Firefighter pay draws criticism in one Calif. town for being too expensive

a hard day's work as a firefighter in San Ramon could be adding up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year according to data collected by the watchdog group transparent California more than half of the San Ramon Valley Fire District full-time employees make more than $300,000 a year in total compensation does it make sense that a battalion chief in San Ramon should earn over $300,000 a year in total compensation when our governor only earns a hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year in compensation San Ramon Valley Fire Chief Paige Meyers says the $300,000 figure doesn't tell the whole story it includes pension and benefits so in reality says firefighters take home about half of their total compensation if somebody makes a dollar we end up spending close to ninety cents for their pension so that's a dollar ninety roughly and then we also have the cost of health care so that's why he says it can be cheaper to pay a firefighter overtime than hire someone new with an extra set of benefit savings on the other side can be upwards of 25 to 30% firefighters are guaranteed about 70% of their income after retirement in their 50s and in San Ramon firefighters contribute close to 25 percent of their income to their pension Jack we're with the Contra Costa taxpayer Association believes the system won't work in the long run it's unreasonable it's unaffordable and most importantly from a taxpayers perspective and from the perspective of the firefighters it's unsustainable but chief Meyer says San Ramon is an example of a Fire District doing things right and we have a very sustainable system we're paying all of our unfunded liabilities we're actually one of the only agencies that I know of in the United States that pays extra money towards our unfunded liabilities in retired medical and pension costs

Channel: CBS News

Views: 9,795

Keywords: video, live streaming, live video, cbsn, firefighter, pay, criticism, San Ramon, california, budget, overtime

Id: lhq1DzUpWiI

Length: 1min 56sec (116 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 04 2017