|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
In an emotional farewell to the Pleasanton City Council last night, Fire Chief Jim Miguel announced that he will retire Nov. 7 as the head of the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department, capping a 31-year career in fire services including the last four in the top position here.
Miguel is the department’s third chief since the fire departments of Pleasanton and Livermore were merged in 1996.
“This is my last City Council meeting as your fire chief,” Miguel said in a suddenly quiet council chamber. “I want to express what an incredible honor it has been to serve this beautiful community and to be able to conclude my career here.”
“I appreciate the support that I have received from the men and women in the fire department and the city’s executive team,” he added. “”I am also proud of the joint powers accord and how the cities of Pleasanton and Livermore have come together to make this arrangement work.”
Miguel said he and his wife have built a new home in southern Utah where he will start his retirement years.
“She’s actually there now waiting for me to come,” he said.
Council members praised Miguel for his service as fire chief, including Mayor Jerry Thorne who said his leadership and accomplishments will make it difficult to find a successor with similar qualifications.
“You have set a very high standard for fire chiefs,” Thorne said. “You have made our fire department one of the finest in the state.”
Nelson Fialho, Pleasanton city manager, and Livermore City Manager Marc Roberts, who represent their cities on the LPFD Joint Powers Authority, which oversees the combined department, are now in the process of conducting an executive search to replace Miguel.
Miguel’s retirement caps a 31-year career in fire services including eight years at his previous post as Fire Chief for the city of Modesto. He also served a concurrent role in Modesto as the Acting Deputy City Manager and Director of Finance.
Miguel began his career as a firefighter in Modesto and worked through the ranks as fire engineer, captain, battalion chief and operations division chief. He has a Master’s degree in Executive Fire Service Leadership from Grand Canyon University and is a graduate of the Executive Fire Officer program at the National Fire Academy.
As chief of the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department, Miguel successfully led the 911 dispatch consolidation with Alameda County Fire, expanded first responder services to the Livermore Veterans Administration facility and successfully navigated the department’s budgetary constraints during the recession. This included closing Fire Station 10 at the Livermore Airport making some staff reductions. The airport station has since been re-opened.
Miguel was hired to succeed Bill Cody, who was the LPFD’s chief for four-and-a-half years. He succeeded 35-year veteran Fire Chief Stewart Gary, who was the fire chief in Livermore when the two cities merged their fire departments and named him the first chief of the combined operation. Gary is now a member of the Livermore City Council.
Congratulations Chief Miguel. Reality is that the article says they will conduct a search for a new Chief. Reality is that it will be Deputy Joe Rodondi, a very well politically connected “Yes Man” for CM Fialho. Just watch, he will be the absolute best candidate found in “all the land.”
Congratulations, I guess. Did he manage to pretend to be injured on the job so that his lifetime pension will be tax free? Will he work in another job while the taxpayers of the state pay him more than his full salary as a pension? Three percent at age 50 means that he will make more in retirement, since the calculation includes bonuses and overtime, than he made when he worked. Not sustainable!
Pension reform is beyond needed. This state will be fiscally broken if these entitled pensions are not limited. Anyone retiring with a taxpayer paid pension should be required to have it reduced by 100% of any money they make in jobs after retirement. And any public safety employees who claim to have been injured on the job need to have that reviewed annually. If they can work at other jobs, or play golf every day, or do anything physical at all, their so-called disability tax free retirement needs to be stopped.
Based on the public salary info he will have a starting pension of over $200,000 and then cost of living adjustments for the rest of his life. We shall see how much ‘extra pay’ he adds to his final year salary to see how much over $200,000 his starting pension will be.
Not a bad starting pension for somebody who held the top job for only 4 years.
The whole pension system for public safety is unsustainable. No way to really have a police chief or fire chief for more than five years. By the time them make it to the position of the chief, they are usually a couple year away from retirement. With the current system we will never again have somebody in the chief position for more than several years. They will all take the job to increase their final salary but with putting in so little time in that position it is pretty much a “waiting for retirement” job as that is too short of a time for anybody to make a difference in that position.
