Who all is paying for the Yes campaign? I have a banner ad on this page. There are yard signs and bandit signs around town. Is it just the firefighter's union, or are there other entities that want to see this happen?
It's in the article but I will quote it for you And according to HFD union facebook page off duty firefighters and voulnteers are block walking across the city handing out signs. It really appears that no one but other fire departments unions along with citizens have donated to Prob B while the mayor along with HPOU who does not want anything threatening their raises. The mayor has exploited their fear and it shows. Firefighter Prop B website with information about volunteering and donating http://www.supporthoustonfirefighters.com/
Thank you. I'm still vacillating on this question.l I want to vote against it because it'd be a poor governance to tie the city's hands this way. But I want to vote for because we'll never get fair pay for wage workers unless we take sacrificial steps to strengthen their bargaining position. I'm not concerned or sympathetic to the motivations of any party here. The firefighters want to maximize their earning power and they'll spend some money now to make more money later. Makes sense. The city is capped on what revenue they can raise so they're trying to minimize their expenses. And, the police officers don't want to be tied to a weaker swimmer for negotiations and let their own earning potential be diluted. No one is being noble or ignoble here. It'll cause budget problems to do it. But blowing a hole in a budget can be a catalyst to change dysfunctional situations. As a city, we want all these services but capped what we're willing to pay. If we add this third thing that we insist on equitable pay, then something's going to break. Either we get less service, we agree to pay more, or we surrender equity. We can't have all 3.
The thing that Turner is not saying is that firefighters have asked and tried to bargain with city. Even so at the last meeting where they told the city that they would stay as long as possible to work out a deal and someone from the city said Turn out the lights when your done and they left. So now you have a mayor that is lying to the public along with telling the city the raise will cripple the city when the PD raise that they deserve is the exact figure that they said would bankrupt the city. Going so low as paying 10000 dollars to this woman to go to town hall meetings to speak against it.
Come on, that's kind of funny. But seriously I'm not buying this bit of rhetoric at all. They are in negotiations. They haven't reached a compromise both parties can agree to. That's all. It's not the city's fault and it's not the firefighters' fault. If there was someone I was going to find fault for not bargaining in good faith, it's be the union who is trying to do an end-run around negotiations by trying to co-opt the voters. But, I'm not going to do that either. The city might not like it, but referendums are fair game too so long as you follow the process, which they seem to have done.
I was in an HFDP ambulance Monday morning. Sugar got too low passed out at train station in front of NRG. Im diabetic. Was cleaning after Texans game took insulin didn't eat enough. Glad they were there
https://www.bizjournals.com/houston...-X5GiVIh62cvLAoQr__s0wS2BxoblRP8afZ-roKanMmg0 A different one I think: I will paste it: Op-ed: Proposition B will devastate public safety in Houston Houston police support Houston firefighters getting a pay raise but a 29 percent pay raise the first year will cripple Houston’s public safety budgets and result in massive layoffs of young firefighters and police support personnel and cadets. Proposition B calls for firefighters to be paid the same as police. Houston police compare themselves to police officers in Austin, Fort Worth, Dallas, and San Antonio. The Houston firefighters union is wanting to compare themselves to police instead of firefighters in the comparable cities. Firefighters pay is currently 15 percent below other firefighters but Prob B will give them a 29 percent pay raise. Firefighters work nine days per month and work less hours than comparable fire departments. The fire union rejected a 4 percent pay raise in 2014 and recently walked away from another 9.5 percent pay raise. Had they taken those raises, they would be comparable to other firefighters. The 13.5 percent is obviously not acceptable to the fire union. We believe the market and negotiations should determine salaries. Salaries cannot and should not be determined at the ballot box. Police have given up benefits each year in order to achieve pay comparable to other police officers. The fire union wants you to give them the same raises, but make no concessions in benefits. Prop B gives fire an equipment allowance equal to that for police while firefighters are required to purchase no equipment. Police purchase their own duty weapons, ammo, off-duty weapon, long guns, handcuffs, flashlights, night stick, and more. Prop B gives fire education pay like police, but firefighters require no degrees for promotions. Police require an associate’s degree for lieutenants, a bachelor’s degree for captains, and a master’s degree for assistant chiefs. Prop B compares five fire positions, including a master mechanic, to that of a police captain. The Houston Fire Department has 126 employees in those ranks while Houston Police Department has only 44. Prop B compares engineer operators to senior police officers. One can become an engineer operator at three years, but it takes at least 12 years to become a senior police officer. While a lack of fairness in Prop B is obvious, what is dangerous is what this will do to public safety. Fire Chief Sam Pena estimates passage of Prop B will result in laying off 850 of the youngest Houston firefighters and demotions of veterans to backfill the lay offs. Police Chief Art Acevedo stated passage of Prop B will then spill over into civilian positions and cadets in the police department requiring officers to be taken off the streets to backfill the layoffs. This will devastate public safety and increase response time to emergencies. Prop B will cost the City of Houston between $85 million and $110 million each year and will provide no new fire trucks, ambulances or equipment. It will only be used to give the veteran firefighters a minimum of 29 percent pay raise the first year, while the young firefighters look for new jobs. For these reasons and many others, many in Houston’s business community opposes Prop B. It’s bad for Houston and will devastate public safety. Joseph Gamaldi is the president of the Houston Police Officers' Union. Interesting that this is from the President of the Police Officer's Union Just more information to process and help make an informed position Rocket River
Thanks. I hate all his arguments. Cripple public safety: don't try to scare me away from doing what's right. Comparing to police officers instead of firefighters in other cities: we don't win comparing wages with other cities either. Suburban towns pay significantly more. And many other municipalities also tie police and firefighter compensation together. Firefighters work 9 days per month: Aren't they paid hourly? Union had rejected concessions for pay raises while the police were willing to: Maybe the policemen's union should have been more like the firefighters? Equipment: I hadn't known police officers bought their own equipment. That's some bs, right up there with teachers buying school supplies for their kids. The employer should be selecting the equipment, negotiating as a bulk buyer, and paying for it. 126 fire captains vs 44 police captains -- but they work fewer hours, remember? But, I think I'm voting against Prop B for this one reason, that you can't help one brother up by pushing another brother down. By tying the bargaining power of firefighters to that of police, you're just averaging out bargaining strengths and not adding to their cumulative strength. I don't think I want to throw cops under the bus to help firefighters. They are both essential services, and I want fair pay for both, but this is not the way to do it.
