Union Meeting
The next scheduled two-shift Union Meeting will be held on October 18-19, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.. Please have all agenda items submitted by October 10, 2010. The door prize for this Union Meeting us now $350.00. Your attendance will prevent you from disqualification. (You must be present at one of the meetings to win.) (Union Meeting...)
2067
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International Links
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Internationally Notable
- International News Links
- Fire Economic News from Around the Country
- HELPS Tax Information
- IAFF Disaster Relief Fund
- Everyone Goes Home - Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives
- Firefighter Fatality Notices
- Fit to Survive Website
- iWOMEN.org - Women in Fire & Emergency Services
IAFF Financial Corporation
http://www.iaff-fc.com
- IAFF-FC Banking Center
- Retirement & Financial Planning
- (PEHP) Post Employment Health Plan
- Insurance Products
- IAFF FrontLine Plan Website
Oklahoma Links
- The Bell Law Firm
- Oklahoma State Firefighters Association
- Oklahoma Fire Chiefs Association
- Oklahoma Retired Firefighters Association
- Oklahoma State Fire Marshal
- Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management
- Oklahoma Emergency Management Association
- OSU School of Fire Protection and Safety Technology
- Oklahoma Firefighters Pension & Retirement System
Big 12 News
- El Paso City manager: Public safety forces proposed tax hike El Paso Times "The members overwhelmingly agreed to help the city," said Lt. Joe Tellez, president of the firefighters union. "We're always sensitive to the needs of the ...
- Austin Fire Department Involved in Lawsuit - The Austin Fire Department has been in the news far too frequently over the past year for many firefighters taste. Since Rhoda Mae Kerr took over there have been headline grabbing issues...
- Austin firefighters claim bias in lawsuit - Austin firefighters claim bias in lawsuit. From The Austin American-Statesman Two high-ranking Austin firefighters Wednesday sued top city officials, a well-known minister and the president of the local chapter of the National ...
Fire Links
Misc Links
& 19th. Agenda items are due by October 10, 2010. Available door prize is $350.00. (Union Meeting...)
More Union Business
give collective bargaining rights to fire fighters and other public safety officers.(More...)
Other International News
almost 20 recruits who will begin their academy on June 1, 2010.
(More...)More NFD News
International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2067
Norman,
Oklahoma - Thank you for your interest in the IAFF and the Local IAFF 2067. Our
goal is to maintain the highest level of safety for our members in
an effort to serve the Norman community during emergency responses.
We continue to strive daily in helping the citizens of Norman obtain the highest level of emergency service possible,
while making every assurance that each and every member of the
International
Association of Firefighters Local 2067 are equally compensated
as professional firefighters & emergency responders.
We are proud to serve Norman. We are proud to fight for and defend the rights of Firefighters and the rights of our community in pledging the finest, safest, and progressively motivated Fire Department possible. Thank you for visiting.
"...if you mess with ONE of us, you're messing with ALL of us. If you want to take us on we are going to bring the full force of this IAFF to bear!" - General President Harold Schaitberger, 2010 IAFF State of the Union Address
| Features & Updates |
|
Fire
Ground Survival Training Program
(International Association of Fie
Fighters)
September 2, 2010 - There is no other call more challenging to fire ground operations than a MAYDAY call - the unthinkable moment when a fire fighter's personal safety is in imminent danger. To help fire fighters prepare for and survive a Mayday, the IAFF has developed a comprehensive Fire Ground Survival training program.
Fire fighter fatality data compiled by the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) have shown that fire fighters "becoming trapped and disoriented represent the largest portion of structural fire ground fatalities." The incidents in which fire fighters have lost their lives, or lived to tell about it, have a consistent theme: inadequate situational awareness put them at risk.
Fire fighters don't plan to be lost, disoriented, injured or trapped during a structure fire or emergency incident. But fires are unpredictable, volatile and ruthless - and they will not go according to plan. What a fire fighter knows about a fire before entering a blazing building may radically change within minutes once inside the structure. Smoke, low visibility, lack of oxygen, structural instability and an unpredictable fire ground can cause even the most seasoned fire fighter to be overwhelmed in an instant.
