Paramedics work on four day rotations…Also, feel free to visit my firehouse any day to see what a shift is like. And then come back for the next shift. And the next shift. And be a parent and spouse and neighbor in between. Now do it for 30 years.
Thanks for the rotation flag - corrected in the above! That's particularly annoying since I had it right in an earlier article about ambulance staffing.
And in all seriousness, thank you for what you do.
We have a lot of respect for paramedics, and firefighters, and police officers. Conor's written previously about the need to staff *more* ambulance teams, because we're burning out the teams we have and are under-resourced relative to other cities. But it's also true that the folks who signed up since 2011 knew what the Tier 2 pension benefits were - this was never a surprise. Now with the funding levels dropping below 20%, I think there's a real risk that the city can never pay these benefits -- or has to get by while cutting first-responder jobs that we desperately need.
The pension fund is a real concern for taxpayers AND for members of CFD. We talk about it constantly. It’s important to remember that members of CFD are also Chicagoans. We pay taxes, send our kids to the schools, and buy groceries. A thriving Chicago means we thrive as citizens. We want everything to be better, including our pension benefits, which were at risk of failing to meet Safe Harbor.
Additionally, specific to your statement that we knew what a Tier 2 pension was when hired, it doesn’t mean we should simply sit back and do nothing. (Also, safe harbor only became an issue as the years went by and social security benefits increased at a much more rapid pace than our tier 2 retirement benefits. And as time goes on, without this bill, the gap only widens.) If someone entered college and wanted to become a journalist, we wouldn’t discourage them because newspapers were upended by the digital age. We work to improve the system. Putting the onus on a public servant for “knowing what the benefits were” makes an unfair system seem like it should remain unfair.
Further, being a firefighter or paramedic is a calling for most of us. We make a lot of sacrifices, and this particular bill is not the thing that will break this city. It’s just the most recent thing that people can point to as a boogie man for failed governance of bygone eras. Members of CFD didn’t make this mess. Making us the face of it feels disrespectful. This is why I would invite anyone to come to my firehouse and see what it’s like. This job is simple - put out fires and provide pre-hospital care - but very challenging. Providing parity between city firemen and downstate firemen is not only the right thing to do, it’s the legal thing to do. And providing a modest increase in retirement benefits shouldn’t be the thing that has all these media outlets and business folks up in arms. I appreciate the candor, but this bill supporting first responders isn’t controversial.
I hear that. Every CFD member is paying taxes here, and raising families here, and hoping their kids will want to live and work here in the future. And thanks to the combination of pension and residency requirements, you couldn't up sticks and switch departments even if you wanted to.
I certainly believe Firefighters (and other city employees) deserve a decent retirement. I don't think this was the right way to do that - and would've been much more supportive of a Tier 2 fix that reflected our fiscal challenges (and took into account some of other differences between CFD and downstate departments).
I can't imagine we'll see eye-to-eye on this one. But to echo Conor, thanks for taking risks and doing hard work to take care of Chicagoans when we need it most.
Bankruptcy seems increasingly unavoidable, particularly if the presumption is that once a fund reaches a 0% funded ratio that the taxing bodies (in this case, the City) must pay benefits due directly, rather than the fund just going insolvent and cutting all benefit payments to whatever level ongoing contributions can support.
If the city can hold out for another 5-10 years, a sufficient turnover in state elites (courts, legislators) to millenials and zoomers may also change interpretive attitudes on whether a "contract" where both parties agree that 2+2=6 is even truly enforceable. Boomers and Gen Xers are too vested and interested to grapple with the material mistake of fact inherent to Illinois pensions where benefit and contribution levels have been treated completely separately and almost purely politically, irrespective of actuarial reality and basic math.
Chicago has a reputation for rebuilding out of the ashes. Until Chicago burns to the ground and DEMOCRATS are removed from every corner of local and state government, this is what you get…
I'm slowly beginning to think that Brandon Johnson may not have been the best option in the last mayoral race.
Does this bill go through will Vallas in office? I bet it still does, considering how hard the cops came out for him.