Absolutely true that these high positions are just “waiting for retirement” jobs. No meaningful work effort needs to be made, no attempt to unify their workers, nothing. Just sit around long enough to get the 3% at 50 calculation up there and then leave. At or near age 50. Get another job, take your tax free pension and stick it to the taxpayers. Even if no overtime or extra pay can be used for the 3% calculation, they will get cost of living raises every year and it takes only about 3 years for the pension to exceed the final year of pay. And the taxpayers fund the whole thing.
Let me assure you that Chief Miguel did not just “sit around” and be your fire chief. He also will not retire on a disability retirement. The LPFD was extremely lucky to get such a fine man and fire chief. He is one of the greatest people I have ever had the privledge of knowing and is a man of great character and integrity. You may not like the public pension system but do not speak disparagingly about someone you know nothing about because of your views of a pension system.
Chief Miguel may well have done a good job and he might also have been able to walk on water. None of that alters the fact that within 3 years he will be making MORE money in retirement than he ever earned. His retirement does not take into account the years of lower earnings, it only calculates based on the last year. And until the past couple of years no LPFD employee contributed even one dime into their pensions. Every bit of it was contributed by the taxpayers and will be paid by the taxpayers for the rest of the lives of the retirees. Even if he moves to a tax free state he will collect his pension at the direct cost to the taxpayers of California. Not fair, not sustainable and not at all reasonable. Particularly when he will likely get another job in his “retirement” and not have to count that toward a reduction of his pension as anyone receiving Social Security would have to do.
I still say that the position of chief is used to ratchet up the earnings for the retirement calculation. As long as 3% at 50 is unchanged there will never be a need for a chief to work more than one year at that pay rate to get the maximum pension. Not a recipe for great leadership.
You obviously don’t care for the pension system. I get that. My point is that is not his fault. If you don’t know him or what he has done as a fire chief don’t assume he is going out on a tax free retirement or is scamming the system. Chief Miguel is one of the very best fire chiefs in the state of California and your cities were fortunate to have had him as their chief. What he earns and what he does in the future is his business now. However the pay, benefits and retirement was part of his salary package and he earned it regardless of what you might think of the pension system. Give the man some credit for doing his job until the day he retires. Trust me he is not the type of person that has taken advantage of your city.
The public pension scam is unbelievable. Police chiefs, fire chiefs, and City administrators take these top jobs for a couple of years to get the top salary then retire so the next one can do the same. There should be a ten year requirement to retire with that salary.
Do any of you know what it is like to crawl into a building with heat so high it’s burning your ears, kness and other body parts? Not being able to see anything. You don’t know if the ceiling and roof is going to collapse on you or if the floor is going to collapse out from under you. You don’t know if the fire is going to flash over and burn you. Are you going to become trapped and run out of air and die from not being able to breath and suffocate? To find a child burned to death or ran over by her parents and have them beg you to save her knowing that you won’t. Pull a child from a swimming pool and the same thing happen. To have to rescue a family trapped in their vehicle and either dead or critically injured and then have their family members come to your scene screaming. To die from cancer from breathing all the crap in smoke. I can go on and on. You people have no idea what firefighters go through yet you just want to throw rocks at the retirement system. How about the police officers killed today. You want to go tell their wife and kids they don’t deserve their retirement? You people don’t have a clue what firefighters and police officers go through everyday in this country.
Hinshaw,you are kidding right? He knows how to work the system.I was a part of that Hero Garbage. Most of my colleges would fake injury and go on permanent disability with 3200 a month after 10 years for the rest of their life.We need to demand smaller crews that are paramedics as well.let me know if you want to hear tons of stories on fake injurys.
JT, I suggest you learn to spell and properly construct a sentence in order to be believable.
