Sharon Boyd, Editor/Publisher |
DallasArena.com Your alternative to The Dallas Managed News Mike Watson
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Mike Watson is a
Dallas firefighter.
Thanks for putting my
letter up. I had no idea how many firefighters visit your site
until I was making my rounds on Wednesday. At every station I visited,
someone commented on it. It won't appear in the "Fireline" for
several more weeks.
I heard Lois Finkleman on the
radio "crawfishing" on the 5-5-5 proposal. "I just don't
know if we can find the money." Nothing we didn't expect. I'm
sure that between now and August we'll see council members air their excuses
one by one trying to find a story the voter's will buy. If one of
them succeeds, it will only be a day or so before they're all singing the same
song.
The sad thing is that it will be
the citizens who pay the price if they don't follow through. With the
run volume our ambulances face we have to rotate paramedics out of EMS or they
burn out. If we can't compete for competent rookies to send through
paramedic school there won't be anyone to replace them.
15% three years from now will
translate to 9% after you adjust for minimal inflation. That
would keep us within reach of competitive salary levels. If they back
out of the 5-5-5 plan, we'll be so far behind we'll never catch up.
The history of EMS in Dallas began
with unskilled "attendants" working for private companies (mostly
funeral homes). They snatched up critical patients and delivered them to
hospitals without providing any treatment. At the rate we're going,
history may repeat itself. Salvageable patients will die.
Fire suppression and law
enforcement will see quality decline also but EMS is where we will see it
first.
The Pay Referendum was never about
a bunch of greedy firefighters and cops trying to pad their pockets. It
was about people who had dedicated their careers to delivering excellent
public safety and who wanted to see that continue when their careers were
over.
Mike Watson
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