Public employees like our police, firemen and many bureaucrats are overpaid and get unfairly generous benefits! I realize that police and fireman have dangerous jobs, but there is something about swearing to protect and serve that should include not bankrupting the community. Many of these folks make well over $100K per year. We live in an expensive region so a high salary is necessary, however when these folks retire they often make near the same amount of money for the rest of their lives plus get medical benefits. We simply cannot afford to be this generous.

In the old days when someone was given a relatively secure employment with generous retirement benefits, their salaries were lower then the private sector. Here, police and fireman are having it both ways, high salaries with extraordinarily generous retirement plans found nowhere else.

I know several firemen and the conversation that I often hear involves their plans to get that last minute promotion before retirement so they are able to draw a higher pension. Of course I wish every one of these guys a long and healthy life, but consider that many started their careers at 25, worked 30 years and retired at 55 with pensions that equate to having $3M in the bank. Most of us will still work another 10 years past that without any guarantees of a pension of any sort. If a policeman retires at 55 and lives another 20 years, he could easily draw $2-3M in retirement benefits.  

The bottom line is that the math does not work unless everyone of us is willing to pay huge taxes so public employees can enjoy their lives while the rest of slave away with uncertain futures and no safety net of our own.

Two weeks ago three Palo Alto sergeants ready to retire demanded their $10K raise so they could draw higher pensions. They made their demands despite a considerate agreement by their union to a salary freeze because they recognize the poor state of the economy. The average sergeant in Palo Alto makes $169K. Another example was last week in San Carlos when a police spokesman said that the city’s unwillingness to give them a 3.5% raise meant the city did not wish to play nicely. San Carlos police on average make $112K per year while the city is currently running a deficit.

This all reminds me of Vallejo a couple of years ago, as the city kept telling its fireman that it had no money, their union kept forcing the issue regardless. Soon thereafter, the city filed for bankruptcy and the union stated that it was all just a ploy by the city to not give them the raises they deserve.

How does all this happen? OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY IS HOW THIS HAPPENS! Our politicians do not want to be seen as easy on crime or lax on public safety. When these public safety employees threaten to strike, the politicians usually cave. The politicians are primarily concerned about public perception, not reality. From a politician’s perspective, by the time the books are balanced, they will likely be gone or at least it does not come out of their own pocket anyway.

Politicians need to be more responsible regarding the long-term impact that their decisions have on the finances of our communities. And public employees have to compromise – you can’t have it both ways! Choose a high salary and modest retirement benefits or vice versa. It may be unfair that those who came before you got both the salary and the benefits, but the choice is quickly becoming similar to Chrysler – either there’s compromises or we go bankrupt. Those of us who pay your salaries see our own income go up and down as the economy and our jobs change. Our retirements are at the mercy of the stock market, we have no guarantees in our own lives.

What do you think? Is it fair to ask policemen and firefighters to choose between either better retirement benefits or a high salary?