@JT — you understand what I am getting at. I do not say that Chief Miguel was a bad person, nor do I think he is using a fake disability to retire on a tax free pension. It would be a little too obvious in his position. But it happens all the time. From the first day of employment a firefighter is taught by his fellow firefighters how to fake on the job injuries. Most departments no longer hire smokers as these guys would retire, get lung cancer, then sue the department for inhaling smoke. As if their own choices did not cause the cancer.
I know about the issues on the job and my question would be how many burning buildings did the Chief run into? Oh yeah, none, he was pushing paper around and logging years at the high pay to boost the retirement. If pensions were realistic they would be an average of the salary from the first day, not 90% and up of the final salary. That is the motivation for doing a couple of years at the top, lifetime increase of pension.
Dan, get real. How many burning buildings have you run into lately? Fire prevention has outrun fire suppression by leaps and bounds. You know that nearly all of your calls are medical now. That’s why almost every department hires only paramedics. My brother retired after 30 years with a large city department and he never had a working fire in the last 15 years of his career.
After 9-11 firefighters were living the hero worship lifestyle big time. Not the NY City ones who actually ran into those buildings. But LPFD, and all of the surrounding departments as well, strutted into Starbucks and held court with their adoring public. How did that work for ya? The taxpayers in San Jose got so sick of it that they nearly voted to take back much of the pensions.
I can tell you for sure that one truck company in a southern CA city will be feeling the pain because I am personally taking the matter to the city manager and the city council. My elderly mother fell out of bed and my father, elderly and confused, called 911 as he has been told to do, because Mom was completely non-responsive. When the heroes showed up they got Mom off the floor and then chastised her for not living in an “old folks home” (their words!) so that she would not have to wake them up in the middle of the night for nothing! Heroes my a$$.
WOW, Taxpayer. How about you reveal your real name. Four years ago I had to call 911 when my husband was near the end of his life. He was on Hospice care at home. The LPFD, PPD and an ambulance showed up. ALL of the responders were nothing but professional and compassionate. He was a real challenge because of the meds and cancer affecting his brain. He was transported to the ER, then placed in a Hospice facility where he died two weeks later. Just for the record, I have a very dear friend whose firefighter son was a first responder when that limo caught fire on the San Mateo bridge, killing several young women. He required counseling, but will have those scars for the rest of his life.
Mr Taxpayer and others: You are right the Fire Chief would not be going into any burning buildings, but rest assured the Chief has been inside plenty when he was on the line. This banter about “hero” is a crock built by all of you. I am not a hero, I am doing a job to provide for my family the best way I can, and I have personal beliefs of reaching out and helping others, so this profession was a perfect fit. Really? no fires anymore? The 25 structure fires this month must of been a dream. Of course that is my Department and it will vary from city to city area to area.
As far as pensions, its really obvious the ones who complain the most are two fold: 1) they have no clue how the benefit came to be or how it even works, and 2) they were unsucessful in many attempts at taking the test to be a public employee.
This job is not for everyone. There are ups and downs, as in any job public or private. But until you do a job, please don’t assume you know what its like. 6 hours ago I held a 25 year mother in my arms as her 7 week old infant passed away, despite our best efforts to save this child.
How the benefits came to be, and how they are now, are two different stories.
The benefits used to be reasonable. 2.5% at 60 (and 65). The employees paid their share. The payments were based on real actuarial-derived calculations.
Then around 2000 the benefits went to 3% at 50 AND made retroactive. The employees did not pay for any of it. The payments to the cities are lower than actuarial-derived calculations so the public is not even more outraged on how much this is costing. We also have most every retired person claiming some type of disability for their years on the jobs (even while many worked other jobs at the same time) so they can take advantage of a disability benefit that had a real purpose when put in place. They also do tricks to greatly increase their last year income to greatly inflate that retirement.
I believe the police and fire do a great job but there are many there who feel they are entitled which means we will be receiving less service for much more money. Even our retired fire chief Steward Gary retired at age 50 said the benefits were out of line and he had to retire as he would receive less money working than retirement. I would have loved to see him stay at his position as he did a great job but the current system does not support that.
