Comments on: Escambia Firefighter’s Union President Says Department Needs More Funding

By: John

John — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 03:40:06 +0000

Want a solution? City and County consolidation. It has worked in Louisville, KY and Indianapolis was a dying city until they consolidated and started booming economically again. I don’t get why so many people are against consolidation, but maybe they just cannot think for themselves.

By: Mark B

Mark B — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 18:33:09 +0000

Perhaps the FF union could tell us what exactly county fire needs more funds for, besides salaries and health care. I read the question about “what are we going to do about the financial problems of the FD.” Perhaps you could be more specific.

By: Mr. Metoo

Mr. Metoo — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 04:38:27 +0000

Phil..why should it be illegal? Public employees need a union because individual employees are not allowed to negotiate pay, benefits or employee protections. Any group of workers would be served well to have representation.

By: jp

jp — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 01:50:53 +0000

What Escambia County needs, like other well run counties in Florida is an impact fee on new construction.
This instead of exsisting property owners paying for the needed additional Fire and police protection along with
Additional infastructure.
Then perhaps the county could use existing funds more wisely.
Are busses all over for low ridership and even WI-FI nessarly? Just off of the top of the list?

I will bet there many more waste that can be cut.

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 13:29:58 +0000

How and why do we have a public county employees union? This should be illegal

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 04:49:02 +0000

Nick has hit the nail on the head. There’s a real issues in regard to how the fire department is funded in that it does not have a revenue source increasing over time. What this means is that it’s hard to accommodate any pay increase or increases in cost for health insurance or other operating costs unless additional households are built within the community the revenues are limited. Most communities are defined by how well they do three things: prevent crime; maintain infrastructure; and provide safe environment in the area of fire and EMS protection. It appears Escambia county is addressing part of the issue with the additional funds that have been allocated to the Sheriff’s Department to provide relief from pay compression. The fire department encounters the same pressures. They have limited rank promotion opportunities and very little incentive to expand their skills in various forms of fire Sciences. There’s a variety of things that could be done at the bargaining table but without funding it can’t be accomplished. It looks to me as though the commission is faced with protecting its citizens or trying to maintain a tax posture that has dire ramifications long-term for the county.

By: Mr. Metoo

Mr. Metoo — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 01:29:46 +0000

Anyone who complains about paying firefighters should be able to sign a do not respond list.

By: fishaeman

fishaeman — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 21:53:25 +0000

@ Jenn A
Maybe it’s time for your husband to look for higher paying job I’m sure he knew what the pay was when he applied for job. The deputies/firemen are all under paid and many others also. It would be nice if we all had jobs that paid us enough to live on but that’s life. The problem with working for city/county when your salary is paid by the taxes people have to pay.

By: LEO

LEO — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 21:35:47 +0000

As a Law Enforcement Officer in this county, I wish the Fire Fighters the best of luck getting anything from this county. You guys/gals deserve a pay raise because just like us, regardless of the time or location, someone dials 9-1-1 in need of your service and you’re there. I’ve worked many nights and value both our Fire Fighters, EMT’s and Paramedics and all first responders in this county are underappreciated. Our BOCC will never understand the value, it appears their priorities are usually backward. They will throw $20 million dollars into a traffic circle though.

By: please know & understand the facts

please know & understand the facts — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 16:50:47 +0000

Concerned: you have no idea how this works and until you do please refrain from making ignorant comments. union dues have nothing to do with what is going on. career FF’s came on board due to the inability of the volunteers to keep consistent numbers and respond in a timely fashion. Let’s say that career ff’s are thrown out and replaced, how long will it take for all the ff’s that now volunteer are up to par on the proper, yes proper, training to mitigate all the incidents that they will respond to? do you even know what type of calls the fd responds to? I await your response.

Straightshooter: Sheriff Morgan is an elected official. he can jump up and down and pitch a fit with little to no repercussions. if the fire chief does that they will ask for his resignation or fire him on the spot. you see, the fd is more essential than you may think. they respond to a diverse number of calls, over 16000 last year alone. they range from helping an elderly person off the floor in the wee hrs of the a.m., cardiac arrests, crashes, fires of course, an array of medical calls, hazmat calls, elevator entrapment calls and the list goes on. lastly, “don’t like the pay, don’t apply there” laughable point. some grow up wanting to be ff’s and applying at an fd is not like applying at a fast food joint or grocery store and they have aspirations of doing good their community and serving them in their time of need.

this is a response to bergosh on his plan to fix the budgeting for fire
- LOST already funds those items you speak of and has for several years prior to your election; you cannot use LOST for salaries
- EMS doesn’t collect tax revenue like ECFR other than LOST; they are funded thru a billing process
- MSTU has an ebb and flow depending on property values; MSBU is at least a steady income of revenue or shall I say more “predictable” flow
- Are you sure you want to explore career personnel in your district Mr. Bergosh? You have made some comments that could be taken as negative about career personnel.

This has been an ongoing problem for years. The BOCC gets a little heat and they bang the gavel and funding appears yet with no plan for the future. This cannot be handled on an “as needed basis”, it must be planned on for at least 5 years in the future. Navy Fed has multi-million dollar buildings in your district and you want to turn OLF 8 into a “small town”. You must consider the needs of the future not only for public safety but infrastructure as well but that’s another blog. Do you think these multi-million dollar companies are going to give Escambia Co. a second look if their insurance rates will be effected or their buildings are protected by a FD that is lacking?

Have you explained to property owner’s how a FD effects their insurance rates. Volunteer (actually “paid” w/ stipend) versus a career fully staffed around the clock fire station? Do they know the benefits of a hydrant near their property(ies)? Do they know the FD can provide ALS care (like an ambulance but unable to transport) Do they understand what that can do for their quality of life? Do they know the capabilities of the FD as far as special rescue, hazmat, water rescue, etc that their FD provides? Do they know their FD has been working to improve their ISO rating for the citizens?

Education is key. The property owners deserve to know. The citizens deserve to know. The FD can do a better job of “marketing” but they are busy training and saving lives and property. Speaking of lives, did you know that the FD pulled three Escambia citizens out of burning homes as recently as the last 6 mos. 2 survived and one succumbed to his injuries that were incurred prior to FD arrival.