Why The Dispatch has a vendetta against the Gilroy Fire
Department, I cannot imagine.
The information you report repeatedly is biased and designed to
make the public resent our public servant.
Why The Dispatch has a vendetta against the Gilroy Fire Department, I cannot imagine.
The information you report repeatedly is biased and designed to make the public resent our public servant. Yes, the fire department is relatively well paid and has good benefits. That is what attracts high-caliber individuals to serve our community. It does take a special person to put their life on the line daily, serving as any firefighter does anywhere. But there are few that choose this profession only for altruistic reasons.
The reality of having a steady job and decent retirement is something that has always lured people from the private sector to government-related work.
I am glad that we offer competitive salaries to the fire fighters. It is right that they earn close to what other departments in the south Bay Area earn. I want to know that when I have an emergency that I can trust my life in the hands of well-trained, intelligent public servants.
I do not limit my support to the fire department, but to all our public safety providers. They all offer us a level of peace of mind and security that is all to often taken for granted. As I stated to begin with, it is because this newspaper displays such ire for our firefighters and does not attack the police department that I have been prompted to respond.
At the current time, the firefighters are negotiating a new contract. Is it wrong that they are asking for what has already been given to the police, and to stay close in benefits to other fire departments? I don’t think so.
Yes, we need to be fiscally responsible and make sure our city remains in the black; but it is a given that there are certain requirements that a well-designed fire department needs to stay viable. I think the newspaper is doing us all a disservice by reporting things like the overtime paid to the fire department, when the primary reason it occurs is due to staffing issues.
This was barely touched on when presenting in Saturday’s article. Also, the online compensation survey is horribly leading in the way it asked questions. I find it hard to believe that responsible people allow such bias to be presented in our local paper. It seemed designed only to make the community resent our firefighters just because they might have a higher paying job. (We will not revisit the risk involved that most other people never face.) That sounds like unbridled jealousy to me!
Even in a small town like Gilroy, the community deserves to have a little bit of journalistic integrity form our local newspaper. Please stick to presenting the facts without trying to further your personal agenda.
C. Robbins, Gilroy
