3 fire captains in South Tahoe to be promoted
Three captains in the South Lake Tahoe Fire Department are being promoted to shift commander, a new position since the rank of battalion chief was done away with (and those three positions eliminated) when the City Council approved the 2011-12 budget.
Jim Drennan, Rob Hembree and Dan Sullivan will be officially promoted Nov. 21 at 2:30pm at the city offices at Lake Tahoe Airport.
They report directly to the fire chief, a position being filled this fiscal year by Police Chief Brian Uhler.
This link provides a job description of what is expected of the men and their salary range. This reflects a boost in pay of 10 percent from what they were making as captains.
Drennan has been with South Tahoe since December 2002, having started as a reserve two years before that. He has lived in the area since 1989. Drennan is also an instructor at the Lake Tahoe Community College Fire Academy.
Hembree also started his fire career as a reserve before joining the department full time in 2002. He moved to South Tahoe in 1995.
Sullivan is a South Tahoe High grad and one of the original EMS coordinators. He has been with the department since 1999, serving as a reserve three years prior to that.
A position still to be dealt within the department is that of fire marshal. Ray Zachau, as battalion chief, was also fire marshal. And he still is. Even though his job was eliminated last month, city officials have not determined when his last day is. They city also has not posted the job of fire marshal.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
So, let me see if I’ve got this right–they eliminated 3 positions to save money and make it look like they’re being responsible to the citizens. So then a few weeks later they CREATE 3 new positions that didn’t exist before so that the guys who would have gotten the other positions in the first place will now get the new positions, and the corresponding raise in pay, and they’ll still need to fill those guys’ old spots, and on down the line.
Business as usual.
Sure looks like a lot of budgetary smoke & mirrors machinations the City is going thru in order to convince the public it’s saving us money?! Kind of reminds me of the 90’s when the Council announced its plan, “Destination 2000” which also was a supposed effort to ‘right size’ the City govt. And of course those savings never actually materialized!
Plus, interesting to note, both Davis & Cole were also on the Council back then! So beware when the City comes to the taxpayer with another proposed tax increase, all the while proclaiming, “We’ve cut everything we can!”
How stupid is this? They lay off three and promote three? Lucy-you got some splaining to do.
Actually, the three shift commanders get paid a lot less than the three cheifs they laid off after their long dedicated careers. That’s where the savings is.
Working around the Union is my guess.
Message to City: No more tax increases. Don’t even think about it.
Congrats to the three guys for the promotion. I am sure they will have thier work cut out for them. Logically the city should contract with Lake Valley for the fire marshal service. With the major slow down in new construction the work load should be able to be absorbed. Do not see the need for a position to be there for only that service.
These guys need to put some training wheels on their fire engines. If you add up their years of service they don’t make two digits.
The trash men are more important.
Don’t forget the 4% raise rest of the fiermen got. But we’re saving money now!
Class Title: FIRE SHIFT COMMANDER
Class Code: 2300
Salary: $23.01 – $27.97 Hourly
$5,583.10 – $6,786.32 Monthly
$66,997.26 – $81,435.83 Annually
Now that’s not a bad salary for sitting on your butt watching T.V. But Tony O’Rourke is saving you money !! Just like the $15,600 dollars a month that we pay him plus benefits, $500 dollar car allowance, Paid retirement, paid medical for he and family and a City Credit card that averages $1,500 a month, DAM, IT DON’T GET NO BETTER THAN THAT.
Some day you people are going to wake up.
I agree with Parker. It’s another D2K style boondoggle. The CM & Council get rid of people on their “hit list”, claim to be saving money, give themselves raises, etc. Then turn around & promote/hire more people. Let’s hear it for cronyism & ongoing corruption.
Three-card Monty or Shell Game. Apparently, it is still the only game in town (on the California side, anyway).
Everyone wants to complain about how much a firefighter makes or how many stations we have until it’s their kid choking or their house is on fire. Then they complain of they don’t get there fast enough. No, I’m not a fireman. But a firefighter/paramedic saved my wife’s life. So, they have the upmost respect from me and my family. There is a lot of work that goes on running a fire department that folks don’t see. What bothers me is that just like one of the posters said, there isn’t a lot of experience running the department now and they have a police chief as the head? Sounds like our CM set them up for catastrophic failure. Maybe he should go back to the private sector where failure doesn’t necessarily mean loss of life. A cities number one prioroty is to provide for the safety of its citizens. Not this city’s.
Hey Parker you got it right!! Actually the city council needs a cleaned with a D&C.