No one except employees and their associates will likely say anything. The story says forefighters would pay 12 percent of pension costs. That means someone else will pay (at least) 88 percent of pension costs for decades to come. Read about unfunded public employee pensions online in the Palo Alto Daily Post.

Most of these people are overly well compensated. They compare their salaries to other fire departments in the area which only causes a spiraling upward action. Compared to people in the military -- an average colonel's salary with at least 20 years of service would be less than the fire chief's salary, and a colonel usually commands about 5000 people.

You do the math -- if a colonel is making less than the fire chief then he/she is making about the same as a fire captain who supervises 3 people and may have 5-10 years experience.

I'd say they are getting a great deal; do you realize that on average Bay Area fire fighters make more than NYC fire fighters?