Another Reason Why People Hate Government

From the Las Vegas Sun: The city of Reno is spending thousands of dollars sending firefighters to emergency medical certification training at out-of-state tourist destinations despite the fact the same training is offered in northern Nevada.
According to documents obtained by the Reno Gazette-Journal, four firefighters also spent a week in Priest Lake, Idaho, for the same type of training this year. Each was reimbursed $1,200, the city's travel expense cap. Under city policy, firefighters cannot be reimbursed more than that amount for travel.
The training is necessary for the firefighters to maintain their emergency medical technician certifications, a requirement of their job.
Reno Finance Director Robert Chisel said his department will attempt to deny reimbursement for the Mexican Riviera cruise, but the department may have difficulty fighting it because a battalion chief pre-approved the travel...
Other training expenses include sending two battalion chiefs and two administrative personnel to Tampa, Florida, to learn how to use the computer program Excel for data analysis. Four other firefighters were sent to San Diego for a fire expo.
In 2013, the average Reno firefighter's total compensation was about $122,000, including salary and benefits, according to a Reno Gazette-Journal analysis....
Reno Fire Chief Michael Hernandez said there is little he can do to set limits on where firefighters go for training. "It's in their contract," he said.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/may/03/reno-firefighter-training-includes-mexican-cruise/
However, there is some karma: The expenses came to light as the city is preparing to lay off 35 firefighters because a federal grant application needed to pay for those positions fell through.
Shoot, you could send the the EMT down to Vegas, put him up a a casino hotel for $30 a night, 3 buffet meals a day for $25 and probably spend less than $200 for 5 days.
Just another example of public employees ripping off the taxpayer.
And people wonder why people hate the government and it's employees.
And $122,000 average salary and benefits for a hose jockey that doesn't require a Bachelor's degree?
I worked as a unpaid vounteer firefighter in North Dakota, going on 300 fire calls a year for free (that's fires not medcal calls).  That's more fire calls than the average Reno firefighter goes on in a year.
Just another reason people hate government.