I am concerned why the Fire Department is not doing what the other city departments have already done to assist the city in these harsh ecomonic times. The other bargaining units have made concessions to help balance the budget but the Fire Department thus far refuses to share the load. As a direct result of their refusal several additional Police Department employees will lose their jobs. Does the Fire Department employees really believe that under these economic times they are entitled to a pay raise, especially when other city employees will lose their jobs? Why are the cuts in the Police Department when they have already been cut and not the Fire Department, since they are the only ones unwilling to assist the City in these tough economic times? Enough is enough, City leadership and Council members please do not let this continue. I am not sure what options the City Manager has in this matter but all avenues should be explored. I wish someone would explain this to the citizens of Mountain View.

I'm happy the City was able to work out a solution and achieve a balanced budget. In these economic times, that is no easy feat, and I admire the sacrifice that some of the departments have made to make this happen.

However, this does not solve the root cause of the problem, or address the elephant in the middle of the room. The pensions and labor contracts the City has with the various unions guarantee this problem will return next year, if growth doesn't keep up with the percentage rise in healthcare and pension benefits. If we continue to apply the same strategies that allowed the City to meet the budget this year, it will mean more job cuts, more expensive services, less remaining services, and lower salaries for City employees. This is not a sustainable strategy moving forward.

The elephant is not in a negotiating mood. (It's just not their year). There was an interesting piece of information in the SJMN - Sunnyvale public safety officers are 'cross trained' to do police and some fire suppression (& paramedic) functions. There was some knowing discussion on this forum of how the majority of MV Firehouse calls are now paramedic functions.
If we have one public safety group willing to deal reasonably with the future - and another stuck in the realities of the past: guess who we as a city should go forward with. If you attended the jam packed (overflow) Council first meeting on the budget, you might have noticed that Duggan's chart that listed past efficiency improvements by Dept. (Fire was dead last). No negotiations can be seen as good - [let's totally change the hiring/training/retention of public safety to match a benchmark like Sunnyvale's]
At least I hope their citizens are not just dying in the streets [but I have no data} !

No problem. Next year slash their salaries across the board by 10% like SJ is proposing.