So it's not a matter of IF the MAYDAY happens, it's WHEN!
The IAFF Fire Ground Survival training course is a comprehensive curriculum developed using near misses, close calls and fire fighter fatalities to address the critical elements of fire ground survival. Information from the IAFF, IAFC, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Underwriters Laboratories (UL), USFA, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the military was used to develop the five-part curriculum:
- Mayday Prevention
- Being Ready for the Mayday
- Self-Survival Procedures.
- Self-Survival Skills
- Fire Fighter Expectations of Command During a Mayday
Successful completion of this course requires the study of actual near misses and fatalities to reinforce the curriculum. Students listen to presentations, view videos of simulated Mayday incidents and read documentation supporting how best to prevent a Mayday, as well as how best to prepare for and handle an actual Mayday.
In addition, students learn the specific actions a fire fighter must perform to assure the highest degree of survivability when things on the fire ground go wrong, as well as the specific actions the incident commander, dispatchers and others on the fire ground must take to assist in the fire fighter's rescue.
Mastery of the concepts are evaluated using a post-test for each section. This Fire Ground Survival awareness course is a pre-requisite for participation in the Fire Ground Survival Instructor Training (Train-the-Trainer/TtT) Course. Information regarding this course will be available soon. (Click here to begin the IAFF Fire Ground Survival Awareness Course.)
For more information, contact the IAFF Department of Occupational Health, Safety and Medicine at (202) 737-8484.
August 18, 2010 - As many of you are aware, Rick Bacon has been named as a recipient of the 2010 Jim Thorpe Courage Award. The awards event will be held at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum on August 28, 2010 beginning at 6:00 p.m., dinner served at 7:00 p.m. with a dance afterward. Tickets for the event are $150 each and Rick needs to know by tomorrow if you would like to attend. If interested please contact Rick at 703-0790 or 831-0914.
The INTEGRIS Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Hospital Courage Awards were established in 1994 to recognize and honor individuals who have overcome disabilities caused by injury or illness by facing the physical and mental challenges of rehabilitation with courage and determination.
The awards are named after the man known as the World's Greatest Athlete. Jim Thorpe, a Sac and Fox Indian, won gold medals in the 1912 Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden, in the pentathlon and decathlon events. Those medals were confiscated in 1913 on the grounds that Thorpe had been a professional athlete. The medals were presented again to the Thorpe family in 1983.
Thorpe went on to establish a career in professional football, and was a founding father of the National Football League.
The Courage Awards are presented yearly to one national and two
local recipients (one adult and one child)
In 1995, INTEGRIS Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Hospital was designated
the rehabilitation facility of choice for retired and active NFL
players by the National Football League Players Association.
The national award represents the ongoing relationship between
the Jim Thorpe Association in Oklahoma City, INTEGRIS Jim Thorpe
Rehabilitation Center and the National Football League Players
Association.
National recipients are active or retired NFL players.
IAFF2067 Recognized
in the 2010 Media Awards Contest
(International Association
of Fire Fighters)
August 18, 2010 - Two hundred and forty-five entries in the 2010 Media Awards Contest attest to the fact that for today’s fire fighter, truth is stranger than fiction. People and animals, buildings and systems fail and endanger others in unique and largely unpredictable ways. A seemingly infinite series of natural and manmade catastrophes cause fire fighters everywhere to give their all, all day and all night. In their off hours – as many entries demonstrate – these dedicated personnel work to preserve essential funding, as well as make a difference in their own communities throughout the United States and Canada.
IAFF Local 2067 and its website were recognized in this competition which pays tribute to those who, in the public media and through their affiliates, document the great and the small in the life of fire fighters everywhere. (IAFF 2010 Media Contest Site...)
Norman Sales Tax Collections Rise
Again
(The Norman Transcript)
August 16, 2010 - Sales tax collections for August were up in Norman compared with last year, marking the fourth consecutive month of gains over 2009.
According to documents released by the city, sales tax revenues
received Monday totaled $3,868,791, a 6.59 percent increase over
August 2009.
