I hope, at election time, Weir and Scrivner have the huevos to remind Bakersfield that - in the name of budgetary trivia - they left our cops and firemen hanging.

Do they seriously think this will gain them any political manna? Seems to me Bakersfield is pretty fond of their boys (and girls) in uniform!!

I guess workers have no place in the world today. What people like Alan Tandy, Ken Weir and Zack Scrivenor really want are no more unions, or really any professional association bargaining collectively on behalf of its organization. 

I say strike. Of course, I'm not sure why most of America is not on strike given the robbery of assets most citizens have suffered these past eight years of corporate mismanagement and malfeasance.

They may have a "no strike" clause in their contract, we in CSEA at B.C. had that clause so no matter how much we got scr***d we had to keep on keeping on. Of course the union went to bat for us but no matter what the settlement, the classified always got the short end of the stick.

Lois: "But going to a two-tiered system where new employees have a different deal doesn’t save us any money until people start retiring, potentially years out."

Actually, it does decrease costs, slightly. The City doesn't have to pay in as much to the retirement accounts, because they have an extra 5 years for compound interest to pay for the retirement (or have less to pay out at 50).

Where were you when the County instituted a three-tier system (one group paying nothing into retirement, a second group paying into a 3 @ 60 retirement until they retire, and a third group receiving 1.15% @ 58 plus a retirement account (picked by the employee) with the County matching anything up to 6% of the employee's pay (some of which have lost 2/3 of their value since it began) ) for regular employees? (Of course, County fire and peace officers also get 3 @ 50.)

I don't know, is this as unreasonable as County Supervisors refusing to close the Fellows' fire station, despite the fact that the Fire Chief admitted closing it would actually decrease response times? Or the County paying for 3 station's worth of overtime (meaning we're paying for nearly five stations worth of salaries, but getting three stations worth of coverage)?

Or why the County wanted to pay $140,000 to fix a walkway that supposedly received a "forever" fix seven years ago (at a cost of almost $80k)?

Dirtyshirt, fortunately we don't have to rely on Weir and Scrivner to remind people that they stuck it to our police and firemen.  :)

Lois,

Thank you for bringing this to the attention of the public. It’s disheartening that good faith bargaining has been reduced to a politically driven agenda. Obviously, the fire fighters have tried to accommodate the cities financial concerns by offering raises to offset costs, and in good faith have consistently met with the city negotiator for 16 months.

On behalf of the public safety employees, I just want to add a few things about the retirement formula: 3 @ 50 is all that is offered for a careers worth of service from the city for safety employees. The city does not pay social security at 7.85 FICA for its employees. The city does not have a 401k program that many large private companies offer their employees. The city does not give out end of the year bonus that many in the private sector receive. The city has not been prudent with the tax payer monies as is evident in the zero contributions made during the “good times”. Instead those funds have been spent on other endeavors. When the 3 @ 50 formula was adopted  the fire fighters “in good faith”, gave up substantial cost of living raises to off set the city’s liability concerns for future.

A little clarification is needed here for the retirement formula. When an employee reaches age 50 he is entitled to receive 3% of his base salary for every year worked. In other words if I get hired at age 25 I will receive 75% of my base salary when I reach the age of 50.  Public safety employees cannot exceed 90% of that base salary.

The 3 @ 50 formula is an industry standard. Creating multi tiered retirement formulas results in recruitment issues, divisions in memberships, and honestly looks like union busting tactics.

Your fire fighters are the lowest paid when compared to the city surveys used by the city to determine wages and benefits. To get to an average rate of pay would take an 18% bump. Other comparisons show that we have the worst benefit package and the lowest amount fire fighters per 1000 capita.  Again there are enormous disparities. Bakersfield City fire fighters are at a dismal .54 per thousand. That number is at the bottom of the pile. Actually every figure is at the bottom of the list.

Over the last 17 years the fire department has only increased fire protection by building one new station and taking over an exsisting county station. There has been grant money used to rebuild an exsisting station, and the city has replaced one other structure. 

To even discuss cutting staffing for this community is ludicrous, and the city needs to get its priorities straight. Bringing it to the table this late in the game is a violation of bargaining rules.

While the top of the food chain around here continues to receive pay increases the rest of your fire fighters have seen a 1% increase since the end of 2007. The current negotiations started when times were good and in good faith your fire fighters have tried to adjust to the down turn in the market. All they have seen in response to “good faith” offers have been threats of cutting staffing, threats of pay cuts, and low profile directives. The most recent topic of discussion was the reinstitution of a “man power pool”, another waste of tax payer money.

Finally, (your probably glad my diatribe is over), I find it odd that Mr. Tandy wouldn’t return your calls, and wanted this kept out of the media. It was reported to me that he was recently heard on 1410 radio talking about city issues. Also, I find it ironic that more cuts have been requested from the fire department on the heels of losing a wrongful termination suit from a former fire fighter….coincidence?  I know I digressed into some other areas….but I just wanted your readers to see that they are getting the biggest bang for their bucks, and the lack of attention towards public safety.

Isn't Mr. Tandy a public servant?  What is his retirement?  What type of raises has he gotten the last few years?  What does his benefits package include?  There's no way he's being a hypocrite is there?  Does this affect all police and fire from the Chiefs down?  Huh....some questions I think need answers!!!!

Mr. Tandy has a safety retirement, I don't know what the formula is, and makes 18,512.86/month......I wonder if he took the 3 year 12% increase?

Bakersfield firefighters are paid  more than  firefighters in Santa Barbara where the cost of living is 25% higher.  I would like to see the Californian start an investigation into why our firemen are so grossly overpaid in the first place.  It could very well be that a 25% cut in salary is far more appropriate than any raise.