My point is proven again, there is not a one size fits all when it comes to pensions. The information that III provided may be spot on but it does not reflect every situation. I have worked for over 26 years, all at the 3% at 50 formula, I also pay into my pension each and every pay check. And when I retire, I will have to seek out my own health insurance and pay for it, just like everybody else as some like to say.
I do take offense to the reference of finding a way to have an injury to get disiability retirement. I know dozens of retired firefighters, and none fit the category painted here.
It seems like you are not a firefighter in this community as I believe the employees of our community also get free health insurance upon retirement and have not had to pay into their pension plan.
I am glad to hear you know dozens of retired firefighter who have not taken disability retirement. I wish that were the case throughout the state but unfortunately many take this ‘benefit’ as it is probably hard to prove that over the years on ones career there is not been any injury that allow somebody to claim the disability, and many take advantage of this.
While these problems do not reflect every situation, they are not the exception from my observation. It is unfortunate for those not in this situation to be lumped in with those who are. Maybe those not in this situation can help change the rules so the whole profession is help in higher regard.
“As far as pensions, its really obvious the ones who complain the most are two fold: 1) they have no clue how the benefit came to be or how it even works, and 2) they were unsucessful in many attempts at taking the test to be a public employee.”
Wrong and wrong again. I was actively involved in the negotiations in the 1980s when the 3% at 50 rule was accepted mostly statewide. It was bought and paid for by the union by way of contributions to the CA legislators. It was not funded nor sustainable but what the heck those bribes, aka contributions, did the trick. Now we are stuck with it. Some cities are self funded, like San Jose. Those firefighters have always paid into their pensions and the pensions and insurance are paid for by the taxpayers of San Jose. Which is why the union nearly lost those benefits recently when people became tired of the never ending hero egos. Yes, the NYFD and NYPD responders ARE heroes. If you work for any other department and were not there then get off the coattails and lose the attitude.
About me failing to pass the test — never tried, never wanted to. I have vastly exceeded the scale of compensation in the public sector by working in the private sector. With income and pension funds that are paid for by my company, not the public. Claiming a false disability would be pointless. I know of several firefighters who retired on a legitimate pension. I also know many more who scammed the tax free disability. I would be happy to name them but the PW would just have to delete the post. But RL, you know you faked it and TA you still set up scaffolding for your painting business even after being so “severely injured at a medical call” that you could not perform any meaningful work. Right.
I was a firefighter in Modesto. Chief Miguel went into plenty of working fires. I was with him on many of them. You all are free to come to Modesto and look at our fire reports. We go to hundreds and I mean hundreds of working fires. We burn structures almost every day. You may not believe it so come look. We hired a fire chief from morinda Morga and he could not believe the number of fires we went to. We are not heros. I never have asked for that label nor does it fit me. Professional firefighter is right. All I’m doing is providing a public service and I do it from my heart. I have always put the organization first. Always. I don’t do this job for people like you. I do it for those that need us. I could care less about those of you who think I’m scamming the system. And I did get cancer from being a firefighter. It is not curable and it will utlimately take my life. I go thru chemo treatments every two weeks. I did get it from being a firefighter. Not looking for anything from anyone. But I will give my life because I did something I loved and you know what itt will be worth it. Because i had a positive impact on many peoples lives. Say what you want but I earned my pension.
Whose turn is it now to be chief for a few years before retire ding with the big pension?
Why not have system where the pension is tiered down over time. There is no way a former employee should accumulate millions in tax payer funded, but at the same time, I do feel like we owe them some form of gratitude. Say the “chief” of three years retires with a pension of $200 k per year at 52…it drops to $100 k at 60, etc. I know, I know the union mentality is never give nuttin back you’ve “earned” But it would go a long way to reign in an out of control system. I, too, have meet far too many “public service” employees gaming the system with disabilities…makes me sick
If somebody can retire with $200k at age 52 and the amount goes down to $100 if they retire at 60, why would they continue working past age 52?
