As our crime rate in Sioux Falls continues to rise, gets more violent, and the animosity towards police nation wide grows, you would think the city’s human resources department and mayor would agree to a minimal pay increase of 3% (an extra $300,000 a year);
“You have excellence on one hand when they’re publicizing the virtue of the city, but in negotiations, the median or even below the median is somehow acceptable. We don’t think those two fit together very well,†said Wilka.
Whether you are for or against this pay increase, as Mr. Wilka points out, it seems kind of strange to deny the union’s request. Maybe the mayor is punishing the union and blaming them for the sharp crime increase?
This is what you get when you run the city like a business, f’ck over the minions!
Makes you wonder what the SF fire department union was looking at since they agreed to the 1.5% cola for two years per the media? Do these two unions even talk? Can the city treat the unions differently COLA-wise? Interesting stuff.
The city offered 1.5% and they’ll take 3%. Come on, it’s hardly cost of living. Directors got 5 figure raises, how come? What worries me is ongoing police (also fire) morale. The mayor is cheap when it comes to community services but extravagant when it comes to indoor sports for the wealthy. I wouldn’t want to be mayor when tomatoes are hurled at me and police cheer.
Police & Fire are a voting block. Combine they with the 6400 petitioners denied a vote. Gone are chances for getting elected to any state office. I consider myself intelligent and independent. Perhaps Huether should form a new party called Dumb Ass.
Don, as I understand it, the FF got a hefty raise last time, and their hourly is different.
Saw that Daugaard was giving state employees a 1% cola in 2017. Makes a 1.5 look generous. Daugaard said that was due to flagging sales tax numbers which I think Huether said too. Are they both wrong?
You only back the SFPD when in doing so you can denigrate city administration. Most of the time you take cheap shots at them as is seen here regularly. Don’t expect a FOP sticker in the mail.
if you are trying to screw the union in negotiations, don’t call press conferences bragging about record building and how great the sales tax revenue is.
Firemen probably took the lower raise to avoid drawing attention to themselves and how little they do nowadays – or the fact they’re not doing it well (at least firefighting).
Mostly it’s medical calls which could be handled by a two-man truck but the city is still staffing 4 man fire trucks when most cities have cut back to 3.
Even with the reduced number of fires, adding a new fire station, and a bunch of new firemen, property damage due to fires is at an all time high.
They can cover medical calls because of no ambulances, the can rescue people from collapsed buildings with the best of them, they know how to do press releases, but no one knows how to put out fires.
I guess I do denigrate them, if they are taking free meals, which they really shouldn’t be.
No question the PD officers are worth the COLA they are asking for. The question seems to be does the economic projections support it. Have we heard anything from the City Council on this? Have they had a say?
The city’s budget can afford anything they make a priority. The SFPD has never been a priority of My Man Mike. He gloats about them and says he supports them but it could not be farther from the truth. This will turn out to be a horrible political move for MMM if he screws them. He already has his back against the wall going forward.
Minnehaha Co. deputies recently agreed to a 3 year contract at a 2/1/1, an avg. of 1.33%. With the SF fire assn. agreeing to a 1.5% it makes one wonder if those groups know something the PD doesn’t?
If we can build a 130 mil EC, a 30 mil Aquatics Center, a 30 mil city building, and a 500k private tennis club I think a 3% raise for police can happen. I hope Huether gets visited by the ghosts of Christmas because he’s certainly Scrooge.
Great question Don. An acquaintance who works for the city told me that the Afscme group is looking at the same COLA the firefighters agreed to and he says it will pass. Would have to believe that would make it less likely the police group gets more than the other two. If memory serves the city has pretty much treated them equally with raises.
The 1.5% employee raises would be easier to swallow if the department heads didn’t get such large raises.
6%-10% as I recall for some of them. It must be tough to live on $132,000 a year without a 6% raise on top of that.
Many who desire to be paid like the boss want nowhere near that level of responsibility. See that in the corporate world every day. I’m sure gov’t is no different.
A friend of mine told me that the city raised the health insurance costs. The increase nearly negates any raise in that 1.5% range, be it fire, PD, or anyone. The SFPD used to be a destination department, a place other cops would seek to go to for better pay, better equipment, better training. Now, it’s just one of many…
My dad is a independent.
I went back home this weekend. MY dad asked out of the blue ” whats with that screwy mayor of yours”?
I said he’s going to run for rep or gov. My dad replied” as an independent, is he really that big of a moron?
My grandmother is a well connected democrat and she was sitting at the table listening. After my dad made the moron comment grandma said ” he doesn’t have a chance in hell”.
I think that pretty much sums up his future.
@Sheeple, you obviously have an axe to grind (Pat) or are misinformed. The Fire Dept is quite adept at putting out fires whether it be car fires or incipient house fires. If you have prior fire ground experience you know that sometimes when the truck arrives they are already “behind the eight ball” and there’s not much they can do to make things better. The fire wins sometimes. Nobody bats a thousand. Then there’s the win; sometimes the fire gets stopped in the room of origin and the vast majority of the homeowners possessions and family mementos are saved. Fire fighting is fluid; subject to things such as weather, homeowner cleanliness (hoarders are a problem), type of construction and yes, the competence of the firefighters arriving on scene. Your claim that “no one knows how to put out fires” is simply an opinion. I can simply claim the opposite opinion and have as much validity as your claim. There are quite a few fires in Sioux Falls that don’t garner media attention. Fires that are stopped in the “incipient” stage, fires that are confined to the “room of origin” by well trained dedicated firefighters. Government services aren’t free or cheap. You want good roads, pay for it. You want a safe community, pay the cops. You want nice parks, fork it out. You want a well trained dedicated fire department that is trained to respond to a myriad of emergencies such as house fires, ice storms, building collapses, haz mat emergencies, active shooter emergencies, the widow grandma that can’t get her furnace going, the homeless person freezing to the concrete, well, you are going to have to pay for it. It all comes down to priorities. If you don’t think you will need the fire department in your lifetime then, of course, it seems superfluous. The fire service is there for citizens 24 hours a day all year long when they are most likely experiencing their worst day ever and the employees responding are some of the best. That’s both an opinion and a fact.
One of the many reasons I have suggested a PUBLIC ambulance service is because of how much faster the FD responds to emergencies then PP. Of course, Jill Franken and REMSA is trying to put a kabosh on having the SFFD respond because it is making the for profit PP look bad.
Fluff…under the 2013-16 contract, all city employees paid 25% of their health insurance costs. The city picked up 75%. You have suggested the 1.5% increase will barely cover health insurance out of pocket costs. If a officer makes 50k, that’s a $750 a year increase at 1.5%. Can it be that out of pocket health insurance costs can be $750 a year more.
Do not get me wrong. I am for all front line city employees getting 3% a year increase. When you consider what directors and other management employees get, that 3% is pretty lean.