Forum… Or Against ‘em

By Count Friedrich von Olsen
I was a bit taken aback by word I received this week that Rick Mayhew, who holds the dual fire chief position in Upland and Montclair, is going to retire shortly after just about 16 months in those positions…
This is bad news for Upland and Montclair, but it is also bad news for the Los Angeles County cities of San Marino and Pasadena. And the fuller implication of this is bad news for taxpayers and residents in cities all over the state of California…
Rick, who lives in La Verne, was hired by Upland as its fire chief in February 2013. He came in to replace Dave Carrier, the retired fire chief from Ontario brought in to serve in an interim capacity in April 2012 following the retirement of Michael Antonucci. During Carrier’s tenure there had been discussion of closing down the Upland Fire Department altogether and Upland contracting with any of a number of fire departments, from San Bernardino County to Los Angeles County, to Ontario to Chino Valley, to CalFire…
The hiring of Rick was seen as a commitment to keeping the Upland Fire Department intact. He had never been a fire chief before, but he had an impressive 31-year track record as a firefighter first in South Pasadena, where he had risen to the position of battalion chief with the department there, and then with the San Marino Fire Department, where he acceded to the level of division chief. Upland had done about as well as it could do. Indeed, Rick Mayhew’s selection was a commitment to him, to the department and to the community. Underlying this, of course, was the belief that Rick Mayhew had likewise made a commensurate commitment to Upland…
Within a year there would be an indication that then-city manager Stephen Dunn and the city council had chosen wisely. Consulting with each other, Dunn and Montclair City Manager Edward Starr came up with a proposal to merge their respective fire department’s management and administration teams with an eye toward merging both departments altogether. First the Montclair City Council embraced the concept and then the Upland City Council. Faced with a not overwhelming but yet intense administrative challenge and an increased workload, Mayhew did not resist or hesitate, but jumped in with both feet and accommodated the preparation for the move and then facilitated it after both city councils approved the arrangement in December 2013. He efficiently devoted himself to making the arrangement work and coordinating managerial functions between the neighboring 73,732-population and 36,664-population cities, paving the way for a smooth transition into the next phase in which the higher-paid Upland firefighters will be working side-by-side with their lesser paid colleagues from Montclair…
No one can complain about the job he has done. But now that he is retiring, at the relatively youthful age of 54, I am going to complain about the job that he isn’t going to do…
As I suggested above, his hiring by Upland and then by Montclair entailed a three-way commitment: Montclair and Upland to him and he to Upland and Montclair. By taking this early retirement, I believe he is breaking his commitment…
First, it is robbing the residents of Upland and Montclair of his services. I know standards are changing, but less than a generation ago, early last decade and in the late 1990s, the standard age of retirement was 62. A generation ago the retirement age was 65. Before that it was 70, which was more than the average life expectancy. I am not suggesting that we consign Rick to staying as chief until he dies. But I think it would be proper that he remain in the position of Upland fire chief for more than two-and a-half years and in the position of combined Upland/Montclair fire chief for more than a year-and-one-half…
Second, of some consideration here is the pension system, of which Rich is to be a beneficiary. A factor in how large of a pension a public employee receives is the highest rate of pay earned at any point during the employee’s public career. That salary is multiplied in a formula that involves the number of years worked times a percentage, usually two percent in the case of non-safety employees and often two-and one-half or even three percent in the case of safety employees. In Rick’s case, his salary was boosted when he took on the dual Upland/Montclair assignment. This means that the pension he will receive, ultimately paid for by the taxpayers in Pasadena, San Marino, Upland and Montclair, will be higher…
To me it is a bit unseemly for someone to work his way up to the top of the totem pole and then, after being there only briefly, depart, taking with him the full advantages and perks of the top spot as if he had been their forever. In the case of public employees who by law are entitled to pull a very generous pension based upon the generous salary they received for the remainder or their lives courtesy of the taxpayers, this creates problems…
One problem is a practical financial one. A system that gives out such generous pensions to the growing numbers of those who have hustled up the public employment ladder and have left cannot sustain itself. It will break the bank. In time, it will collapse of its own weight…
And another problem is one of perception. Until this week, I perceived Rick Mayhew as a noble individual, one who was capable and dedicated and hard working. Now, I am less sure. I do not want to say that he fooled us, that while he may have been capable he was not truly dedicated and is in fact lazy, and angling to exploit us by gaming the system so he can collect an annual pension for the next thirty years that is greater than the salary most people in the private sector ever earned. While I am not ready to say that, there are some who will…
I want to give Rick a chance to prove those naysayers wrong. I hereby challenge Rick Mayhew to rescind his retirement filing and declare his intention to remain as fire chief in Upland and Montclair until he reaches the ripe old age of 60. He can comfort himself with the thought that retirement isn’t all that it is cracked up to be. And he will know that he is valued and productive, which is what makes life worth living…

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