Here is the entire press release with salaries:
The Mayor is kind to the fire guys...not so much Derm staff.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Commissioner Xavier Suarez Uncovers Too Many Chiefs Making Big Bucks. By Geniusofdespair
Earlier this week I complained about the tax hike proposed by Mayor Gimenez. Maybe it is time to take a good look at county finances. Here is What County Commissioner Xavier Suarez uncovered: At the Fire Distrct 600 are making over $118,000 (salaries a little too hefty don't you think?). And why do we need 75 Fire Chiefs, 279 Fire Captains and 425 Fire Lieutenants? Remember fancy titles bring higher pay. There is a staff of 1,200 regular workers to 800 supervisors. Maybe we have to comb through the budget.
Here is the entire press release with salaries:
The Mayor is kind to the fire guys...not so much Derm staff.
Here is the entire press release with salaries:
The Mayor is kind to the fire guys...not so much Derm staff.
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22 comments:
Thanks Xavier. Now look at the rest of the budget.
Kudos Xavier!!
I wonder why Suarez, or anybody else for that matter, would think that $118,000 is "a little hefty?" Plenty of people earn WAY above that with less responsibility. GoD, you are just baiting here. Suarez is trolling here and you ate the bait. No doubt there is waste and inefficiency in every County department. But bowing to simplified generalities without being specific is just stirring shit.
This appears that there are too many supervisors. This computes to about one supervisor for 1 1/2 workers. I would like to see the justification for this.
I said it was hefty not Suarez. When you are asking for a tax increase you had better have your ducks in order. This is far too many supervisory personnel. What is the average wage in Miami, about $38,000 WITHOUT pensions and perks. $118,000 with perks is just too much money for taxpayers to shoulder then they aren't even making $40,000.
Sorry but X is way off base on this.
Fire Service span of control cannot and should not be as high as "private industry".
And he fails to mention that there are 3 24 hours shifts , so those apparent high numbers do not represent a daily on duty total.
800 supervising 1,200, talk about micro-managing.
Cut the nonsense, this is an outrageous expenditure.
One chief everyone else is captain, captains are lieutenants. The trickle down theory in motion. Let them keep what they make now no raises for five years unless promoted. Where are they going to go? Oh wait a minute, they could go to the library.lol
Average pay in Miami-Dade County is $38,000 per year. Most residents have No health insurance and No pension. Most people would consider the fire union members way overpaid. But then add 50% to the pay to get a fuller picture of their total compensation cost to the taxpayers. As Xavier states, an incredible number of fire employees have pay and benefit packages that exceed $200,000 per year.
Carlos Gimenez is a fireman. He is always trying to give more money to his fellow fire employees.
Check out how many Directors, Assistant Directors,
Assistants to the Director and Chiefs there are at WASD. The Fire Dept. pales in comparison!
Look at the salaries in the county departments. I have no problem paying our police and firefighters good pay. They deserve it. I sure wont want to stop a criminal and get killed or go into a fire.
How do you justify paying pencil pushers six figures?
I don't understand your average wage argument GoD. Are you saying that firefighters and cops and water and sewer workers and trash workers are all just average? You think the Granite Mountain Hotshots were just average folks? How about Amanda Haworth and Roger Castillo? Just average folks right? What about the electrician who crawls down in a hole full of shit to fix the sewer pump on a weekend night so you don't wake up with shit on your bathroom floor? Ever been to the trash plant in Doral? Not a nice place to be but every day folks go to work there. Just average folks, nothing special about them.
Don't be the crab in the pot that pulls the other one down. Be the crab in the pot that is able to get out.
If you want everybody to be average, don't complain when services from the County, or municipalities, suck.
It's amazing how these guys risk their lives every single day while commisioners who don't have a clue continuously attack them. It's not just "firefighting". These people are also PARAMEDICS essentially handling two jobs averaging 15 calls per 24 hour shift. They handle everything from house fires, car fires, high rise fires, warehouse fires to heart attacks, diabetic emergencies, difficulty breathings, shootings, stabbings, car accidents etc....The list goes on and on and there is no end in sight to the increasing call volume. Get over yourself X and get a clue!
"$118,000 with perks is just too much money for taxpayers to shoulder then they aren't even making $40,000"
So your premise is that nobody should earn higher than the average, regardless of knowledge, skills, abilities, risk, experience, responsibilities?
