From Fox 5 news via Firehouse.com: "Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said he has taken more heat than one would normally expect after questioning whether firefighters should perform charitable duties during work hours.
“I’ve gotten some very, very nasty e-mails and phone calls,” Sisolak told
FOX5
. “Threatening phone calls, from some individual, individuals, who claim they’re firefighters or related to firefighters.”
“They haven’t quite crossed that line in terms of physical harm, but threats about your house burning down and sort of stuff,” he added.
The criticism began, Sisolak said, after he took a controversial stance on the annual “Fill the Boot” drive, which involves firefighters collecting donations in boots.
All of the money goes to the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation. A total of $200,000 was collected in 2009.
“For all these years, quite frankly, I thought it was done on volunteer time,” Sisolak said, adding that taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be spent on something that can be done off the clock."
http://www.firehouse.com/topics/funding-and-grants/vegas-boot-drive-allegedly-draws-threats
CCFD firefighters are finding themselves being roundly criticized for their huge pay from overtime and failure to understand that Clark County is hurting financially. They basically say to the taxpayers, screw you, we want our money. The majority of firefighters make over $100,000 a year, with several firefighters making over $200,000+ a year. As I pointed out earlier, CCFD firefighters are not that busy compared to an average sized volunteer fire department in most areas of the country. Now, rightly or wrongly, they are getting heat about raising money for Jerry's Kids, or MDA.
My view is if they have all their training done for the day, all the inspections and all the other work that is required to do is completed, fine, go out and raise money as long as you are within a mile of 2 of your station. But if they are putting off duties or go further than 2 miles from their station, then no, they should not be raising money while on duty. If they are more than 2 miles from their station, they add about 3-4 minutes minutes to their response time if the alarm is in the opposite direction of where they are fund raising.
I think it's time for the CCFD and it's unions realize that the love of firefighters has evaporated in the Las Vegas Valley because of their percieved greed and failing to recognize that Clark County is having severe financial difficulties.
Land-Mining the Oval Office
3 hours ago
Sisolak just learned FF's collect for MDA now. This has been going on for 50+ years. Also, he signed a proclamation this year supporting the "boot drive". Of course they are not going to neglect their duties to go collect, that's rediculous.
ReplyDeleteAs far as response times go, this is a major concern for FF's and are recorded. They are in no way going to jeopardize these times. There is always a unit at the station or close by.
CCFD is not any busier than a volunteer dept.? Lets see those numbers. Mr. Sisolak is trying to use these economic times to help his political career by misinforming the public on these issues. Unfortunately for him, the truth will emerge and he will then have to atone for his actions.
anon, thanks for stopping by. I do agree that if this is the first time Sisolak heard about the boots either he never goes shopping or he is a moron.
ReplyDeleteAs far as runs, when I was on a fire dept in Wisconsin and North dakota, we would average more fires than what a typical CCFD goes to in a year. When I was on a fire dept., in northern North Dakota, we would respond to 300 calls a year, with up to 15 in a day.
Dan,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your response, and please don't think I would ever discredit volunteers, I have the utmost respect for them. Absolutely the longer back we go the more fires there were, in any district. But as far as combined runs, LVFR ran approx. 85000 calls last year. Any volunteer department that would run that many would be full time anyway.
I just think it's funny if a guy like me can point out some of the obvious inconsistencies with Sisolak, than he and his staff are morons. It is an insult to the intelligence of the citizens of Las Vegas for him to think we are that stupid.