Further, the point of having public unions should be debated. The fire departments are natural monopolies and thus do not have private enterprise competition to keep them honest and in check.

One must understand that unions HAVE driven the “need” for far too many stations, with far too many $300,000-$800,000 fire apparatus, to meet absurdly short response times, with even more absurd staffing requirements that hamstring administrators.

I’m always amazed when I read stories about large municipalities that send two, three, even four engines, and a couple of ladder trucks to fight a single-dwelling structure fire, then brag about how they had 45 firefighters on-scene to extinguish it. But, they do not extinguish the fire any faster than 8 professional volunteers can do.

Another scam that is “hereditary”, and recently been exposed nationally, is how union members “spike” their pensions by running up huge overtime figures their final year of income. This is what determines how much their pension is based on for the rest of their lives. Their fellow firefighters participate in this because they know it will be paid in kind later for them. This is why the unfunded liability union pensions are wiping out budgets. I listened to a large municipal fire chief speak at a national fire department expo and he talked on how the richest guys in his FD are not the chiefs but the Paramedic/Captains because of the massive overtime they can acquire.

It should also be noted that only 30% of firefighters in the US are union. The remaining 70% are volunteers.
And, the ISO-based reduced insurance rates are not always assured just because its a paid department. There are many, many volunteer fire departments throughout the country that have equally low ISO ratings (Insurance Service Organization – which rates all FDs in the US that request a rating) because they spent their budgets on better equipment, training, station placement and water systems instead of exorbitant salaries and pensions. Their volunteers proudly serve as volunteers out of pride in department and ownership as stake-holders. They volunteer 12 or 24-hr shifts at the station all the time, on top of their regular jobs.

We are about to extend the size of our station this fall and add another station in the spring to address new infrastructure demands. But, we are building reasonable, inexpensive stations that don’t cost millions to build. We don’t need a $3M station to house firetrucks and make volunteers comfortable. We do it through fundraisers (like regular station events such as pancake breakfasts, etc.) donations by individuals and corporations, and volunteer labor. And our volunteers, and local community volunteers, contribute many man hours to their construction out of pride of growth.

That is something large municipalities have lost through their current systems…their neighborhood fire station.

EDITOR NOTE–Starting to get off topic guys. Keep the bond proposal as the issue please.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-the-pension-funds-20130926

Unions get the blame for too much. If all of the firemen were volunteer (Fireguy should know this) insurance rates would go up. Insurance companies and Wall St. (Yes, Wall St.)

Because of a lot of changes in the fire codes (brought by firemen and their respective unions) firemen have less and less fires to fight these days. So they run medical calls. What no chief can justify is why a truck that costs $250,000+ must be sent on all medical calls.

For years Nampa FD ran a small squad truck without Paramedics. Now all calls are in the full-sized pumper engine with Paramedics and if a Engine has no Paramedics another Engine or Truck (ladder) responds.

Twin Falls FD doesn’t run on medical calls unless it is a car accident, or a lift assist. None of their firemen are Paramedic certified. Their union, so I wonder if it is the union or something else?

DO is my initials.

Perhaps you should look at the facts rather than slinging the BS label.

The overstaffed and overpaid coppers and firemen have sucked too many communities dry. The coppers, desperate to save their jobs and behinds after the stimulus pork barrel dried up have alienated citizens with inane ticket writing to generate revenues for their salaries.

I fear Team Dave will take a page out of the Detroit playbook and say that the money is needed for fire stations and parks and then turn around and use the same for what is really intended: a folly named trolley. That is how Detroit and other cities became broke. So, Yeah; blame the poor firemen.

To find out about the Boise Fire Stations and when they were built visit boisefiretrucks.com I learned a lot from this website. The only station that might need replacing is number 5.

Sending a fire crew on a medical call makes sense if you are in sudden cardiac arrest – time is muscle. The longer a person is down, the heart (made of muscle) is dieing and the loss is greater if you do survive. Chance of surviving a Cardiac Arrest in Boise? 2-3% compared to Seattle (51%) and that’s not good. Otherwise the big red truck on a medical call is ridiculous at best and only serves to enhance grants. Look up SAFER grants if you want to learn more. Atlantic City, NJ just laid off 51 firefighters because they cannot get a SAFER grant extension and the blame is on the government shut-down (http://www.firehouse.com/news/11188170/with-safer-in-limbo-51-atlantic-city-firefighters-sent-pink-slips).

However, the citizens need to take a stand on this and other issues.

The overspending on firemen and coppers has been the downfall of cities in California and elsewhere already.

The debacles in Canyon County, the three failed attempts to pass a $70 plus million jail bond that nearly everyone in the official offices of that county and everyone in “law enforcement” was pumping and pimping for as “crucial for public safety” should serve as a stark reminder of the self-serving nature of these initiatives.