Boy did we miss that L.A. gravy train

My dear, sweet, utterly realistic mom wasn't completely in favor of me taking up newspaper work.

[LAFD waste]

In addition to the six figure salaries "earned" by incompetent managers (the Fire Chief makes close to $300,000 a year!) the Los Angeles Fire Departmenet is costing the taxpayers multi million of dollars more in jury awards and settlements because of the iworkplace lawsuits filed by firefighters. http://www.firecareers.com/viewmessages.cfm...

[TomFromPV]

What John describes is the "utopia" we're moving to with socialized medicine, union control, and government-run everything.

Rather than criticize, John should take note of what happens when govt and unions collude.

[Steve Katz]

Did you ever notice that, when Mayor V. makes a speech, that there are a couple dozen "horse holders" arrayed behind him. Assuming they arrive early & stay until V. leaves, they are essentially drawing city salaries (possibly including overtime & travel expenses) for just standing around & looking supportive. Couldn't the city save money by keeping these folks working at their desks? Does the mayor lack so much confidence in what he says that he needs this much backup? Regards,

[LA City Employee]

John, if you think Los Angeles City employees make a lot, spend some of your research time to look at Torrance and Santa Monica salaries. They make Los Angeles employees look underpaid.... including the benefits package.

[ADBB]

Salaries for CURRENT government employees can be defended to some extent. Look at thr retirement benefits. Not only are they high, but the method of calculation allows unused sick and vacation to be used to "bump up" the final year on which retirement income is based.The system has a low age for retiring so really good employees leave government at a relatively young age and go to work as "consultants" for other governments or the private sector. We are losing our best teachers, police officers, and administrators when they reach their peak in expertise and experience by the structure of the system.

[Worrywart]

TomFromPV wrote:

What John describes is the "utopia" we're moving to with socialized medicine, union control, and government-run everything.
Rather than criticize, John should take note of what happens when govt and unions collude.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure." Alexander Tyler (AKA Tytler)

[Maury Wills Jr]

Simple, they are overpaid & mis-managed. Example, traffic/street lighting Dept. replacing a burnt out signal light- and there was another one burned out, I told them, they saw it & said you need to report it, we have the part but cant do it, requires an apporved work order, etc....oh brother & why are the street lights on ventura Blvd., from Hayvenhurst west to about Lindley ON in the daytime? Huh? And how about the millions spent on synchronizing signal lights, cant go over 2 blocks on Ventura without a red light, even @ 35 or 20mph, you need to go 50 to hit 3 greens in row, try it!! wheeeeeeeeeeee

[one little guy]

What is the Life of a Fire Fighter or a Police man/woman worth. What is YOUR life worth or what is the life of you LOVED ones or friend worth? What is your way/ our way of life worth? What would you pay if the person/s you care about needed immediate help/treatment? What can you or anyone pay that would stop someone from being maimed or killed. What can anyone pay for bringing our friends/loved ones from the dead? Nothing, absoutly nothing. It appears to me that you are knocking the ability of good, honest hard working people's ability to earn a good, if not great income. What does the pay compisate for fighters or police men and police women? The posibility of loss of limb or life in an instant. Not knowing if your mother, father, brother or sister will return whole at the end of a work day or if they will return home at all. The loss of holidays or weekends with family an friends, when did fires and crimes stops for holidays? When was the last time you wore a target on your back because of the uniform you wear? When was the last time you were ready to be maimed for life or lose you life for strangers in an instant? When was the last time you proctected someones way of life by doing your job, a job that you chose to do.
Is the job that you are doing helping anyones life or liberty? Or did you chose a job that gets to sit back and do Monday morning quarterbacking. What is you risk, a broke finger nail or a missed deadline. What is the risk to a firefighter or a police man/woman? Now what do you think that they should be compisated. How much can they earn for risking their life and limb? Your are the smart one? How much is a life worth? How much is the protection for your way of life worth?
How much is a FIREMAN'S or a POLICEMAN'S LIFE worth?

[Herman Bladel]

Love the article, Mayor Villar is so anti business because he can't run a business. He has sided with Unions so much now he can't do the right thing because he owes them. Wait until next year when he has to deal with lowered income due to the recession that we are in right now. I now understand why the Hotels on Century Blvd are fighting the union, they don't want to go bankrupt like the city.

[DabaDoo]

And those same City employees are paid less than what the very same job classification makes at DWP - as much as 30% more!

[LA City Employee]

ADBB wrote:

Salaries for CURRENT government employees can be defended to some extent. Look at thr retirement benefits. Not only are they high, but the method of calculation allows unused sick and vacation to be used to "bump up" the final year on which retirement income is based.The system has a low age for retiring so really good employees leave government at a relatively young age and go to work as "consultants" for other governments or the private sector. We are losing our best teachers, police officers, and administrators when they reach their peak in expertise and experience by the structure of the system.

LA Police and Fire cannot increase their pensions based on overtime or sick pay. Their unused sick time (50%) and compensation time (limited)is banked and paid out upon retirement. Most Cal-PERS employers allow a retiree's final year to be the pension base and is inflated by overtime.

[YDLAFAMS]

WOW...I think that I may have to renege on this NYPD and call my boy who works in LAPD and sign up!!!

[Clear Thinker]

Check out those job descriptions. I wonder how much danger the "Telescope Demonstrator" faces each day? What about the "ship carpenter"?

And I'd be terrified to be a Senior Programmer Analyst -- that $116,000 plus benefits wouldn't start to cover the risk and mayhem inherent in that job.

Its much safer to run a 7-11 at minimum wage. Or deliver the Breeze. Nothing ever happens to those folks. Thank God for those brave LA City Employees -- we should pay them even more.

BTW - give me a break. Those salaries are proof that the unions need to be busted.

[Bureaucratic Nightmare]

"By the way, the average city salary is $68,850 for civilians and $93,800 for sworn police officers."

It came as a shock to many. But to many of us who have neighbors in LA government and who have watched this closely for years, the Daily News report came with a sigh of satisfaction. Many of us have been horrified by this abuse of public tax dollars while the public employee unions literally fool and con voters into approving more taxes and new taxes to fund this disgusting wasted. How do they fool these voters? Every election they put up firemen, teachers, cops, and nurses -- jobs the public tend to respect -- and nurture the notion that these people are overworked and underpaid ... and scare them into believing they may all quit without another tax increase and pay raise. In doing so, they suppress that fact that most city workers are not of the noble and dangerous type -- most are clerks, mechanics, security guards, managers, supervisors, engineers, electricitians, and other regular jobs. They also foster the belief the city government employees are doing their jobs out of a noble notion of service to the public because they're supposedly underpaid and overworked. Of course, now the public has proof that nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, many of these city employees are actually wealthy compared to most private employees and most have figured out ways to milk the system beyond the revelation of lucrative salaries.

By the way, as you look in disgust at the fact that a government auto body repair supervisor earns a base salary of $80,000 of your hard earned tax money, don't forget to tack on another 7% because that public employee is exempt from paying Social Security taxes because your taxes also fund most of his more desirable public employee retirement plan.