Comments on: Mercer Study was a mistake

By: City Resident

City Resident — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:02:13 +0000

I believe it was Mayor Fogg who said he would not consider any offers for city hall because the employees liked working in that location.

By: Social Security

Social Security — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:34:57 +0000

My father is a retired fire fighter and worked side jobs here and there to help the family. When he went to get social security a couple years ago, he was informed since you have a pension, your benefits are half. Here he paid for all his quarters and only gets %50.

By: City employee

City employee — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:15:42 +0000

How about the city paying their employees a fair wage. They sit in that high rise building that should have been sold to a realtor after Ivan and say “let them eat cake” while everyone else struggles. If they can afford to build stadiums and buy an education for city residents kids certainly they can bring us up to the average.

By: Snuffy Smith

Snuffy Smith — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:08:43 +0000

I’d love to switch to FRS. I’m paying 11 percent of my salary for benefits that are the same or less in most cases to FRS. Better idea….let me .05 percent like the cops and I’ll be happy.

By: James

James — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:42:18 +0000

Granite Head — yes, but the city put all new general employees (and some current employees) in FRS 2 1/2 years ago. Would you be willing to switch to FRS?

By: Granite Head

Granite Head — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:12:22 +0000

James, Fire only gets one benefit, the others get a pension, deferred comp and social security replacement.

By: James

James — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:24:45 +0000

Granite Head — fire department employees do get a pension. They don’t contribute to social security but since their schedules are 24 on & 48 off, most of them have other jobs that do provide social security benefits.

By: Granite Head

Granite Head — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:20:21 +0000

Anon, new city employees in FRS get a pension and Social security. Fire gets neither. I was commenting on the study, i don’t think there was a comparisom with FRS employees.

By: James

James — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:18:31 +0000

It’s not just police officers & firefighters that private sector employers don’t employ. How about those who oversee & operate the gas company, or supervise the airport, or manage the housing department, etc, etc. You can’t compare most government services to private sector business. If I don’t like the restaurant, grocery store, clothing store, etc. that I go to, there are lots of others that I can choose from. Who else do I turn to for police, fire, parks, gas, housing, etc. services? I guess I could move to the county & have really substandard services, but that’s not why I choose to live in the city. I want city employees to be paid a livable wage. If we pay employees what they are worth, won’t they spend that money in local businesses, stimulate the economy & have more loyalty to their employer (the citizens of Pensacola)?

By: City-Resident

City-Resident — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:45:43 +0000

I wasn’t necessarly referring to firefiters and police how about the admin, parks and sanitation.

By: Travis

Travis — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:39:09 +0000

As the rep from Mercer said, many positions simply don’t have comparable counterparts in the private sector, like firefighters and police, for example.

By: Travis

Travis — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:37:11 +0000

Where are you going to find police and firefighters in the private sector?