Will my house burn down if I write this?
March 11th, 2009 at 11:28am Linda Grist Cunningham
It’s always best to be on the good side of cops and firefighters. Yeah, I know, they’re pros and they’ll do their jobs well even if they dislike you, but being buddies beats ticking them off. Hence my headline: Will you let my house burn down if I write this?
The city of Rockford is trying to close a budget gap headed toward $10 million. One of the ways to get part way there is to reduce the number of firefighters on a crew from four to three. Many other cities our size do that to no detrimental effects; the Rockford firefighters have been crying foul and promising bad things would occur.
So, instead of trimming back the crew, they now appear to be in cahoots with at least some aldermen to pay for the four-man crews by increasing ambulance fees from $375 to $775 for basic service. Add on a couple of life-saving services and the rate climbs to at least $925. (That’s if you’re a resident; if you’re not, expect the basic rate to go from $665 to $1,125.)
Not a problem, says fire union President E.J. Dilonardo: “My hope is that this doesn’t affect the people of Rockford too much above what a normal deductible might be.”
Egads. Either the aldermen backing this measure or Dilonardo himself must not have read the fine print on a health insurance policy recently. Sure, most policies cover some form of ambulance service, but not without Draconian restrictions.
Medicare estimates that at least 25 percent of its requests for reimbursement don’t qualify. Having paid for ambulance service out of my own pocket because the incident wasn’t “serious enough” makes me doubtful that Mr. Dilonardo’s “let the insurance companies foot the bill” optimism is founded in much research.
And, here’s the kicker: Even if the insurance companies and Medicare picked up the entire tab, what’s right about that? Sooner or later, those increased fees are going to end up as increased health insurance premiums for individuals and companies — and governments.
I’m willing to concede the city may need to raise ambulance rates — MAYBE — and only after doing a ton of research to compare our rates with other cities. But, if the rates must go up, let it be as part of the deficit reduction.
If City Council goes for this “stick it to the taxpayer” proposal, it should be ashamed.
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6 Comments Add your own
1. Ben | March 11th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Not a nice thing to accuse the firefighters of, even as a joke. But, you do raise a good point about tacking everything onto fees. How about performing a journalistic service for the community by doing a comparison with Peoria, Madison, Dubuque, DesMoines, Springfield, St. Louis, Davenport, Rock Island, and Moline for starters. How many persons do they have on a fire engine? What do they charge for ambulance service? I left out Chicago and the suburbs as they are in their own worlds. People need facts and comparisons rather than opinions to decide serious issues that affect life and safely.
2. Swede | March 11th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I don’t think that cutting back on firefighters per truck is a good idea. And you’ll hear about it when the emergency responders are short that one brave civil servant who could have put his or her life on the line entering their burning house to save their beloved pet. That’s right. A civil servant willing to give his or her life to save a city resident’s pet.
I pray that if a beloved family member were to perish in a time of fire emergency due to a shortage of responders, however, that it is a pet, and not a person to perish should one go unsaved.
I see your point, and don’t disagree with everything that you wrote, and I appreciate the humor. But, I feel that in making cuts the fire and police (all emergency responders) aren’t where the cuts should be.
They should be made in cutbacks on some of the exorbitant salaries drawn by some of our city employees that are far above and beyond what the same job warrants in the private sector. If a city employee is overpaid with respect to their job description and requirements, or overpaid because their individual work performance (or under performance) doesn’t warrant such lavish compensation, either cut their pay, or cut them out and hire someone to do the job to the standard expected for less pay. Good people are out there that would love that opportunity, and would do right by such chance.
There’s other places to make cuts.
And for reference, I’m not a city employee of any type (i.e. fireman, police man, etc.).
But emergency response (i.e. fire, medical) and police patrol and response are critical in a city where moral decline and fading public safety are spreading like an unstoppable plague. We need every good man and woman that we can get with respect to public safety. We need to have the best training, equipment and personnel for all of our benefit.
Instead, it seems like we’re heading in the opposite direction…………
3. hokumboy | March 11th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Even in jest your comment is demeaning to the Firefighters of Rockford. To even sugest such a thing is insulting to those dedicated men and women. I think an apology is due them.
4. G. Kent | March 11th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Linda,
Local 413 had NO IDEA the aldermen were going to raise ambulance fees. NONE. Do your homework next time.
5. Paul | March 12th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I agree that your comment is disgusting uncalled for and it certainly is not funny. But you are correct in saying that they are professional enough that they will not let your house burn down. They would even risk their lives to go in and make sure you got out safely. And you can rest assured that you and the RRS have not been on their best buddies list for many years, so don’t lose any sleep over that.
It really irritates me to see you calling for balancing the budget on the backs of public employees. They are not responsible for the economic problems facing our country.
