Comments on: McDonald would make cops and firefighters live in Fremont

By: bbox231

bbox231 — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:57:40 +0000

Irvington and #30 gets it right. . or, we can keep on doin’ what we been doin’ and hoping for a change in the weather.

By: Jen

Jen — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 20:07:03 +0000

The old saying goes, “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.” That’s the philosophy Fremont voters have lived by for the last 20 years. And where are we? No downtown, no ballpark, areas in need of major redevelopment and areas of parkland that need protecting. And what are we getting? More houses. Oh, and more houses. And maybe a new Nordstrom Rack all the way at the Milpitas border.

Like the ad currently on TV says “how much worse can it get??”

It can’t get any worse – might as well elect someone new to come in and have an opportunity to screw up. You know the incumbents are just going to lead Fremont further down the same path we’re on now.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 05:15:57 +0000

The requirement for police officers to live in the city where they are working can be dangerous for their families. My uncle was a police officer in Newark and they lived in Fremont. One night he was with his family at a grocery store and was approached for someone he had previously encountered while on duty, who then eyed the family and said “So this is your family, good. I’ll be looking for them” Shortly after my uncle moved them out to Tracy. Unfortunately it can be dangerous to live and have your family out and about in the same area where you are keeping the peace and possibliy making enemies in the process.
The idea is good, but may prove to impractical in many ways.

By: charlie C

charlie C — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 03:37:01 +0000

Vinnie proposed Lemon Orchards over Cisco field…defend that! Calguy you and all the rest of the nudniks can go ahead and vote for Vinnie & Kathy and suck a lemon while Fremont goes down the drain. Goes to show how intelligent you are?

By: californiaguy

californiaguy — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 02:11:28 +0000

Once again ramblings from the lemon orchard. Still waiting for you to make sense!

By: charlie C

charlie C — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 00:12:01 +0000

#7 if Calguy supports Vinnie & Kathy how intelligent can he be? The McDonald/Bacon plan for Fremonts future… Build more swimming pools and at taxpayer expense and put a giant mosaic portrait of Kathy McDonald (much like the really big one on her ego mobile) at the bottom of everyone of those pools. This should help satisfy KMacs off the charts ego. Put all those “live only in Fremont police officers” on alert to prepare for a riot if the bring professional baseball crowd ever dare to bring up the subject again. Not to forget FREE LEMONADE! Just a word of warning to all you voters, some egotistical politicians have become tyrannical dictators… just say “NO” to Kathy and Vinnie.

By: Irvington

Irvington — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 21:31:43 +0000

While I recognize the enforcement challenges of implementing a residency requirement, I can’t help but wonder why we should limit residency to public safety employees.

For way too long department heads in the City have made decisions that effect the quality of life here in Fremont when they have absolutely no skin in the game – they don’t really care if residents are adversely impacted by their policy and budgeting decisions; they live in Berkeley, Morgan Hill, etc. Let’s start requiring department heads to actually live here in town. After all, they can’t say that they can’t afford to live here.

Good deal, Kathy, for having the nerve to speak frankly on a “third rail” subject. It may not pan out, but bringing it up showed courage, a quality that our Council has been sadly lacking.

By: Marty

Marty — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 05:29:56 +0000

Since a firefighter works about 122 days a year…

Sounds like a deal Fremont’s getting for $135,000 plus 30% on top for the pension!

Here’s my deal again, Gus. 5 consecutive daily shifts. Increase staff by 40%, eliminate overtime by 90% and require all firefighting staff the live within 50 minutes from their station. No pension, 401K, retirement at 55, any chronic diseases will be assumed to be work related.

If they don’t like it, they’re free to seek employment with one of the many hiring agencies in the region (that was sarcastic, there are none).

By: Gus Morrison

Gus Morrison — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:10:35 +0000

My point was we cannot require employees to live in town, which is the topic of this thread. Fremont does have a “reasonable distance” requirement. I don’t know if it is defined by mileage or time, but it is enforced.

Marty, as for staffing, we need 3 people to keep a station open. If someone is not available and someone is kept overtime, it is not for a few hours, it is for 24 hours at time and a half. Since a firefighter works about 122 days a year (less vacation time), each day of overtime works out to be worth about 1.2% of their annual pay. Of course, the overtime pay is not burdened with the cost of benefits, which are all apportioned against the standard work hours.

So then, we get to the balance of full time employees with their salaries burdened with the benefit package against time and a half for overtime. Technically, it probably is cheaper to work them on overtime than to hire new, but that is a hall of a way to run an organization. That creates the juggling act the fire management has to perform.

Couple that with the way we hire. The civil service process is complicated and onerous. Once it is decided to hire, a batch of new people are hired to go through an extensive training program before they are assigned to a station. Usually that is 10 to 12 people. We need to be down that number when we begin the process and it takes some time to get people trained and on the job. Overtime fills the gap.

Of course, when you hire ten or twelve at a time, sometime in the future, they all reach retirement eligibility at the same time, starting the process all over again.

By: skumar

skumar — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:31:56 +0000

I don’t agree that cops and firefighters need to live and work in Fremont. Howerver, it is long overdue to cut police and firefighter’s fat retirement plans, and overall budget. One small group is sucking up a hugh percentage of Fremont’s limited resources. Harrison and Anu will not address this and thus are fully supported by Fremont police and fire.