Nice job on this.
Paramedics work on four day rotations…Also, feel free to visit my firehouse any day to see what a shift is like. And then come back for the next shift. And the next shift. And be a parent and spouse and neighbor in between. Now do it for 30 years.
Thanks for the rotation flag - corrected in the above! That's particularly annoying since I had it right in an earlier article about ambulance staffing.
And in all seriousness, thank you for what you do.
All good and thanks for that.
We have a lot of respect for paramedics, and firefighters, and police officers. Conor's written previously about the need to staff *more* ambulance teams, because we're burning out the teams we have and are under-resourced relative to other cities. But it's also true that the folks who signed up since 2011 knew what the Tier 2 pension benefits were - this was never a surprise. Now with the funding levels dropping below 20%, I think there's a real risk that the city can never pay these benefits -- or has to get by while cutting first-responder jobs that we desperately need.
The pension fund is a real concern for taxpayers AND for members of CFD. We talk about it constantly. It’s important to remember that members of CFD are also Chicagoans. We pay taxes, send our kids to the schools, and buy groceries. A thriving Chicago means we thrive as citizens. We want everything to be better, including our pension benefits, which were at risk of failing to meet Safe Harbor.
Additionally, specific to your statement that we knew what a Tier 2 pension was when hired, it doesn’t mean we should simply sit back and do nothing. (Also, safe harbor only became an issue as the years went by and social security benefits increased at a much more rapid pace than our tier 2 retirement benefits. And as time goes on, without this bill, the gap only widens.) If someone entered college and wanted to become a journalist, we wouldn’t discourage them because newspapers were upended by the digital age. We work to improve the system. Putting the onus on a public servant for “knowing what the benefits were” makes an unfair system seem like it should remain unfair.
Further, being a firefighter or paramedic is a calling for most of us. We make a lot of sacrifices, and this particular bill is not the thing that will break this city. It’s just the most recent thing that people can point to as a boogie man for failed governance of bygone eras. Members of CFD didn’t make this mess. Making us the face of it feels disrespectful. This is why I would invite anyone to come to my firehouse and see what it’s like. This job is simple - put out fires and provide pre-hospital care - but very challenging. Providing parity between city firemen and downstate firemen is not only the right thing to do, it’s the legal thing to do. And providing a modest increase in retirement benefits shouldn’t be the thing that has all these media outlets and business folks up in arms. I appreciate the candor, but this bill supporting first responders isn’t controversial.
I hear that. Every CFD member is paying taxes here, and raising families here, and hoping their kids will want to live and work here in the future. And thanks to the combination of pension and residency requirements, you couldn't up sticks and switch departments even if you wanted to.
I certainly believe Firefighters (and other city employees) deserve a decent retirement. I don't think this was the right way to do that - and would've been much more supportive of a Tier 2 fix that reflected our fiscal challenges (and took into account some of other differences between CFD and downstate departments).
I can't imagine we'll see eye-to-eye on this one. But to echo Conor, thanks for taking risks and doing hard work to take care of Chicagoans when we need it most.
Congrats on getting this in Crain's, y'all!
Thank you!
Really good, thanks for this
Bankruptcy seems increasingly unavoidable, particularly if the presumption is that once a fund reaches a 0% funded ratio that the taxing bodies (in this case, the City) must pay benefits due directly, rather than the fund just going insolvent and cutting all benefit payments to whatever level ongoing contributions can support.
If the city can hold out for another 5-10 years, a sufficient turnover in state elites (courts, legislators) to millenials and zoomers may also change interpretive attitudes on whether a "contract" where both parties agree that 2+2=6 is even truly enforceable. Boomers and Gen Xers are too vested and interested to grapple with the material mistake of fact inherent to Illinois pensions where benefit and contribution levels have been treated completely separately and almost purely politically, irrespective of actuarial reality and basic math.
Chicago has a reputation for rebuilding out of the ashes. Until Chicago burns to the ground and DEMOCRATS are removed from every corner of local and state government, this is what you get…