Two months into the 2011 fiscal year, sales tax collections are
up 4.11 percent, compared with last fiscal year. States
Testing Whether Public Pension Benefits Can be Taken Away August 11, 2020
- State legislators are beginning to challenge one of the ironclad
tenets of public pension policy: that states cannot legally reduce
pension benefits for current and future retirees. Lawmakers in Colorado, Minnesota and South Dakota
voted earlier this year to limit cost-of-living increases they
previously had promised to thousands of current and future retirees,
who courts historically have protected from benefit reductions. Not
surprisingly, retirees in each state have filed lawsuits asking
judges to restore their annual benefit increases to what they were
previously. Lawmakers, state retirement systems, public
employee unions and others in the pension policy arena are closely
watching the outcome of the legal challenges. If the courts do not
reinstate the retirees’ benefits, a flood of states could follow the
lead of Colorado, Minnesota and South Dakota. The reverse also would
be true. “If the plaintiffs are successful, it may discourage
legislators in other states from attempting to diminish benefits,”
says Keith Brainard, research director at the National Association
of State Retirement Administrators. (Read
more...) Tulsa
Firefighter Pay Cuts to be Reversed August 6, 2010
- Tulsa Firefighters' Union President Stan May confirms that an
agreement has been worked out with the city to restore the pay cuts
firefighters took during the last fiscal year. The agreement would
reverse the 5.2% wage cuts firefighters voted to accept in order to
avoid layoffs. May says the city council will have to approve a
budget amendment adding $300,000 to the fire department's
budget. That could happen within the next few days. (Related...)
Senator Colburn Places Hold on S. 3267
City documents also show that this month’s sales tax check from the
Oklahoma Tax Commission is higher than the one received in August
2008, a few months before Oklahoma significantly felt the effects of
the Great Recession. (Read
More...)
(Stateline)
(KJRH.com)
(OSFA)
August 5, 2010 - Senator Colburn has placed a hold on S. 3267, the legislation reauthorizing the FIRE and SAFER grant programs. Although the Senator voiced concerns about the bill at its Committee markup, he did not vote against it, nor did he take that opportunity to offer any amendments to improve the bill.
The Senator's concerns include provisions extending the SAFER waivers and also waiving certain requirements under FIRE in case of financial hardship as well as provisions lowering the local matches for both programs. He also opposes the allocations to different types of fire departments and claims that the programs are "unconstitutional" as funding the fire service should not be a federal function. We know that the Military cannot respond as quickly to national disasters or acts of terrorism as the Fire Department does, therefore it is imperative to have adequately staffed and equipped First Responders. National Security must include First Responders to effectively save lives and quickly bring stability in a national disaster to prevent further damage.
Since 2001, Oklahoma has received 1,034 FIRE grants totaling $68,830,638. In 2009 alone Oklahoma received 91 FIRE grants totaling $7,239,783. Since 2005, Oklahoma has received 16 SAFER awards totaling $4,533,492. I do not have statistics for FY09 since that award round is not yet complete.
Some points to remind them of the need to equip local First Responders:
- The Murrah Federal Building Bombing
- Hurricane Katrina
- The Flood in Coffeyville
- The Tornadoes in Pitcher
- Grass Fires
We can go on from here to explain how we are a Federal concern. Ask him to remove his block on S. 3267 TODAY. Please contact the Senator or his staff today at the OKC or Tulsa office.
- Tulsa:
1800 South Baltimore
Suite 800
Tulsa, OK 74119
Main: 918-581-7651
Fax: 918-581-7195
100 North Broadway
Suite 1820
Oklahoma City, OK 73102
Main: 405-231-4941
Fax: 405-231-5051
July 31, 2010 - The Promotion Board associated with the upcoming Driver Engineer promotional exam has made a change to its roster. The new Promotional Board members are as follows: The Norman Fire Chief had selected Tony Atteberry and Leon Ragland. The IAFF has selected Mark Castell and new member, Ronny Davenport. In addition, the HR department has a representative as the fifth member, who would only vote when there is a tie.
