Internship Immersion

For the next two weeks I am going to my internship for 7 hours a day, Monday through Friday. In this immersion experience I am excited to start filming for the CERT Academy. This will be very fun because I will learn what CERT is really about. I have a good understanding on what CERT does but someone telling me their elevator pitch and experiencing myself is totally different.

Along with being excited I also have some concerns. Since I will be creating a short film, I am concerned with the amount of footage that I will be able to film. The reason this concerns me is because I want to have many options when I am editing.

Overtime, Where is the Choice?

Budget Cuts Means More Overtime
Interview with Maurice Luque


“There is that potential that the limit to how much work time a firefighter can work. Once he or she has reached that limit they can't work it anymore.” - Maurice Luque

San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Maurice Luque said “there’s a pension program and that pension program pays eight percent on the money that is invested in that program for people. So if there is a chief here that has been with the department for 20 years he is part of the retirement program and he is putting money into that program and has been earning 8%. The city has to pay that interest on that money. This isn’t just for the fire department; it is for all city employs can invest in this pension program. Because of the economy and everything the Board is thinking about reducing the amount of interest that is paid on that money, the money that is invested for retirements. Like banks have reduced the amount they have on savings, they have reduced that amount down. If that amount drops, a lot of people retire early. Because then they can lock in the 8% plan and they wont get stuck with a lower % plan on their savings. So for the rest of there life they will get 8% on their retirement benefits. If they don’t retire and their interest rate goes down, they are only going to get 2. And many times that is not going to be economical for them to stay so they retire early.”

The San Diego Fire Department is government run; therefore the government pays for the expenses of the Fire Department. The city has been thinking about lowering the percent in the pension plan for all city employees, this could result in firefighters retiring early, and those still on the job to have to work overtime to fill the need of the city.

There have been cuts in the amount of people in the actual Fire Academy this year, and instead of having two Academies, only having one. I asked Maurice Luque: How will this affect the way that the department has shifts?

Maurice Luque: If we have a lot of retirements in the fire department, could loose about 100 people who retire early. To lock in that higher interest rate they are getting in on their pension. That will cause us to have our existing work force work more over time until we have an academy to get people trained and all the spots that are open from people that have retired. So we will probably have to hurry up and have an academy and in the mean time, using our existing firefighters the ones who are off duty now, have them work over time. Pay them overtime and keep doing that until we have enough new employs to bring into the workforce.”….. “see right now we do use some firefighters on overtime, you know to fill because it is cheaper to use those people as we need them, call them in as we need them rather then have more people then we can use. And it varies because people get sick, hurt, you know want extended leaves, family emergencies and so forth. It’s a fluctuating figure. And so the way we compensate for that is we call in the people who are off duty to come in and work, they sign up to work when they are off duty and so we just call them in off this list. If we need 10 we call in 10 if we need 5 we call in 5 if we don’t need any we don’t call in any. But we are always calling in somebody if they are on vacation or that type of thing. Well these firefighters are always working overtime and its cheeped to bring people in and have them work over time then it is to higher brand new employs. You know because we don’t have to pay insurance and we don’t have to pay benefits and all the overtime costs.”

Mariah Teemsma: are there any concerns because of this?

Maurice Luque: Yes there are and the concerns are, the younger the workforce the less experiences there are and that means that a higher degree of on the job training that you need, the higher degree of supervision you have because you don’t have as much experience. There are things out there that are changing, it’s a younger workforce, and if you have a workforce that has been in place for a long time you have very little people that aren’t experienced and they know what to expect, and they have been to fires, and they have been to rescues, kind of done it all so they work with a minimum of supervision and to have new employs, and new people coming in they need guidance, they need closer supervision. Because you don’t want to get them hurt, make sure they know what they are doing until they reach that level of experience. The workforce is changing right now. And that is the additional challenge of continuing to train them to get in the workforce the thing is in the mean time they have to go to real accidents and real rescues and real fires. And so we have to be very careful about people getting hurt and the right supervision. They are not veteran they haven’t been there and done that before. And so we have to watch over them so it does create a real emphasis on safety, we always have a real emphasize on safety, but even more so when you have a younger worker.

Mariah Teemsma: how do you feel that situations like this could better be handled?

Maurice Luque: Well I think that it’s a real tricky issue here you have a city that has finical problems and they can’t be thinking about getting people pay raises. There is a contention of the firefighters union that they are not paid competitive to what other cities are paying there firefighters and they have done some studies that have showed that other cities pay there firefighters more then the firefighters are getting here, a better contract or whatever. So there has been a little bit of a tough economic time a lot of firefighters were leaving San Diego to go to other cities that paid more money, the police had the same problem two things slowed that down. The first one is the police got a better contract so now there pay was more competitive. Less people leaving the police department, then the economic situation where other city departments are not hiring new people. They’ve seen budget cuts and challenges like we are and they are not likely to continue the same type of pay increase that has happened here. And they are going to kind of hold the line. And the way that slows down people’s decision to move on when there is an unsure economic time. They are not going to leave San Diego for LA when they here that LA cut back on there Fire Department. And they be closing stations and are laying off admin people there so it kind of keeps people in place but you question is how could we avoid the kind of transit of the workforce that leaves. I think that the key is to paying competitively being competitive in your salary pay firefighters, pay police what other departments pay and now you have equity and now there is not a tendency to leave the department to go somewhere else. So that I think is another way, when your benefits are equal.

