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San Diego Fire Chief Announces Retirement

2 comments

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, FIRE CHIEF TRACY JARMAN announced yesterday in an email to department employees that she will be retiring on June 27.  The 53-yr.-old career SDFD employee of 25 years will be giving a press conference and public announcement at FS 1 this afternoon.

jarman

The retirement did not come as a surprise since she had already enrolled in the deferred retirement program two years ago and had discussed her plans openly lately.  When a new labor contract goes into effect on July 1, there will be wage reductions to all FD employees of the cash-strapped city.  There are expected to be as many as 100 retirements during June in order to take advantage of the looming reduction in retiree benefits for those who have to wait.  There are 973 uniformed FF’s on the department, so they are looking at a sudden decrease of around 10% of their experienced FF’s .

Last year she gained nationwide notoriety for her decision in 2007 to force an engine company to participate in the city’s Gay Pride Parade.  Four firefighters brought a lawsuit against the department and won $34,000 each in settlements.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has more along with a brief summary of Chief Jarman’s career HERE.

Posted by on May 28, 2009 • Filed under: labor
  • B. Morgan

    That was an expensive parade.

    Homestead, Fl. is facing a parade problem also. The Veterans Day parade in 2008 featured a group called Son’s of Confederate Veterans complete with confederate uniforms, and other military accessories. They also carried the Confederate Flag known as the “Stars and Bars”, per protocol lower then the National Flag.

    The parade has been a community event for 40 plus years and is very well attended.

    Now a group is protesting the showing of the Confederate Flag, not the participation of the group bringing it and the result is the possible cancelation of the parade. The flag does recall a not so nice time in this country when slavery was common and generates some hard feelings.

    But there are many other flags in the parade, Scouts, schools, churches, Shriners, to name a few and a host of fringe groups, save the whales, conservation groups, United Farm Workers, Park Service, etc. Some groups that not all agree with or like. Who is right or wrong?

    Homestead has a majority of Hispanic citizens, followed by white then black. Plus a huge mixture of others. It’s creating a big stir in our small town.

    I sure hope they don’t cancel the parade because I enjoy it, as does my daughter who rides her horse in it. I am proud to honor my fellow veterans and wave the best flag of all, that red, white and blue one with the 50 stars and 13 bars.

  • B. Morgan

    That was an expensive parade.

    Homestead, Fl. is facing a parade problem also. The Veterans Day parade in 2008 featured a group called Son’s of Confederate Veterans complete with confederate uniforms, and other military accessories. They also carried the Confederate Flag known as the “Stars and Bars”, per protocol lower then the National Flag.

    The parade has been a community event for 40 plus years and is very well attended.

    Now a group is protesting the showing of the Confederate Flag, not the participation of the group bringing it and the result is the possible cancelation of the parade. The flag does recall a not so nice time in this country when slavery was common and generates some hard feelings.

    But there are many other flags in the parade, Scouts, schools, churches, Shriners, to name a few and a host of fringe groups, save the whales, conservation groups, United Farm Workers, Park Service, etc. Some groups that not all agree with or like. Who is right or wrong?

    Homestead has a majority of Hispanic citizens, followed by white then black. Plus a huge mixture of others. It’s creating a big stir in our small town.

    I sure hope they don’t cancel the parade because I enjoy it, as does my daughter who rides her horse in it. I am proud to honor my fellow veterans and wave the best flag of all, that red, white and blue one with the 50 stars and 13 bars.