The IAFF remains confident the board will reaffirm and hold itself to the value of fairness we all expect from any Promotion Board. The working confines of the Board, as pertaining to source material, remain as it was initially posted on January 5, 2010. Again, for ALL those involved, the source materials are comprised of, and therefore limited to, the following:
-
IFSTA "Pumping Apparatus Driver/Operator Handbook" 2nd Edition -
IFSTA "Aerial Apparatus Driver/Operator Handbook" 2nd Edition -
IFSTA "Fireground Support Operations" 1st Edition -
IFSTA "Fire Service Ground Ladders" 9th Edition -
IFSTA "Fire Hose Practices" 8th Edition
Any and all concerns with actual attempts involving the "board" in adding to these source documents1, or any subsequent, worrisome rumor thereof, are hereby squashed. Candidates should continue to prepare as they have since the beginning of the year with those study materials in mind. All attempts to the contrary will be met in kind.
(1The justification for altering the posted source material is limited only "...to the applicability of the documents...to the position being filled. Non-applicable sections of the source documents may be deleted from further use by majority vote of the Promotion Board", as per Union contract.)
July 23, 2010 - The IAFF District 11 Caucus was held on July 21 and 22 in Fort Worth, TX. At a previous week’s Board meeting the IAFF Executive Board approved several resolutions for submission to the delegates at convention. The total Per Capita attached to these resolutions is 68 ½ cents. The Caucus itself sifted through roughly 47 resolutions in preparation for the 50th Convention in August. Local 2067 representatives, Butch Crawford, Tim McDermott and Greg Skelly were in attendance.
2010 IAFF 11th District Caucus Report
(submitted by Tim McDermott) (Photo
Album...)
Your Local 2067 representatives
attending the 11th District Caucus, held in Fort Worth, TX this week, have returned. Butch Crawford,
Tim McDermott and Greg Skelly joined roughly 200 other brothers from
IAFF locals from Texas and Oklahoma to discuss the various
resolutions to be heard and voted upon during the upcoming IAFF 50th
Convention. This caucus holds the 11th District firm in its own
resolve in preparation to cast our votes at the convention.
The caucus equally was a great opportunity to touch base with our
fellow brothers from the area while enjoying the fellowship, food
and comradery one would typically find at these events.
The Fort Worth IAFF Local 440 Union Hall was found to be an ideal
setting in which to stage the procedures over the two-day gathering.
The new building acquired by these Texas Firefighters was indeed
impressive. A massive meeting room, clean restrooms and lobby, well
organized offices and conference rooms were seen by all as a place
of envy. Local 440 members have something to be very proud in calling their
own.

Upon arrival, the hosts placed before the crowd a generous
helping of food during the first evening. BBQ, dessert and chilled
beverages flowed from the well organized kitchen thanks in part to
the assistance of what appeared to be the Ladies Auxiliary of Forth
Worth.
After the conclusion of our registration, dinner and greetings we found entertainment in downtown Fort Worth thanks to the knowledge that Greg had a cousin, Jamie Richards, who was performing with his country band at the local, out-door night spot, “8.0”. We were joined by a following of IAFF visitors to the event where happiness grew as the night progressed; one obviously would expect this.
The next morning, beginning at 9:00 a.m., we were down to
business as the Caucus drew several honored guests. The crowd was
addressed by General President Harold A. Schaitberger, General
Secretary-Treasurer Thomas H. Miller, and 11th District Vice
President “Sandy” McGee, among others. Prior to the remarks by those
IAFF Leaders were those by Fort Worth, TX Mayor Mike Moncrief.
The theme of the day seemed to stem from the difficulties having been caused by a withering economy effecting our members around the U.S. & Canada. Some are observably worse in point than others. Fort Worth itself in fact, according to Mayor Moncrief, is working to solve a 77 million dollar gap in its own budget. Local 440 however, is comforted in a close, working relationship with Mayor Moncrief. While agreements aren’t always easy between them, his door is always propped open for this group of firefighters. The Mayor was quoted as saying, “…since 9/11 your group has been branded with a new found respect. Neither of us wishes to violate that respect. I for one will not balance our gap with the safety of your members!” Fort Worth is privileged to have such leadership in which to work with and communicate. We should all be so fortunate.
