It’s hard to watch the news today without hearing some talk of states and cities being out of money. Local governments are laying off public workers at an alarming rate. In particular, the subject of firefighter pension reform is a band wagon that many have jumped onto in order to establish a blame for state and city budget short falls. Just the other day a colleague told me of a bumper sticker reading “Watch out for the thieves in the big red truck.” Up and coming politicians have used a strong stance on public employee pension reform as a launch pad for their campaigns, when, in a sly backhanded way that only a politician can do, they have begun to successfully divert the blame of budget failures from themselves onto someone else.

     Statistics of private sector job pay compared to public sector job pay are all over the news. Talk of outrageous benefit packages for public employees seem to top the difference. While some of those skewed statistics hold true, little is discussed on the reason. When the economy is strong and pay, including benefits, is through the roof in the private sector, the public employee is left trudging along a slow but steady path. On the other hand, when the economy takes a dive and jobs are scarce, the public employee comes out shining brighter than all. This is no different than your 401K assets being placed into a high risk but potentially high yielding account, or instead placed into low risk bonds with a guaranteed rate of return. Public employees have chosen their profession for stability and this holds true for firefighters also. 

     With that being said, the political agenda game of “Pass the Blame” is being played in many local agencies. The way pensions like California Public Employee Retirement system works is simple. The employee contributes a percentage of their pay to the pension system and the employer contributes additional. That money earns modest returns and retirees are paid. Simple enough until politicians get their hands in on it. During the last economic boom, Cal PERS rate of return on their investments was as high as 17%. Local agencies saw this as a chance to “Not make contribution payments” and earmark that money for other projects because the extra money made on returns made the payment for them. While this common practice was acceptable for short term, the problem arose when those record returns no longer made the payment and states or cities had to again contribute. Many cities overlooked this fact and soon found themselves in the red blaming the pension systems they defaulted on. If the payments continued during the boom, or were commenced after the boom, pension reform would not be an issue.

     So, how does Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District match up amongst the statewide budget problems? The status of out fire district remains in the black. The Rancho Santa Fe Fire Board has been on top of pension payments by noticing a deficit early and adjusting payments accordingly. Now, as the Cal PERS system demands more money, RSF firefighters and the District have made concessions to combat this problem. Fire supression personel have not received a raise for years. As the cost of living, healthcare and fuel is on the rise, firefighters continue to make sacrifices to stay employed serving our community.