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San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
There are less firefighters downtown today than there were in 1970. In 1976, there were 750,000 residents in San Diego and there were 36 fire stations. Today there are roughly double that number of residents and only 10 more fire station. ========================= JF- In 1976 FF's were not in the top 3% of income earners either. They were not pulling down $200K per year in pay and benefits before OT was factored in. If you have for instance $1 million dollars, you can hire 20 FF's at $50K per year, or hire 5 at $200K per year-whch is safeer?? And believe me, we would have people lined up for miles even at $50K.— January 8, 2009 3:59 p.m.
Copley Press Sells Posh Condos in Ballpark District to Owner David Copley. The Deal Raises Questions
When non-cash property is transferred to a shareholder the dividend equals the market value of the property. ========================== So what is the market value of the condos as of 12/31/08? Certainly not 5.9 mil.— January 8, 2009 10:29 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
However, society's worst offenders are top managements of large corporations that pay themselves outlandish salaries. An irresponsible union -- say, representing muni workers in San Diego -- can always point to abuses of top management in the private sector. Unfortunately, there is no argument to combat that. =============================== The problem is the number of CEO's in the private sector, even including upper level managers, are very small in number-where as government employment accounts for 20% of all employees. By far the biggest employer in America is government-local, county, state and federal. But besides that is the fact that the vast majority of Americans also hate the self dealing corporate elite/scammers. So public employees who use the argument, that because a relatively few number of private sector employees scam the system it is therefore OK for them to do likewise, fails. It just does not validate anything about their pay and benefits. Two wrongs never make a right.— January 7, 2009 3:12 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
"The implication: Harvard MBAs, in aggregate, subtract value." ======================= Interesting indeed, goes to show these elite school need to do more than just look at GMAT (LSAT) and GPA #s when admitting people. I interviewed lawyer Gerry Spence a number of years ago, and the thing that he said bothered him most about law schools like Harvard today is it is just a numbers game on who they admit-they do no interviews- and for that reason he stopped lecturing/speaking at those elite law schools. I think he has a good point, Ray Soifer may be onto something.— January 7, 2009 11:24 a.m.
San Diego Super Chargers
"San Diego Super Chargers" ...... still singing it in my head.....wont stop until they lose, if they do lose. Chargers are really peaking at the exact right time and I think they could go all the way. I hope they do good in the playoffs, this city needs something to cheer it up after all the bad things that have been going on the last half decade.— January 7, 2009 8:12 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
I've known some Harvard MBAs that certainly couldn't put out a fire at a corporation in trouble. In fact, some of the damnedest crooks and crackpots I have known through the years were Harvard MBAs. By dbauder 10:12 p.m., Jan 6, 2009 ========================== Funny you should say that, about 10 days ago CBS "60 Miniutes" did a 40 minute sement on Harvard Business School, and it was very interesting indeed. They did mention the ethics of business school, and touched on the Harvard MBA's that went bad, like Jeff Skilling of Enron and others.............— January 7, 2009 8:08 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Cograts to JW for being poster #200! If you told me I would be a critic of union misbehavior 10-15 years ago I would not have believed you. I am a socially liberal, but fiscally conservative left leaning independant ( former Democrat). I have always considered unions to be critical and necessary to protect workers from exploitation. I still believe that to some degree, but the level of abuse in public unions is beyond anything I could have imagined. The public unions have become the exploiters and the public now needs protction from them-especially the PD and FD.— January 7, 2009 8:05 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
I'll bet another C-note that we have a Harvard MBA working for us -- and yes, he had the degree before joining the dept. ====================== That woudn't surpriseme really, FF's make more than Harvard MBA's today.— January 6, 2009 3:57 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Response to post #133: I find it hard to believe that NO cop has a JD at hire. Doesn't the PD hire lawyers? ================== San Diego PD has 1800 (give or take) sworn cops, I would bet a C-note that NOT ONE had a JD at hire, and if there are any in the department they can probably be counted on one hand. Remember, less than 20% have 4 year college degrees at hire. I also think PD is reluctant to hire anyone with a college degree, much less a graduate degree, of any kind. It intiidates the rank and file-as well as management. There was actually a major case out of the midwest 10 years ago or so, where it was POLICY not to hire anyone with a college degree-this case was upheld as a reasonable use of gov authority to exclude more highly educated applicants because the court agreed with the muni that these people would not likely stay in the job because of the major amount of downtime in police work, such as report writing. They didnt have any proof to back that claim up-but the court rubber stamped it. I can't remember if it was a lawyer or not who filed that suit........— January 6, 2009 3:20 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
JF- why don't we cut the FD pay by 40, 50% abnd see how many applicanst we get- I know people who are very qualified to do that job who would love to do it for $40K-50K plus reasonable benefits.— January 6, 2009 3:12 p.m.