Bruce Philpott‘s Response to 04-06-08 Anonymous Letter

Chief Howard is correct. Fire management has lobbied for their own legislation that allows them to receive compensation at 1.5 their normal hourly rate for position coverage overtime when they pull a 24 hour shift. They can take vacation time or accrued management time off to work the extra shifts. All of the additional benefits and bonus pay they receive for all sorts of things are spelled out in the MOUs which are ultimately approved and supported by the city council who has the ultimate responsibility of the city's purse strings. The small portion of the public that learns about this government sponsored largesse expresses shock and disgust for a moment and then they get on with their lives. That's what the union strategists know and understand. Nothing changes.

The writer is perplexed by the difference between the private sector levels of pay and benefits and those of the fire department (you can also include the police to a great degree, although the police are active and productive during most of their work hours, while the fire guys sleep and leisure for two-thirds of their shifts. Regarding her comment about what are the comparisons of other cities in terms of firefighters pay and benefit packages. Herein lays the successful formula for the firefighters union -- and the police union as well. The surprising thing is that no one has caught onto this little strategy that contains a formula that everyone seems to buy into. The primary strategy for the fire union is to convince the city council-- as they have done -- that since our city (use city generically here because every city council believes that they have the finest fire department) the city should compensate their brave and heroic firefighters at the 75th percentile of the list of cities they use for salary and benefit comparisons. The city of Glendale uses about 8 other cities for comparisons; they include all of the top payers: Torrance, Culver City, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, LA City, LA County, Pasadena, and Burbank. So, if you know anything about mathematics, when each of these cities, in private negotiations for a new MOU states that their fire department will remain at or above the 75th percentile because they have the best fire department around, the annual bumps begin to leap frog in amounts that are disproportionate and way more than the factoring in of just the cost of living. This is the primary reason why these pay and benefit packages have gotten way out of proportion and reason. In some cases like Vallejo, it has gotten beyond the ability of the city to continue paying at these exorbitant levels.

She also made comment about her brother, who is an LA City fireman, saying that Glendale's perks and salaries blow him away. LA does not have any more calls or activities that are more pressing or different in any significant way from what the firefighters in Glendale experience daily. We are talking about neighborhood fire stations and they serve relatively similar population sizes. If you want to draw comparisons between the two cities' police departments, you can make a much better case. Crime patterns in the two cities are very different. But fire calls -- which are mostly medical back up calls -- are relatively similar in types and volume. Last year, more than one LA Firefighter received over $300,000 in compensation and they were not high level management positions. To receive an extra $30,000 in overtime a year, a Glendale or LA firefighter only has to work two additional shifts per month. I think everyone would be shocked to see the list of LA City firefighters who received more than $100,000 per year, including how many and how much over the $100,000 level.

The MOU negotiation strategies of maintaining compensation at the 75th percentile level has been used successfully by both police and fire unions for years. That is why both have such impressive levels of compensation and benefits and why they have stretched beyond the annual compensation levels of other city government unions. Just look at the charts that show annual percentage of compensation gains made by each union group.