General President Harold Schaitberger energized the crowd, as he
often does, with his comments concerning our task as Union officials
and members. He spoke on the National Collective Bargaining Bill now
being considered in Washington. The importance of this to the fire
service is immeasurable. Oklahoma enjoys collective bargaining now.
However, others are presently left behind in that process.
The GP spoke in depth on the economy and the effects it had on many Locals around our Country. In a great many municipalities we have seen the result others experience causing a ripple effect throughout the IAFF. Often, this sets the stage for attacks on pensions, wages and other benefits earned and bargained upon previously to be a catalyst in which a chiseling is seen by hungry city leaders. We hear words from municipalities similar to “unsustainable”, “gold plated”, “I don’t get that” and “where’s mine”. As members of the IAFF, and the Norman Fire Department, we expect nothing less than to receive the resources needed to accomplish our jobs; doing so safely and effectively.
The IAFF is working hard, from the top at the International in Washington to each individual Local in communities around the nation, to battle a misleading and/or misguided believe that we must pay for the shortcomings of a downed economy with the safety, sweat and merits of our membership.
Mr. Schaitberger rolled a great deal of his comments into the
battleground of today. Local Political Action Committees are the key
to what now needs to be accomplished in surviving the war being
raged on our Locals. Every aspect of our lives can be traced in
varying measure to someone holding political office or some element
affected by politics. “We are not a club! We are a trade union!”
Therefore, Norman Professional Firefighters, along with Locals
everywhere, must arm ourselves with the same battleground gear in which our
foes are equipped. In addition to helping fire friendly candidates
in our own community and state, Washington D.C. has become the
‘local’ political action area for all of us as well. The battle
waging in a town three states away is also our shared theatre of war.
Until we come to understand this, we will remain having one foot
stuck in a yielding, local pep-club.
The IAFF has a big job ahead. The resolutions presented today, as they will be with perhaps some modifications at the 50th Convention, are another stepping stone to further the work of the International Association of Fire Fighters. Brought to mind today in our Political Action, Graphical Information Systems, Safer Grants, and other items bolstered by the ‘International’ are but a sampling of things to be improved upon with our help at the upcoming convention in San Diego, CA this August.
Money for
Sculptures, But Not Firefighters
(The American Spectator)
July 23, 2010 - Ann Arbor, Mich., is laying off firefighters, but it has enough surplus cash lying around to buy an $850,000 water sculpture, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy reported this week in a story that gained international attention when it was linked on the Drudge Report. While the nation scoffs at liberal Ann Arbor's backwards priorities, many people might be overlooking similar scandals in their own back yards. The shocking truth is that governments across the United States are maintaining unjustifiable levels of arts funding while crying poverty. (Read More...)
U.S.
House of Representatives Gives Fire Fighters Collective Bargaining
Rights
(International Association of Fire
Fighters)
July 1, 2010 - The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill to give collective bargaining rights to fire fighters and other public safety officers.
The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act assures that fire fighters in every state will have the right to talk to their employer about how to improve public safety and do their jobs more safely. The initiative was included in a supplemental appropriation bill adopted by a vote of 239-182. “Seventy-five years after passage of the National Labor Relations Act, fire fighters are a step closer to having the same rights that workers in the private sector have had since 1935,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger.
While most fire fighters and law enforcement officers are already provided bargaining rights under state laws, too many public safety officers do not have the ability to present ideas about how they can better protect the public safety. The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act will ensure that every state allows discussions between first responders and the agencies that employ them, and will promote productive partnerships between labor and management.
Collective bargaining is especially important in light of the fiscal crisis facing many localities. Over the past two years, fire fighters have offered millions of dollars in concessions and given back raises and benefits previously agreed to in order to prevent cuts that would undermine public safety.
The Senate will take up the measure following its July 4 recess.
