fire fighters.
I would put my guys up against any full time guys I know. My town of 40,000 where I live could easily go to a volunteer department and not suffer. They artificially inflate response numbers by rolling on medical calls.
We need to look at things differently because we are out of money and out of options.
That said, when disaster DOES strike, you couldn't pay me enough to do their job. Witness the Trade Center on 9/11. Is it worth it? Hard to say. But I think it bears a close, close re-examination. WITHOUT the unions butting in.
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