Greg Kamin<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nJune 19, 2009<\/p>\n
Last Tuesday, I went down to City Hall because I wanted to give the Supervisors some perspective on the budget. I went there because it struck me as nonsensical that the mayor could slash public health services that people desperately need, while at the same time some somehow finding more money for generous increases to the special interests closest to his heart (and presumably campaign treasury), namely Police and Fire.<\/p>\n
Now I have nothing against police and firefighters. Their work is extremely valuable and they need to get a decent salary for that work. But just how much are we talking about? If the mayor says we need to increase police and firefighter salaries, I think we all need to know what we’re increasing those salaries from to evaluate whether or not it is fair, and whether very sick people should be left to die so they can get that increase.<\/p>\n
The mayor and the media always mention percentages when talking about salary increases, but you rarely see what the actual numbers are. It’s those numbers that I wanted to provide, because I think most people –and even some Supervisors –simply don’t know where San Francisco stands, and how we compare to the rest of the country. And they need to know, because the answers aren’t pretty.<\/p>\n
But before I get to that, let it be said that I went as a private citizen. While I work in the healthcare field, I don’t work for the city and I have no horse in this race. I just wanted to show support for the Supervisors trying to find an alternative to slashing our already strained public health budget. Needless to say I was a little taken aback to see the firefighters out in force, some in uniform, holding a rally across the street with mass-produced glossy signs and petitions to “save our neighborhood firehouses” –presumably all 42 that we have in this city of 46.4 square miles. I was a little surprised, though, when they didn’t line up for public comment with the hoi polloi (that would be folks like me), choosing instead to continue the media spectacle outside. Strange move, I thought, if the goal is to influence the Board.<\/p>\n
I need not have worried, because they had a plan. While the rest of us suckers waited for an hour for the chambers to open, the firefighters waved their glossies outside for the cameras and hurled abuse at the Supervisors, only to show up promptly at 2PM chanting “Let Us In! Let Us In!” To which the only natural and appropriate response was “Get In Line! Get In Line!” And since the folks on the other side were far more muscular and seemingly not at all inclined to follow such quaint rules as waiting in line, it took a human chain in addition to the usual sheriffs deputies to enforce standard operating procedure.<\/p>\n
Eventually I did get to speak… but the funny thing is that the numbers turn out to be so incredible that I’m not sure anyone believed me. In fact, the next day, a friend of mine who has a blog stopped me and told me, “Hey, I appreciated your testimony, but that salary figure you gave for the NYPD can’t be right.”<\/p>\n
That’s when I knew I had to write this, because the numbers I researched came from the San Francisco City government website, and each salary figure for comparison cities came directly from their own city websites, or the websites of their Police and Fire Departments. Keep in mind that the following figures are all starting salaries – this is so that I compare apples to apples.<\/p>\n
According to SFGOV, an entry-level SFPD officer receives a base salary of anywhere from $75,868 to $101,556, and an entry-level firefighter without paramedic training receives $70,486 -$98,670. I don’t know how they determine which entry-level candidates get the upper range of that, but keep in mind that no part of this range implies experience – this is the range for a rookie, and it only goes up from there! Furthermore, none of this includes benefits that most of us can only dream of, or overtime (which can add tens of thousands to that figure).<\/p>\n
But wait, some would say, our cost of living is so high! So I checked what the most expensive city in America pays their police and firefighters. According to the NYPD and FDNY websites, a starting salary for a New York cop is $43,062 and for a New York firefighter it’s $36,400.<\/p>\n
Now to be fair, I remember citing a figure of $35,000 in public comment. I guess they got a raise since the last time I saw the data, but still… San Francisco pays our entry-level police officers anywhere from 176% to 236% of what entry-level NYPD officers get! Kind of shatters the cost of living argument, huh?<\/p>\n
So what about other places? Well, take a look: below are the starting salaries for some major cities’ police and fire departments, respectively (some fire departments are missing because for some reason they’re harder to find):<\/p>\n
Houston $31,965, $35,429<\/p>\n
Philadelphia $42,813, $40,036<\/p>\n
Chicago $43,104, ?<\/p>\n
Phoenix $45,094, $44,038<\/p>\n
Washington DC $48,715, ?<\/p>\n
Las Vegas $51,168, $50,136<\/p>\n
San Diego $55,000, $39,096<\/p>\n
Los Angeles $56,522, $46,729 to $64,686 (range)<\/p>\n
Seattle $60,672, $59,196<\/p>\n
San Jose $70,307, ?<\/p>\n
Oakland $71,832 to $90,540 (range), ?<\/p>\n
What it comes down to, is that San Francisco pays its police and firefighters salaries that are completely out of line with those of any other major city in America… and Mayor Gavin Newsom wants even more. But public health? That’s expendable. Meanwhile, a mere $10,000 pay cut for each of the 3700 police and firefighters could add a whopping $37,000,000 to the public health budget, and still leave San Francisco with the #1 highest paid cops and firefighters in the nation! Something to consider…<\/p>\n
Now to be fair, there are some police and firefighters who understand this. At public comment, one honest firefighter, speaking only for himself, appealed for a compromise solution, saying, “I would rather take money out of my pocket than see a firehouse closed or a union brother lose his job.” That’s a fantastic idea! So where was his union? In a perfect world, they’d be the first in line to come forth with a compromise solution along those lines: we empathize with the weakest among us, so we’ll take a 10% pay cut. We’re willing to share the pain because none of our members are going to be in poverty, but the services that would otherwise be cut are going to lead to more sickness and death among our weakest citizens.<\/p>\n
Perhaps in a perfect world. But in the real world, the firefighters’ union was outside calling for the recall of John Avalos, and every Supervisor supporting a budget that shares the pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Greg Kamin June 19, 2009 Last Tuesday, I went down to City Hall because I wanted to give the Supervisors some perspective on the budget. I went there because it struck me as nonsensical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5879,"featured_media":1289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n