The current system says “you are washed up when you hit 50.” This is not true however. For many, it is probably difficult to keep in shape possibly past 55 or 60 in doing the same job in a firetruck or a patrol car. However, there are other jobs in the department that do not require you to be in the same physical shape. We want those with a lot of experience to stay in the department, taking leadership positions, inspections, etc.
The better system would be a 3% at 60 (or 62). You get the full 3% at age 60 or 62 (with your retirement payments capping out at 70% of your salary) but if you retire earlier, the retirement amount is lowered. No different than social security. Makes sense. The earlier you retire, the more it is going to cost the taxpayer as you will have payouts for a longer period of time.
One of the biggest problems with the public employee retirement system is the taxpayer takes all the risk of the investment pool. The payments in are calculated based on a specific (high) rate of return on the CalPERS investments. If the return is less, the taxpayer makes up the difference. Because of this, the unions will lobby ruthlessly to make sure CalPERS says the rate of return for calculations is real high so the payments are lower. The only real fair way to solve this is the employees have to take at least 50% of the risk. Only then will the targeted rate of return be realistic. The employees have to have some skin in the game for them to care if the amount is fair.
Some great ideas posted above. How about these changes:
2% at 50 or 3% at 60, maximum benefit 70% of the average of the last ten years of wages. That would stop the revolving door for short term chiefs just getting their pension calculation higher.
Disability retirements would be awarded on a yearly contract only. Every year the so-called disabled retiree would have to prove their case again or lose the tax free benefit. Once lost, the disability benefit is gone forever.
Dollar for dollar reduction of pension benefits for all earnings after retirement.
All employees must contribute 50% of the total retirement contribution annually.
“WOW, Taxpayer. How about you reveal your real name. Four years ago I had to call 911 when my husband was near the end of his life. He was on Hospice care at home. The LPFD, PPD and an ambulance showed up.”
You don’t need the FD to do that, and you don’t need to be a FF. The FD doesn’t transport and private paramedic services are usually the first to respond. The truth is the PFD responds to very few fires, transports nobody during a medical emergency, and their employee cost averages about 200K per year – and that is way too much for the service they provide.
The FD is underutilized and overpaid in just about every city, and Pleasanton probably tops the list. Outside of California there are very few FD’s in the nation that pay what California pays. The FD is making millionaires out of people with little education while allowing them to earn six figure pensions beginning at age 50.
Taxpayer are being manipulated because voters are conditioned to believe the FD endorsement actually rpresents their own best interst. It doesn’t. The days when the Fire Department endorsement represents the best interest of the public are long gone.
The FD is nothing more tan a very POWERFUL Special Interest group trying to extract more dollars from their customers – the taxpayers.
Yeah folks, it all true. While I do appreciate the work of most civil service, we do need to reign in prevailing retirement benefits. It really is ludicrous to make a retired fire captains offspring millionaires. Their pensions need to be tiered down to a manageable rate after, say ten years. pensions over 200k for life are ridiculous and unsustainable.
To Overpaid Fire Department,
Fire services respond to medical calls with a minimum of one firefighter-paramedic on every fire apparatus. This is because firehouses are strategically located throughout the cities and are quick to respond. In addition to fires, studies prove that seconds do count during cardiac arrest emergencies. The private ambulance company is for profit, and many times has no ambulances in the entire tri-valley. Many times they get sent back to Oakland for emergency responses. That leaves the tri-valley without medical ambulances. This leads to long response times of up to thirty minutes. Many times firefighters can assess the patient, and treat injuries until their arrival. The LPFD is unable to medically transport patients to the hospital via ambulance due to an archaic law passed years ago in this state.
The median home value in Pleasanton is on approximately $800K while Livermore is around $600K. Compared to other bay area fire departments, the LPFD is paid significantly less. In addition, the management staff is extremely thin when compared to similar sized cities. Therefore, firefighters perform duties that firefighters in many other fire departments would not perform, such as managing $50,000 budgets for fire hose.