It is ironic that you print a picture of a fireman up in a snorkle over a burning building in freezing weather with ice hanging off his equipment and several days later you are calling for wage freezes, pension cuts and whatever other cuts you can think of. You write that they have a pension you could only dream of.
There is a process in place for that if you really want one, its called a job application. Fill one out and than successfully complete a written, physical, psychiatric, psycological, and polygraph examination. This will be followed by a criminal history check and a thorough background investigation.
If it works out that you ended up number one on the list of 100-200 applicants that compete for the position you may get hired. And don’t worry, you won’t have to risk serious injury or death on a daily basis, at least until your first day on the job. If you survive thirty years of doing this you can get that pension you are so fond of and hopefully you will physically able to enjoy it. You may even to spend a few of the holidays with your family.
I hate to complain without offering possible solutions so I will offer a few. How about if we cut the ambulance crew down to one person? After all, if we can coax a bystander to help load you in the back of the ambulance we really only need a driver and chances are you won’t need assistance on the way to the hosp[ital. It would be worth the risk as long as we save money right?
Or for you people who think the service provided is not worth the money, we could initiate a policy where you could sign up at city hall and would not have to pay your share of the taxes toward police, fire and other public services. The list of names could be sent to the 911 center so they would know that anytime you call for assistance a response is not required. Chances are that your house may never catch on fire and think of all the money you coudl save.
Maye we could lower the hiring requirements so that we could get more elgible candidates that we could hire at minimum wage. Takes them off the public assistance programs and puts them to work so we solve a couple problems with the budget. They would have to contribute toward health care which they are getting free and they would have to feed themselves at their own expense. Win, win situation.
I wonder if you know what they call the person that graduates last in his class at medical school. In case you don’t, the answer is “Doctor”. But I have to wonder if you are injured or seriously ill, is that the person you want to go to for help or would you prefer the one that graduated first in his class.
The point is, we have the most highly qualified professionals in our public safety sector that anyone could hope for and we are fortunate to have them. These men and women are so dedicated and highly trained that they can go get a job anywhere in the nation even in this tough economy because we all need and depend on them. So even if you don’t think they earn their money, other municipalities do.
I recall as a police officer, I was dispatched to a fully engulfed duplex apartment fire to control traffic and onlookers. I watched as five firefighters, who I considered friends because we worked together on a daily basis, as they did their jobs. They were all on their hands and knee’s carrying a fire hose, crawling into the burning building through the kitchen door. Flames and heavy smoke was coming out of every window I could see and the smoke coming out of the door they were entering was so thick I lost sight of them.
I think because of the fear for their safety combined with the feeling of being unable to do anything to help them, I got so queasy and ended up vomiting. I found out later that the mother apparently left the apartment earlier without the knowledge of the daughter and was thought to be in the building. She later returned after the fire was extinguished.
I confronted these guys later at the station and asked, “What the hell is a matter with you guys going into the building like that, I didn’t think any of you were going to make it out”. One of them answered very matter of factly, “Its our job”. End of story.
I see that G. Kent responded that the firemans union had no idea that the alderman were going to raise ambulance fee’s. I did not know that but I wonder why you didn’t find out before you implied they were in “Cahoots”.
There is a lot of waste in government but I don’t see you on your high horse calling for cuts in areas of wasteful spending. It always seems to be the the everyday public worker out there on a daily basis trying to make the city a decent, safe place to live that you seem to target. You do us a great disservice with your editorial’s.
6. echo4charlie | March 12th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
“I confronted these guys later at the station and asked, “What the hell is a matter with you guys going into the building like that, I didn’t think any of you were going to make it out”. One of them answered very matter of factly, “Its our job”. End of story.”
That chokes you up, doesn’t it. Just like the police or military. They went in with no regard for their own lives because they care enough, and then disclaim it as “their job”, nonchalantly, at that.
They would have done that if it were a pet still in there, too. Rockford’s Fire Department are, and always have been first-rate. These are good guys.
They need to fight hard to keep what they, and thus we, have. Or the public will look to take more and more away from them, and then, when they do their best to respond with inadequate resources, and fail to meet every wanton objective, we’ll cry that they aren’t doing their job.
There are a lot of people in a lot of jobs that don’t earn what they are paid, but police and fire aren’t one of them.
My best friend is a firefighter in Minnesota, and the things he sees on a daily basis would give most of us life-long nightmares. His community trimmed each rig down to 3 men. Then, their community didn’t think they were doing enough and an adequate job, so, this is no kidding, by the way, the public was pushing for them to spend their whole 24-hour shift driving around l0ooking for emergencies. I’m not kidding. That didn’t fly, but imagine the waste…………
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