The New
Class War On Public Workers
by Amy Traub - National Public Radio
June 22, 2010 - A new class war has been declared, but it's not on bankers earning seven-figure bonuses. Instead, as Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels was quoted as saying recently, the "new privileged class in America" is government employees, who "are better paid than the people who pay their salaries." We have to escape "public sector unions' stranglehold on state and local governments," agreed Mort Zuckerman, billionaire editor of U.S. News & World Report, "or it will crush us." Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal's Paul Gigot ominously predicts "a showdown looming across the country between taxpayers and public employee unions over pay and pensions."
This decades-old assault on government employees has acquired new potency at a time of widespread economic suffering and populist rage. But the attacks have little basis in reality! A recent study by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the National Institute on Retirement Security finds that when such factors as education and work experience are accounted for, state and local employees earn 11 to 12 percent less than comparable private sector workers. Even when public employees' relatively decent pensions and health coverage are included, their total compensation still lags behind workers in private industry. A separate analysis by the Center for Housing Policy finds that despite recent declines in home prices, police officers and elementary school teachers still don't earn enough to buy a typical house in two out of five metro areas. Firefighters and librarians are unable to afford the median home in the New York, Los Angeles and Chicago metro areas. Nationwide, a school bus driver's wage isn't enough to pay rent on a standard two-bedroom apartment.
The lavish lifestyle of public workers is a myth, but the right-wing mythmakers know it's a powerful talking point. By attacking public workers, they can demonize "big labor" and "big government" at the same time, while deflecting attention from the more logical target of Middle America's rage: the irresponsible Wall Street traders, whose risky, high-profit business practices brought down the economy, and the lax regulators who let them get away with it.
At its heart, the scapegoating of public employees is an insidious way to divide public and private sector workers who share many of the same interests. The desired result is clear: there will be less pressure to address the decades-long erosion of pay and benefits for most working people in the private sector if public anger can be focused on the bus mechanic who still has health coverage. With a slim majority of all union workers employed in the public sector, the conservative class war amounts to dragging unionized public employees down to the level of contingent no-benefits workers before they can leverage their power to help private sector workers raise their own workplace standards.
This orchestrated assault may already be working: witness formerly pro-worker politicians like New York's Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Cuomo's attempt to demonstrate toughness by proclaiming, "We are going to be tangling with public employee unions." At the same time, the myth of the overpaid public employee is being used to undermine a range of progressive priorities, from financial reform to job creation bills like the Local Jobs for America Act, which would boost the economy by preserving public services and public sector jobs. It's time for progressives to fight back and confront the falsehood. (Read Full Article...)
Annual
Firefighter Fatality Report reveals sharp drop in number of
fatalities in 2009
NFPA report shines light on cardiac care needed for on-the-job
firefighters
(National Fire Protection Association)
June 7, 2010 - For the first time in three years, the number of on-the-job firefighter deaths in the United States has dropped below 100. The National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) annual Firefighter Fatality Report (PDF, 267 KB), released today at the NFPA Conference & Expo, shows a sharp drop in the number of fatalities in 2009. Eighty-two firefighters were killed in the line of duty last year, substantially fewer than the 10-year average of 98 and down even more from the 105 killed in 2008. This is the lowest annual total since NFPA recorded 79 deaths in 1993 and the third lowest total since NFPA began this study in 1977.
“While a drop over one year certainly isn’t enough to show a trend, it is definitely encouraging to see the number of firefighter fatalities drop well below that 10-year average,” said Rita Fahy, NFPA’s manager of fire databases and systems. “We are hopeful that we will continue to see fewer and fewer firefighter fatalities over the next 10 years.”
Each year, NFPA collects data on all firefighter fatalities in the U.S. that resulted from injuries or illnesses that occurred while the victims were on-duty. The report is a compelling picture of the risks to the nation’s firefighters.
As in most years, the number one cause of on-duty firefighter fatalities was sudden cardiac death. While the number of such deaths has been trending downwards since the late 1970s, sudden cardiac death still accounted for 39 percent of the on-duty deaths in the last five years, and 42 percent in 2009 alone, underscoring the need for wellness-fitness programs and health screenings for firefighters across the nation. (Read More...)
