Join the debate over how much a firefighter should be paid
When you have them by the wallets, their hearts and minds will follow.
On Sunday Geoffrey Lawrence, a fiscal policy analyst at the Nevada Policy Research Institute, penned a guest column for the Review-Journal outlining the pay, overtime and benefits afforded Clark County firefighters.
“Clark County's highest-paid firefighter made $232,033 in 2007,” Lawrence wrote. “Meanwhile, the county's highest-paid attorney made $215,406. Including overtime and call-back pay, 523 of the county's 770 firefighters (68 percent) made more than $100,000 in 2007. Only 63 percent (144) of the county's 228 attorneys managed to top that amount.
“Given the incentive structure offered by local government, perhaps UNLV should consider changing its Boyd School of Law to the Boyd School of Fire Suppression.”
He went on to point out the recommendations made in a 2004 county audit. Things like following policy that all overtime be pre-approved and doing a special audit of the overtime. None of the recommendations has been implemented.
He said some firefighters “game the system” by coordinating sick days with fellow firefighters to increase overtime and call-back pay. He also noted only 24 department employees are salaried.
The last time I checked, the online version of Lawrence’s commentary had attracted more than 60 reader comments, many of them from supporters of firefighters trying to justify their pay, which Lawrence described as among the highest in the country.
But there were a number of writers questioning the rationale for such pay levels. One pointed to a Forbes article showing many occupations more dangerous than firefighting.
It is an interesting discussion read it here.
Lawrence's organization also maintains a Web site where you can look up salaries of public employees from all across the state. You may search or browse. I suggest going to the Clark County page and browsing the first few pages sorted from highest pay to lowest. It is instructive.
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