Jimbo, you — like too many firefighters — are a delusional paranoid. No one is talking about eliminating full time urban firefighters.

I’m talking about SUPPLEMENTING our full time firefighters with volunteer reserve firefighting forces — called up only in obvious emergencies — such as the two brush fires you cite.

We do this with reserve police officers and sheriffs — we can do the same with reserve ff’s. Indeed, many European cities have this arrangement.

Yet your unions adamantly oppose ANY solution that does not involve hiring more full time, labor union firefighters, and paying them even more than now.

The reserve ff force should not have the same degree of training as full-time ff’s — their mission is more limited. We can train prisoners to fight brush fires in two weeks — we can do the same with civilian volunteers.

But you oppose that. Truth is, you’d rather our homes burned down and we died rather than allow trained non-union volunteers to help quell the blazes and protect suburban homes. That may sound harsh, but it’s clearly the choice you and other union ff’s prefer. You make that crystal clear.

BTW, yes — Prop 172 was passed for firefighting primarily. The County Sups were wrong to steal the money for the cops and DA. I opposed that. BTW, that can be changed at any time by the Sups, but they won’t — because they get more money from the sheriffs and county DA’s than from ff’s — who usually work for cities rather than the county.

But that misallocation of Prop 172 funds does not mean we are under-taxed as you infer. We have PLENTY of money for firefighting — if we prioritize our spending — and get more bang for the buck by lowering our current excessive compensation for firefighters to better reflect the supply-demand situation for this highly sought after work.

Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me that Prop. 172 was going to pass without the Malibu fires? It was FAILING until the fires. Tell me that the Cops didn’t ride on the coattails of the firefighters! You know I’m right. THE COPS GOT ALL THE MONEY!!! Tell me that’s right. Fire Departments within this county are closing stations, laying off personnel and closing down engine companies. Who is at risk? That’s right pal. It’s you! When you call 911, you expect someone to get there in a timly manner. The more we cut, te more at risk you and your family are. I got an idea. Lets lay off all the “paid” firefighters in the county and make them all “volunteer”. Yeah, that’s a great idea. Save the taxpayers money. How long then do you think it will take a fire engine to get your house Richard when a family member stop breathing and needs Advanced Life Support, a defibrillator or Paramedic ? Only about 15 to 20 minutes. And that’s providing the “volunteer” happens to be in the area to respond. Maybe the Cedar, and Witch fires would have been smaller if only volunteers were responding. You are out of control. A Firefighters’job is to save lives Richard. Something that is done every minute of every day in this county. Something they need right now is support. Not slackers like you bringing them down. It’s too bad that you can’t step up and support your professional firefighters. By the way, I apologize for having that overpaid, overpensioned job. I guess working hard from the time I was 16 to try and be a firefighter was not a good career choice. Maybe I should have tried to be a liberal wanna be politician like you! Maybe I should be more generous and do what President Obama and his liberal cronies want, and give some of my dream to somone living in the street that has nothing. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas Richard. I’ll be working at the firehouse both days saving lives. I hope you enjoy your day off with the family.

http://www.flashreport.org/blog0a.php?postID=2009110215111321&authID=2005110112071864

http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/2161#comment-1328

I’m shocked, shocked, they did not acknowledge that
“SD Rostra” reported this story first. LOL.

http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/2161

dr gary

Mike

Read today’s U-T story about how so many people are looking to quit their present careers to be firefighters. CLEARLY we are grossly overpaying and over-pensioning our firefighters. THAT’s where the savings should come from to improve fire protection.

Don’t get me wrong — I LOVE my firefighters. But I can love them just as much for half the cost.

My REAL heroes are the volunteer firefighters of America. Over 72% of all firefighters are volunteers. Yet our labor union firefighters try to block any efforts to expand our safety with expanded volunteer firefighter availability for emergencies.

For that reason, I have little respect for the union firefighter claims of concern about our safety.

The average 30 year La Mesa non-safety worker can retire at 30 years with a total pension (including the city’s social security program) that usually exceeds 130% of their highest pay. And up until this year they didn’t pay a dime for their city pension.

Allan supported using well over $100,000 of La Mesa taxpayer money to pass the sales tax increase. This blatant misuse of public funds is a reprehensible act that SHOULD be illegal, but so far the courts let politicians get away with it.

I’m no Dianne Jacob fan, but this labor union hack is NOT the replacement needed in her seat.

This guy is a total zero as far as I’m concerned.