City
Should Cut its Losses on TIF
by Don Holyfield as published by the
Norman Transcript
May 22, 2010 - At the most recent University Park (UNP) TIF Oversight Committee meeting some members expressed concern and frustration over the status of the TIF and agreement with the developer. It appears that the developer has not met the terms and conditions of all his obligations as provided in the TIF agreement.
The public was told that this would be a spectacular development with high end retailers that would draw consumers from Dallas to Kansas City. What we have is a strip mall that has for the most part retailers in many other parts of the city that duplicate products sold on the TIF.
The major difference in the retail sales is that only a portion of the sales tax (40 percent) generated at the TIF goes into the City’s general fund. The retailers outside of the TIF who played by the rules and paid for their own infrastructure are having customers siphoned off from their respective business. In addition, they are subsidizing their competition with their own tax dollars. These are tax funds being diverted to the TIF that should be going to the general fund to pay employee salaries and maintain the city's essential services.
With the city’s employees facing loss of jobs because of the alleged budget crises, there is no reason why the City should not cut its losses and end its partnership with the developer. The City would begin to receive available tax revenues at the UNP. The public should insist the City Council do so now.
Pensions
Under Attack
(Michele Shaffer
- IAFF Blogger)
May 13, 2010 - We are in an era that may well be remembered for the most serious assaults on public pensions in the nation’s history. Every day, we see news headlines taking aim at public employee pensions, calling these plans grossly generous and accusing unions of plundering state coffers. But we know that pensions are not padded gifts from employers, but rather deferred wages earned and owned by fire fighters and designed to provide for them and their families when they are no longer on the job. It’s time to fight the attacks on public pensions and debunk the critics.
We cannot afford to be complacent or unprepared to fight off these challenges. If we fail, IAFF members, their families and future generations of professional fire fighters will pay the price because reversing the damage will be difficult, perhaps impossible.
The IAFF and our Committee on Pensions and Health Care are currently developing an online resource of tools our affiliates can use to fight back and stop the beatings on pensions. In addition, we’re writing and publishing a Pension Handbook that will help affiliate leaders better understand pension basics, including the distinction between defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans. This Handbook will be a great resource for affiliate leaders to educate themselves on the fundamental aspects of pensions. Finally, we have conducted a survey of all fire fighter pension plans in both the United States and Canada and are compiling the results, which include valuable information on benefit formulas, retirement age, funding levels and cost-of-living adjustments. The information will be available to affiliate leaders through the IAFF.
Presumptive
Health Initiative
(International Association of Fire
Fighters)
May 11, 2010 - The IAFF Division of Occupational Health, Safety & Medicine has developed an information database of the current presumptive disability provisions in the United States and Canada.
A presumptive disability law links a particular occupation with a disease or condition that has been shown to be a hazard associated with that occupation. As a result of this linkage, if an individual employed in the occupation covered by the presumption contracts a disease or condition that is specified in the presumptive law, then that disease or condition is presumed to have come from that occupation. In this case, the burden of proof shifts from the employee to the employer to demonstrate that the condition was not in fact associated with the occupation but with another cause.
For fire fighters and emergency medical responders, scientific evidence has demonstrated an increased risk for heart disease, lung disease, cancer, and infectious diseases. At this time, most of the United States and Canadian provinces have some form of presumptive law that applies to fire fighters and emergency response personnel. These laws vary greatly between states and provinces. (Learn More...)
Media
Misreporting Public vs Private Compensation
(IAFF Blogger -
Lori Moore-Merrell)
May 7, 2010 - With municipalities continuing to attack fire department budgets, and your pay and benefits, is our local paper inaccurately reporting [or editorizing] how rich state and local workers are these days?
Here’s a little help shining a bright light on that kind of shoddy reporting. This study by the National Institute on Retirement Security uses solid data and analysis to show that “state and local government workers earn an average of 11% and 12% less, respectively, than comparable private sector workers.”
While the study may not apply directly to fire fighters, it can be [...said] decision-makers and the media [shows...] how incorrectly the other side is representing itself.