Spoke briefly with a HFD employee last week on this. His understanding is the FD union and city have been attempting to negotiate pay raises for decades. But while the city offers 3% raises, they in turn want to cut firefighter benefits by 10-15%, which they would never agree to. This is in part why the disparity between police and fireman pay have grown so much. (*I don't know if HPD accepted benefit cuts in exchange for pay raises) He believes HPD is against it because if passed, their scheduled pay bump of 8% next year would be cut down to 1%. He believes the layoff claims are fake news, as nobody is going to fire police and firemen in an election year. Of course, that doesn't speak to the non-election years. Personally, I believe the average policeman should make a higher salary than the average fireman. However, it is absolutely pathetic to see Houston listed as one of the lowest wages in the state for its fire department. I don't see this passing simply because it only aims to benefit one small subsection of our city. This isn't money being used for the public improvement, but money used to increase paychecks. I'm not sure enough Houstonians will vote for something they don't receive a benefit from in some way. The opposition appears to be spending a lot of money fighting it as well, according to my TV ads.
Should HFD be paid more Yes Should they also pay into city taxes Yes most members of HFD and HPD personal don't live in the city limits.
Really, you think it is problematic if our firefighters and police officers don't actually live within city limit and pay city taxes? Why?
They should get paid by the hour based on the work they do. If they think they're being paid to little, go work elsewhere. These unions make it impossible to fire people and every other company has gotten out of that racket through bankruptcy. These lifetime pensions and benefits and healthcare has destroyed businesses and will destroy government as well. They're actuarial games will catch up when their funds can't cover these future costs. People in private industry are paid what they are paid and they must save from there and plan for retirement. These cities under the push of city employees and unions will make terrible deals as some mayor wants to get re-elected and then passes the buck to the next guy.
Yes I'm not the first to state this i have spoken with several officers and Fire fighters none of whom live in the city.
Because they aren't invested in the health of the city as a whole. I'm voting NO on prop B. Most of everyone I know under the age of 50 is as well. Firefighters are going to lose their jobs if this passes. I hope they realize that. They had a chance at taking a 9% raise over 3 years. They refused.
Yet with announcement of PD 7% raise that the city stated would cost the same amount where were the threats of layoffs? Where was the budget crisis? All smoke and mirrors. And the FD union stated that the 9 percent raise had cuts into their insurance premiums and benefits which would just be shifting money around without boostering actual pay for firefighters. Turner also stated that the offered raise would not be available after the election if it doesn't pass. He has lied over and over again to the citizens.
The FD has also suggested to have the money they generate go back into the department. They generate a little more than 100 million dollars that none of it goes back into the department, but the general fund.
That doesn't make much sense. If you pay $1k for your rent in a month and there's no crisis, it doesn't really mean I can come and say "hey buddy, gimme a thousand bucks. Whaddya mean you can't afford it? You paid your rent, didn't you?" If the PD gave all that money back, yeah we could afford the pay bump for the firefighters. But they aren't going to give it back, and you can't spend it twice. I like the idea of the department paying for itself with its own fees. Unfortunately, it looks like their annual budget is about $500 million, while their revenue is only $100 million. For this suggestion to make sense HFD would have to spend only 20% of what it spends right now. Which of course is a nonstarter.
Not at all. It's telling the city that the raise would cripple the city but giving a raise to PD which is deserved and saying nothing. It's all a lie. The city can spend 200 million on a bus lane on Post Oak but not for the safety and emergency response for the city. And the 100 million can cover the raise easy. Council members dont want that cause it will shorten their funds for their pet projects.
