My name is Nick McAuley and I grew up in Gilroy and have since
moved away, but I still follow what’s going on in my hometown
through your website.
Dear Editor,
My name is Nick McAuley and I grew up in Gilroy and have since moved away, but I still follow what’s going on in my hometown through your website. The more I read about the public employee unions in Gilroy, the more confused I get. In Sara Suddes’ recent article about taking the $2.3 million for hiring more firefighters, it mentions that six firefighters were laid off last year secondary to budget constraints, but in the same article, it states that nearly $1 million dollars was paid last year in overtime costs.
My initial reaction is, why were the firefighters laid off if more money would be spent covering for them in overtime costs? But, given what I know about the union contracts in my hometown, is it possible that almost $1 million dollars ISN’T enough to hire six firefighters? When put that way, it just seems ridiculous.
I’m very much in favor of having strong, competent fire and police in my hometown, but it just doesn’t seem possible to be able to justify the finances. Just a couple of years ago, through the largesse of the now-departed City Administrator, Jay Baksa, we had a chief of police making more money than the officer that holds the same position in Los Angeles, a city nearly 60 times the size of Gilroy.
Now, we have the suggestion that almost a million dollars isn’t enough to hire six firefighters for a city that has very few actual fires to fight (most of the calls are medical). No one suggests that the EMTs that respond to those calls as well make a similar amount of money, so why should the firefighters?
People in Gilroy, California and the rest of the country need to wake up to the financial reality that this isn’t sustainable. We constantly hear about the union “concessions” that are being made – but these are minimal and only affect things in the distant future. I understand that people that have been promised pensions and high salaries are loath to give them up, but if the system goes bust, they make NOTHING.
Why doesn’t anyone else seem to get this?
Nick McAuley, Former Gilroyan, Bedford, MA
Enlightening the readers regarding overtime pay for Gilroy firefighters
Dear Editor,
Editor Mark Derry’s recent column continues to use the Gilroy Fire Department and the firefighters as a hot topic for the upcoming election. He criticizes the earnings of individuals without investigating as to how it was earned and complains that the city budget is being spent on firefighter overtime, when realistically if the money that is reimbursed from the state for providing fire protection to other communities is subtracted out, not as much from the city coffers is being spent as is represented to the public.
He failed to ask detailed questions on why these individuals were required to work the enormous amounts of extra hours to earn the overtime. If due diligence were performed with some investigative reporting, he would find that during the period in question the department was under-staffed due to employees on industrial leave for injuries sustained in the performance of their duties and also short personnel due to vacancies in the overall department staffing.
Undoubtedly, the editor will be posing this question to the City Council candidates over the next month. He will try to get them to commit to some uninformed decision or action to curb the overtime costs in the fire department. But before making these individuals stick their necks out there and make uniformed, unfactual comments let us enlighten your readers as to the current overtime situation in the fire department.
For 2010, there has been a drastic reduction in overtime in the department. While there were still vacancies in the overall staffing and a reduction of personnel on industrial leave due to work related injuries, the closure of the Sunrise Fire Station and lack of major fires in the state of California have reduced overtime expenditures. If you were to compare this fiscal year to date and the same period during 2009, you would find an approximate $80,000 reduction in overtime expenditures. This reduction is due to the firefighters agreement on a decreased staffing level on the fire apparatus. The contract re-opened the Sunrise Fire Station and reduced the overtime expenditures to date.
Our state and federal governments require that employers pay employees for work above the normally scheduled day or work week. The city is obligated to pay its employees for work above what they are normally scheduled to perform. In regards to the employee who earned an additional $30,000 dollars in overtime pay, let’s remember that the employee worked approximately an additional 600 hours during the calendar year. To put this into perspective, 40-hour work week employees work 173 hours a month or 2,080 hours per year. For the employee who worked the additional 600 hours in 2009 that equates to more than three months of work for an individual on a 40 -our work week. When the department begins the year short personnel and other personnel are injured on the job, employees are required to fill in for those vacancies otherwise the department would not be able to meet its minimal staffing requirements to serve the needs of the community and provide the quality of service that they expect and pay for.
On another note, you should be happy to hear that the SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant the Fire Department was just awarded will allow the hiring of additional firefighters. Those additional firefighters will augment the daily staffing. The additional personnel and the concessions by the Gilroy firefighters on minimum staffing levels for apparatus should nearly eliminate the overtime budget for the fire department but also provide a SAFER working condition for the firefighters as well as increase the level of service provided to the community.
We would hope that you would not spin the recent contractual agreements and changes in the fire department as negatives for the city and its residents. The fire department regressed and service levels were reduced due to the economics of the Great Recession. We are now making strides to rebuild the department and once again move forward. Negative spins on issues without fully investigating the reason as to why or how events transpire will only cause controversy and stall out positive progression in a post-recession era.
Joshua Valverde, Mark Ordaz, Jim Buessing, Mike Botill, Scott Mac Donald, Cliff Colyer and Kevin Bebee,
The Gilroy Fire Fighters Association Executive Board
Who created it all? Even a child can understand intelligent design
Dear Editor,
According to Marc Perkels Sept. 7th letter, “Many people in the religious world are upset that Professor Stephen Hawking, in his book ‘The Grand Design’, dismisses the idea that God created the universe, saying, “Some in the religious world have said that he’s going to Hell for choosing not to believe in God.”
Perkel claims that if Hawking had found evidence that the world was created by God, then that is what he would have concluded, claiming that “the evidence for God’s existence is just not there.” He further proclaims that “if God exists and interacts with the real world then the evidence would be everywhere.
Is Mr. Perkel unaware that the late Dr. Henry Morris, founder of Creation Institute, debating with many college heads of physical science and evolutionists across the globe, stated that in his countless debates he has never lost a debate?
The top and most respected evolution advocates have conceded three pillars of their belief: sediments, mutations and chance/random selection have not been their best arguments against creation. They have lost the debate, but remarkably, continue to present their argument anyway.
A top evolutionist made this astounding proclamation without any evidence, after conceding that the three pillars evolutionists used to defend their Big Bang position fail, was that “However the universe was made, it wasn’t God”! Mr. Perkel thinks it is the Christians or God believers who simply believe in things without having a reason, but it is the evolutionists who practice their science this way.
Both the atheist and evolutionist fail to believe the overwhelming evidence that God exists. The closest the “honest” evolutionists dare to embrace is that there is an “Intelligent Design”, without admitting Who this intelligent designer is – and some are postulating that it is a force, not a Who – “it’s not God”.
What is the evidence of creation? Nature and conscience. What fool does not look at the millions of light years between the stars in the heavens; the earth; the plants, animals and human beings and even the simple cell without seeing the hand of God. Intricate and complex order lies everywhere before our eyes. Who can fathom the miracle of the human brain which embodies calculations, physical functions, conscience, emotions and memory. Even a child realizes Who created it all.
Dr. Morris of the Creation Institute, has provided more evidence that the expanding universe is a matter of creation rather than the defunct pillars presented by atheists and evolutionists.
Mr. Perkel, stated that “some in the religious world have said that he’s (Hawking) going to Hell for choosing not to believe in God”. Some say that because the Bible has long revealed that the dividing line between heaven and hell is Faith (belief) in Christ. And, those who turn against Him in their sins are given over … to reprobation, lasciviousness, and until they no longer know how to do that which is right.
Jim Langdon, Gilroy
