In my last Gripe I spoke about the financial woes of Wilkes-Barre and the published salaries of it's employees. I also mentioned how the numbers were somewhat skewed and that the pays were still too high for some of these employees. Now a W-B Firefighter has spoken and has brought to the table some interesting information.
When Leighton became the mayor in '04 he told ALL the city worker that
concessions had to be made by ALL or the city would go act47
(distressed). The FD stood up and made concessions of more than $4
million over 8 years (no other union did anything). We then found out
that Leighton hid money (McGroarty did first) and fought for that money
(about $1 million total), by my math we still gave the city $3 million
(the other unions still didn't give squat) and he treats us like a baby
treats a diaper. BTW those figures include overtime, that is overtime
LEIGHTON created but not hiring new firefighters as the old retire. We
have a certain amount of positions that NEED to be filled every shift
and without more FF's that creates overtime. Leighton is a master at telling people half truths to make others look bad.
First off if this information is true and I have no reason to think it is not, then the firefighters of Wilkes-Barre are getting a bad rap. It appears that they have stepped up to the plate to help while the mayor shifts money around and pleads poverty. As I stated in my last Gripe, there are times the media does not give us the entire picture when the paint a story. At no time do they mention overtime in the story as part of the total wages. If the correct number of firefighters is not maintained it would only be natural that O.T. must be given. The question I have is why have the police not stepped up to do their part? Let me tell you why? Three letters F.O.P.. I have dealt with these greedy bastards in the past and they are well known for milking a city or town dry with their threats of arbitration and court. In many of our small towns it is a right of passage for their chief of police to retire on disability because of some small injury. These injuries always seem to take place within a year or so of contract negotiations.
Let me sum this up for all of you. Our city and it's surrounding towns are in deep financial distress. Over the years the powers to be rubber stamped contracts with police, fire and public works which provided a very good wage and fantastic benefits with no vision toward the future. Now this has jumped up and bit them on the budget buttocks. It is time for the people to know exactly what is going on and what is going to be done to fix it. It's time to curtail spending in our towns and cities so they can catch up to the real world of no raises and higher premium payments for health care. It's time to stop looking toward the people with higher taxes to fix the problems. The employees of Wilkes-Barre need to step up and do what is right for the city and it's residence. It's time to join the "REAL WORLD"!
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