So Mr. Goodroad works his way to the top of the pay scale and after putting in a couple of years retires;
Sioux Falls Fire Rescue Chief Brad Goodroad announced his plan to retire in February 2021 after a 27-year career.
Goodroad has been chief since 2017 and will retire on February 12.
Goodroad began his career with SFFR in 1994 and progressed to captain, battalion chief, and eventually division chief.
While I admit he has put in his 27 years and (legally) deserves his retirement, you would have thought this was brought up when he took the job? Usually when you appoint someone to be chief you can get at least 8-10 years out of them or longer. I would be curious if Brad bothered to tell the last administration he planned to only serve until he was eligible? I also wonder what cushy golden parachute job he is moving into while collecting bank from top of the pay scale retirement?
I have seen this before with city management before retirement, they lock themselves in a couple of years at the top of the scale then bail (I fixed the spelling of this word due to a grammar Nazi, thanks grammar Nazi). This is another reason I oppose the bump-back, these folks already get amazing benefits.
This is why the city needs to find a younger replacement willing to put in more than 4 years and have an attitude of building the Fire Department into a better institution. I would implore our part-time mayor to do a national search for someone who has worked with a public ambulance service and have them spearhead that program for us.
Speaking of that, many have asked me if our for-profit ambulance service has been billing rides our SFFR has been giving? We have a pilot program where we are leasing the ambulances for $1 to handle the surge. So when SFFR gives the rides are we reimbursed as taxpayers? It would be nice to hear the answer to that question, but as a guessing man, I bet we are NOT.
“…. I would implore our part-time mayor to do a national search for someone who has worked with a public ambulance service and have them spearhead that program for us”…..
Perhaps, from Canton, Ohio, or Canton, China, but then have them move actually here.
Bale? Hay bales I assume? Yikes.
It’s Musical Chairs but should at least last the length of one song.
Another example of “negotiating” with civil service unions is really the fox in the hen house. I can think of a dozen 50 year old that have been working the same job for 25+ and can only hope to retire when their old. This fuck will receive a cushy pension for nearly half of his life.
Simply setting a minimum 60 year old retirement payout age would end this shit.
I’ll go one step further, I don’t think public employees should get pensions anymore. They can invest privately like the rest of us do and collect SS. It is almost unheard of in the private sector anyone getting pensions anymore.
Absent massive golden parachutes for CEOs, I am always happy when people can retire early and hopefully with a pension.
The pension concept needs to comeback, which means putting union members back on the board of directors throughout this country.
As far as firefighters, or first responders in general, they go to work each day potentially putting their lives on the line. Most of us never do that. So, I don’t have a problem with them retiring earlier or with pensions. We should all have pensions.
Pensions actually protect the undereducated. Without a pension system, or a significant one, what happens is we create an army of workers who can never retire.
Honestly, I think this reality, however, is part of the plan by corporate America. It needs to stop and pensions need to make a comeback.
VSG,
Agree with the comment about the appropriate nature of pensions following 25 to 30 years of service for first responders and those involved in public safety.
In addition to the risk of life, the public safety aspect of many of these jobs is best served by those who are younger (and in better physical condition) [glances at profile of mature dad bod in a mirror].
But one need not be well-educated to harvest wealth for retirement outside of a defined benefit pension.
Rather than level of education, I submit that “discipline” is a behavior associated with building wealth for retirement.
The discipline to achieve some modest life achievements (e.g. graduate from high school); avoid some life events (birth children outside of a more permanent family structure) and the discipline to live within one’s financial means.
Many who would be considered “better-educated” lack this discipline, regardless their education, station in life or level of compensation.
But I would allege there is a relationship between one’s education and their discipline. Some are obviously under achievers, but your educational level speaks loudly of your own discipline in most cases.
( but Woodstock adds: “Yah, but isn’t education also a discipline or vice versa?”…. “And what about your “readings”, as our British cousins call it, can you get an education without reading?”… (“And do your studies need to be studied?”… ) #WhosOnFirst?