Unsafe practices in our community?

Did you know that the fire department in our community is playing games with our lives? (Peachtree City Fire Dept) I was recently talking with one of there members and was surprised to find out certain things. They apparently allow employees who earn a full time salary with the city to work prior to coming on for duty. If I understood this gentleman, these personnel are allowed to work for 24 hours and then come to work for our city for 24 hours. Is this safe? Apparently they are called 48ers and they work two full time jobs. I can understand why they do this, especially in todays economy, but is this the best that our city can do? After talking with this Firefighter he was apparently concerned for his life because some of these 48ers work for really busy departments. He also was concerned that these personnel come in and can't perform to the expected level, and that increases the work load for the other personnel that day. Why does the city allow this? Are my TAX dollars being spent wisely? I will be talking with this firefighter again, so maybe we can expect better use of our money from the city that is supposed to protect us.

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48's
Submitted by PTC Observer on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 6:55pm.

Interesting information. Why is it that government can't seem to run anything right? If this worker was paid a market rate for his services he wouldn't have to work two jobs. I am thankful that he's willing to do it.

I have an idea, why don't we privatize the fire department? You know just let a couple of companies come in and compete for our business. I'll just bet we will have better service, and lower taxes. Oh, I forgot, government is the answer to all our problems.

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Police and Fire
Submitted by Bonkers on Mon, 08/18/2008 - 8:56am.

Privatization won't work. For profit cops and firemen!

What has and will work is about one third professionals and two thirds either volunteers (paid enough to make it worth while) or part-timers to help the pros.
Pay the pros WELL to see that the job is done!
Stop the stupid days on days of stuff.

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PTC Firefighters
Submitted by skyspy on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 5:25pm.

Yes, this is the best we can expect, for what we are paying.

Our illustrious mayor decided he deserved a raise. He also gave the city council a raise. Our firefighters, public works and police officers were given a pay cut. This is how the pay cut happened. First they were all denied cost of living raises,(which especially in this economy hurts when the cost of living goes up) then they were forced to pay more for health insurance out of pocket.

What we were paying our employees was low to begin with compared to other depts. in other counties, and then to top it off our "mayor" using the title loosely, gave them a pay cut. Remember this at election time, because 3 idiots need to be voted out(lodgson, boone and plunket)

Almost all firefighters and police officers that I know work part-time jobs on the side. We have some firefighters that work here part-time and work full-time at other depts. They work for a county or city that has better benefits than we do, so they get good benefits, and then work part-time here to fill in.

I have needed the help of our firefighter recently and I felt very safe in their capable hands. They were very professional and had the situation under control in under 5min. The response time was great, I heard their sirens as I was talking to the 911 person.

I do not feel safe with a careless mayor and city manager. Our city and our way of life is threatened daily by their incompetence. Every day we are in danger of losing our public safety personnel because of the poor way they are treated by our mayor.

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Not all the facts are accurate!
Submitted by mac614 on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 6:05pm.

I cant really comment on the cost of living or pay discrepancies, I can only speak on what I am told. If the pay is not enough for our firefighers maybe the department should have four career firefighters per shift and supplement with part-time firefighters to meet standards? I believe that there are four stations, so that is one career person per station and have part-timers to fill the other
spots. The firefigher I spoke with seemed fairly intelligent and did state that the benefits here were really good compared to other municipalities. I believe he said that as a career member you receive two percent a year as a standard rate and that he could retire early at age 55. That means that he could work 25 years and receive 50 percent of his last five years salary. The best part of that he said was that the city paid for that, it cost him nothing. Thats a really good benefit!!!!! My concern is that a good majority come from busy places and just come here to " do as little as possible." My TAX dollars are worth more than a " little. "

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mac614: doubledipping firefighters
Submitted by Bonkers on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 4:47pm.

This is not new, of course, Cops work a lot of time for others when not copping.
I can't say about the "safety" about it but I am more concerned about the three days on and two off, or something of that nature, myself. I guess this avoids three shifts! It also promotes time for another similar job.

We do need to expect more from them and pay them more for it! Allowing overtime pay, and other jobs is not the way to pay them.

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