Berding lies about Fire Dept. contract expense

Following up Monday's story, COAST again wonders, "are we paying our safety personnel too much?"

What we found is that Cincinnati is already getting amazing “bang for our bucks” when compared to other cities.

The top chart shows our fire service offers the second highest ratio of first responders to population. We are very well protected indeed.

Some other cities elect not to maintain such a high staffing ratio. Those cities use overtime instead to compensate for lack of permanent staff. Unfortunately, this skews their budgets higher.

The bottom chart shows that Cincinnati is 4th lowest in terms of the amount of money we spend per firefighter. These figures are total budget divided by firefighters, including taxes, benefits, training, and department issued gear. Take home pay is much less.

Berding & Council spent the last 2 years buying new windows for City Hall for $5 million, radio recycle bins for $6 million, and “streetcar preparations” for $2.8 million.

Jeff Berding likes to spend your tax money. And he thinks your safety is more frivolous than those things. Tell Jeff to slither back to “the real world.”

Berding bashes union agreement he approved

In reality, both unions have no bonus structure. Their pay, benefits and working conditions are governed by contracts negotiated through a lengthy bargaining process; contracts which Berding himself approved.

The Enquirer reports that “A majority of Cincinnati City Council members say they’ll stop the layoffs of 275 police officers and firefighters if both unions agree to a total of $20 million in concessions.

$20,000,000 in concessions divided by approximately 1700 people means each and every cop and firefighter would give back about $12,000 a year or $1,000 a month. That's an awfully steep price to pay for a streetcar. Would you take that large a pay cut to keep your current job? Or would you move away for a better job?

The same Enquirer article said Council members “talked about it being time for unions to understand their contracts are too lucrative…” Councilmember Bortz said it was time for the unions “to join the real world.”

Is this true? Are we paying our safety personnel too much?

COAST decided to find out.

Using data from The Enquirer, it’s easy to see that Cincinnati’s cost per officer is the lowest of comparable cities. The lowest by far. More than $10,000 lower per officer. We’re already getting a bargain, and if the layoffs stand, our loss is liable to be these other cities’ gain.

Berding & Council have known about the current budget situation for the better part of a year, and maybe two. Yet they spent $5 million on new windows for City Hall, $6 million on radio recycle bins, and $2.8 million on streetcar preparations.

Jeff Berding likes to spend your tax money. And he thinks your safety is more frivolous than those things. Let’s send Jeff back to “the real world.”

Berding auctions off his principles

The overriding message in Jeff Berding's campaign materials and video appearances (like the one above) is that citizen safety comes first. And for a while he actually voted that way.

So what changed? Why is he now selling-out public safety and the same police and firefighters who fought for his election in favor of a streetcar that nobody needs and only a few people want?

FOP President Kathy Harrell asked him during a recent closed-door meeting specifically why he became the fifth vote for the streetcar after promising in his endorsement interview not to unless the project was completely funded by federal grants. He answered that Mayor Mallory strong-armed him into committing local dollars to the streetcar in exchange for bringing Berding's Port Authority give-away to a vote.

There you have it. Berding agreed to support Mallory's boondoggle, if Mallory would agree to support Berding's boondoggle. Berding auctioned of his principles, and financed the sale with your tax money.

Let Councilmember Berding know your safety isn't worth trading for a streetcar. Write him at Jeff.Berding@Cincinnati-OH.gov or call his office at 352-3283 or his city-paid cell phone at 378-0245.

Every City elected official has, at some point in their career, sought a higher office outside the city. Therefore it is important for all you county and suburban residents to weigh-in on this matter too. You can't vote against Jeff now, but you will have to someday. You might as well inform him of his future prospects while he can still rectify his mistakes.