The argument should not be "these folks earn too much." The argument should be "why don't others earn more or receive benefits?"
Keep dinging away at labor unions. Soon none will exist and we will all be living on subsistence wages except for a few at the top.
Why's the rich man busy dancing
While the poor man pays the band?
Read a little something about the National Incident Management System, span of control, division of labor, etc. Then get back with us.
What is not being stated is that in Miami-Dade County there are almost no fires. Firemen do not fight fires, at least very often. Only 10% to 15% of 911 calls are fires. The rest are skateboard accidents and toaster fires and cleaning up after car accidents. So firemen are really mostly EMT's and nurses. Many nurses have Emergency Room training and many nurse work for $40,000 to $60,000 peer year and low benefits.
City of Miami firemen are retiring at ages 45 to 55 with pension packages worth $2 Mil to $ 4+ Mil. Cashed in "sick day" and "unused vacation time cashed in at their highest pay rate" and state pension checks plus massive monthly checks from the Miami Pension Trust make these firemen lottery winners without buying the lottery ticket.
Commissioner Suarez is on the right track. He should also look into capital costs for all fire, rescue, support vehicles, and light vehicles and their assignment.
800/2,000, retiring at 45-55 with large pensions, six figure incomes for pencil pushers, sick/vaca day treatment ... too, too much. Sorry guys. Love ya, but you know you have way too good a deal here. Get real. My job as a tax payer is not to overpay you, but rather to pay you a reasonable sum of money for the job/risk you take.
Until recently the City of Miami had over 30 fire department employees who had pay and benefit packages that exceeded $300,000+ per year. All had desk jobs. All were looking forward to pensions that would pay them $125,000 to $200,000 per year. In retirement.
Let's not confuse City with County. Two entirely different entities. Let's instead focus on facts. You can cherry pick individuals who retire early but the statistics are as follows: average age of retirement for a MDFR firefighter at all ranks is 55; average age of death, 62. FFs live for seven years after retirement after 25 years of service risking their lives. Cancers of all types are much more prevalent (statistically significant) among all FFs. MDFR is in the higher range of death due to cancer.
Certainly many FFs retire while cashing out their unused leave. Why not? They show up to work, do the job, and don't incur additional costs to the County (taxpayers) in overtime because they show up. Use the carrot or the stick but I have always been one to prefer the carrot.
The flavor of the day is to attack public employees. The real money savers are in the details. Take a look a County procurement. The rabbit hole has a lot more branches so is tougher to follow than employee compensation. But a real investigative reporter would get down to the nitty gritty instead of taking the easy route.
When a County agency has a need for a product, they go through procurement. I believe it is part of GSA. Let's say a WASA mechanic needs a hammer. They could go to Home Depot and buy a hammer for $20. But because of convoluted procurement rules, the mechanic must go through GSA to get the hammer. In the end, the County may pay only $20 for the hammer but WASA is charged $50. It is money laundering people.
This sort of shifty shit goes on every day at the One Eleven.
X Suarez recently issued forth a memo to the Mayor about the millage increases. He says that retirement costs are going up for the County. That is a flat out LIE. The County contribution to required FRS contributions has decreased in recent years because employees are now contributing to their retirement.
Suarez continues in saying that the County needs to "invest" more. Why not invest in the people that provide the services? Is he suggesting we should invest more in CRAs or private enterprise? If you think County employees have it good, take a look at those that benefit from county "investments."
Everyone should also look closely at the background of the source
SUAREZ, XAVIER whom made news in The New York Times for Frauds and Swindling
Enjoy
5,000 Absentee Ballots Are Seized in Miami Fraud Inquiry
National News Briefs; 2 Arrested in Inquiry Into Miami Election
MIAMI, Jan. 7— Escalating his war of words with The Miami Herald, Mayor Xavier Suarez has threatened to pull the city's legal advertising from the newspaper unless it becomes ''a lot nicer to me, my people, my citizens and my city.''
Xavier L. Suarez's overwhelming advantage among absentee ballots forced a runoff
18 Are Arrested in 1997 Miami Ballot Fraud
FRAUDS AND SWINDLING
http://www.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/frauds_and_swindling/index.html?s=oldest&field=per&match=exact&query=SUAREZ,%20XAVIER
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