Although you are correct in that college degrees are not a requirement for hire in the fire department, it would be hard to meet a firefighter in the LPFD without one. Many have at least two-year degrees, majority bachelors, while few have graduate degrees. Keep in mind that many of the education and training firefighters have is vocational, and much of this training it is not appreciated by many in the corporate world. Hazardous materials training, rope rescue systems, confined space rescue, trench rescue, water rescue training, and medical training up to the advanced life support paramedic level are all examples of this. The LPFD does a lot more than you are aware. This is all done with staffing levels dating back to the 70’s while running twice the emergency call volume (12,000 alarms annually).
2.7% @ 57 years is the new pension formula for employees as reformed by Governor Jerry Brown. The Public Employees Pension Reform Act further requires member (employee) pension contributions of 13% by year 2018 unless negotiated sooner through the collective bargaining process. This is equivalent to 50% of the employee’s pension cost. Furthermore, the pensionable compensation cap is set at $113, 700 to calculate final compensation figures.
As you can see, pension reform has occurred at the hands of a liberal democratically controlled state. The future of California is strong, pensions are manageable, and unfunded liability will continue to plummet as the economy continues to improve.
http://www.calpers.ca.gov/eip-docs/employer/program-services/summary-pension-act.pdf
What a sad commentary on the ungrateful residents in LPFD’s jurisdiction. As a fellow citizen and taxpayer, I’m appalled at how little firefighters get payed before and during retirement! They don’t just squirt water on buildings, ya’ know! Most shifts they work without much sleep, risk their lives for others and are poorly treated by citizens requesting their help. Most of them have college degrees and could certainly make more money elsewhere but have chosen to help others in need. Unfortunately, they can’t perform brain surgery on some of you that are ignorant of what the occupation of firefighter really is!
What a sad commentary on the ungrateful residents in LPFD’s jurisdiction. As a fellow citizen and taxpayer, I’m appalled at how little firefighters get payed before and during retirement! They don’t just squirt water on buildings, ya’ know! Most shifts they work without much sleep, risk their lives for others and are poorly treated by citizens requesting their help. Most of them have college degrees and could certainly make more money elsewhere but have chosen to help others in need. Unfortunately, they can’t perform brain surgery on some of you that are ignorant of what the occupation of firefighter really is!
What a sad commentary on the ungrateful residents in LPFD’s jurisdiction. As a fellow citizen and taxpayer, I’m appalled at how little firefighters get payed before and during retirement! They don’t just squirt water on buildings, ya’ know! Most shifts they work without much sleep, risk their lives for others and are poorly treated by citizens requesting their help. Most of them have college degrees and could certainly make more money elsewhere but have chosen to help others in need. Unfortunately, they can’t perform brain surgery on some of you that are ignorant of what the occupation of firefighter really is!
I could have an argument with my self too, all I have to do is change the name and it looks like I really have a valid point. You’re all a bunch of trolls. None of you bashing the fire dept know what they deal with. You want are the first to cut, and the very first to bitch when it took them so long to get there. “It’s your fault” realize the facts, the chemicals that these guys are exposed to protect your whining butts kill them off with cancer, etc. so don’t worry them just like my friend will be dead soon enough, and all you suck a$$es can do is complain. How about all the politicians that make way too much money… Or the “private sector” folks who make millions on overinflated contracts… Some how a $36,000 toilet seat is appropriate, but firemen and cops are theiving jerks… If “taxpayer” was honest he would probably have to admit that some of that money he made in the private sector was do to some govt contracts…
Perfect example and related to firefighting. Current wildfires, “private sector” construction companies provide there water trucks to wildfire efforts in the amount of 3500 PER DAY!!! Wildfires have been burning out of control for at least 70 days this year. Do the math… Then tell me who is really making out!!!!!