Despite Less Pay, No Raises in Sight for S.D. Firefighters

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 15, 2007 at 12:55 PM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders says the cash strapped city simply doesn't have the money to pay firefighters what they want, even though a new study shows they have lower take home pay than in other ci

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders says the cash strapped city simply doesn't have the money to pay firefighters what they want, even though a new study shows they have lower take home pay than in other cities. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Mayor Sanders says he cannot promise firefighters a raise in spite of having promised one to police. The police department is short 200 officers and is having trouble recruiting more. But Sanders says firefighting is a different story. More than 2,000 people applied for 50 firefighter positions with the city last month.

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Sanders: Traditionally applications for fire departments are much higher than for police departments we have not seen that any fire department is having the same type of trouble in attracting candidates.

But Frank De Clercq, of the firefighters union says after two years of no pay raise, Sanders can expect to see things change.

De Clercq: If he pushes us to this brink our people will leave, you know the bottom line is if you've got a house payment and you've taken a pay step backwards for a couple of years, now you cant continue it.

Experienced firefighters make between $50,000 and $60,000 a year. The reason San Diego firefighters' take home pay is falling behind other cities is mainly because they now make a bigger contribution into their own pension plans. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.