Y'all won an arbitration case giving a 1% raise, did you not?

No, you were not negotiating for further raises, but instead were negotiating for increased personnel -- something which would undoubtedly have cost the city a lot more than raises in the long run.

Increased personnel? We'd just like them to keep up with the people who are leaving. They haven't been doing that for 15 years.
As far as the 1% raise, that hasn't gone into effect so you can stop worrying about us bankrupting the city. Is that how you handle your legal cases? We win in arbitration and then win again in court and if you were our attorney you'd have us just walk over and apologize to them for the trouble and give it back to them? In the long run that may be exacly what happens but that's down the road a ways. Try not to get into any situations that require negotiations. You don't seem cut out for it.

... Austin must be doing something right. OKC needs to find out what they're doing, and how they're doing it.
...
Austin has more stations, more empoyees being paid more money and they do it for less cost. It may be worth a 8 hour road trip to find out their secret.

may?

andy, you definitely have a gift for understatement.

Unless there is something obvious on paper that explains it, making a trip a needless expense, I can't fathom how city fathers or union heads could straight face say it is a bad idea to examine how a peer provides more service with fewer taxpayer dobbers.

Maybe OKC offers services they don't and it's not apples to apples, but it's worth finding out.

may?

andy, you definitely have a gift for understatement.

Unless there is something obvious on paper that explains it, making a trip a needless expense, I can't fathom how city fathers or union heads could straight face say it is a bad idea to examine how a peer provides more service with fewer taxpayer dobbers.

Maybe OKC offers services they don't and it's not apples to apples, but it's worth finding out.Gee, I believe your the first to ever accuse me of understating an issue. Generally I'm accused of demagoguery. I would also suggest there be an equal number of Citizens on the task force to act as a nuetral third party, just to keep both sides honest.

Now is that thier operating budget? or is that just a taxed based budget? I know that austin has ems but is it tied with their FD? if so do they bill? what other revenue sources does Austin have that we dont?

Also, midtowner and others that believe that this is union tactics. I personaly am new to the FD and i sit back and listen to the old timers tell their stories about how for the past x amount of years that city has been doing this getting away with that. Honestly I dont believe you have ANY idea nor does the general public about whats going behind closed door. you only hear what the mainly biased media has been saying. I am no where close to completely understanding the extent of the long history between the city and the FD but i do one thing, i listen, read what the city council puts out.

BIG D is right, great post. I grew up with a Mine based Union and saw my father be without a job for 2 months because of stirke and the next time they went on strike he was salary so he stayed at the mine for 1 month working while the unions walked out. Also we had neighbors that werent allowed to come over as friends during the strike so i have personally seen the BAD unions. the fire unions are no where close to that.

You say we are diggin ourselves a hole? are we really? Do you know how much we are educating the public about our situation that is haunting us with both man power and aparatus. do you know how many times a day the citizens tell us its wrong what the city is doing to us and ask how they can help us?

Man power does cost the city more yes, but you loose enough people and they are GOING to have to replace them. a recruit academy takes approx 16weeks to get those guys to the rigs.

basically Midtowner is there is so much more than meets the eye or is being reported. We arent the greedy unions that the UNION anme has made out to be. We are just looking for employment rights and holding the city to what they agreed upon.