What blogs are out there with outstanding examples of:

1. Economic advice to Barack Obama?
Paul's Blog

http://psantillan.blogspot.com/

I thought that this was a good blog because his beginning paragraphs were very well done. He explains very well how we have a economic problem.

"Our current economic situation is unstable and government programs pumping money into failing businesses is only perpetuating this unsustainable habit of spending that has gripped the country."

2. Literary Analysis?
Amanda's Blog

http://avalipio.blogspot.com/

I thought that this was good because she writes about how important the characters are and then she states how the author uses characters in the book.

"The author uses character, conflict, and foreshadowing to develop the theme that a capitalist society is an extremely difficult place to live in if you are part of the lower class. The first theme I found to be very important is character. Without characters in the story there would be no plot and no storyline, it is the characters where the story is based upon."

3. Historical Writing?
Vanessa S.
http://nessamert.blogspot.com/2009/02/election-of-1896.html

She explains the current elections that just happened and compares them to the elections in 1896.

"The 1800’s was not a very stable time in American history and there where many issues that were seeking a solution with the election of 1896. With the upcoming election, the lucky voters where persuaded by many factors such as the upcoming war with Spain, the economy and Populism."

4. Anything else that makes blogs great?

Nyachare's Blog

http://nya16.blogspot.com/
This blog looks very professional. I like this because it is easy to read.

Darwin

What responsibility do we have for the understanding of science?
Darwin had a question and went out to try and solve it. As humans we have a responsibility to become who we want to be. So for someone who is curious about the world around them it is there responsibility to go and figure it out. This is what Darwin did, we have to learn from what he discovered and make our own discoveries.

How should science influence our decisions, laws, and culture?

Something like gravity has been proven to be true, so we should not build things or do things that would go against Newtons laws because that would be dangerous. By questioning science we are making new discoveries. I think that imagination and curiosity are the reasons that as a human race we have come so far. Inventing things like the airplanes and cars are because people were willing to take a chance in being wrong. I think that behaviors such as curious, imaginative and questioning everything should be praised in a society that is growing rapidly.

Obama Blog

The people have shown time after time that they hold a lot of power, and when organized, sometimes what seems like a miracle occurs examples are Civil Rights, American Labor laws. When the public is informed, thats when change is expected.

The civil rights the slaves won freedom, labor laws were put in place to protect the people when they worked. There are many issues that are still underground and hidden from the public. a current issue is schools. Schools have a grading system that to some sense puts the students in a situation where colleges look at them as a product not as a person. I say this because grades are letters, so therefor labeling people as letters and not humans. This is an issue that has been a unjust system since different teachers grade differently. However not many people look at the problems behind grades because we never really think about the problems.

Obama advice to you, inform the public. If you inform the public in a truthful manner we will react. This is our country and our life, we will try to make it better. We have shown this throughout time. Having rallies and unions, we will strive for a better community but we need the facts not news reporters with bias views.

new questions

Budget

5. Former Chief Bowman said that he

*could not do anything to improve staffing levels and available resources,

*Chief Jarman said in regards to cutting down the number of firefighters,

“It will compound the problem a bit, but this was the best option available.”

*How do you feel about this, knowing that the chief has limited options?

4. There have been cuts to the amount of people in the San Diego Fire academies and instead of having two academies this year only having one.

*How will this affect the way that the departments have shifts?

*Are there any other concerns because of this?

11. How do you feel that situations like this could better be handled?

2. "Studies indicate that firefighters and police officers lose a substantial amount of time off their lifespan due to stresses, exposures and physical impairment -Quote from the Local 145.
Does working overtime affect stress?

3. Will this ware out the firefighters faster?

Would more engine companies lessen stress?


6. Budget cuts affect the public safety, how?

1.“The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard is to arrive on scene of an emergency within six minutes 90 percent of the time; in San Diego, we hit six minutes less than 50 percent of the time.” This quote is from the Local 145 website.

*Why is this, is this due to staffing levels and available resources?


Problem Solving:

8. How do firefighters, like you, cope with the current financial crisis we are facing in the economy?

*(Personally/as an organization)


10. Do you feel the Fire Department is changing for the better or the worse, or is it staying the same?

14. Do you think that the effort put in is getting the department anywhere? (Examples),

*what is stopping the progress?

12. What have you done to help better situations like this?


7. What motivates you to put your life on the line in a situation for fighting a major fire? Is it more of community rallying and team effort or is there something that motivates you from inside?


9. Do you feel supported by the government?

Interview

Time: 10:45
Location: 2nd ave
Technology to record: recorder

This makes a great interview.

This makes a great interview.

Flexibility: questions should serve as starting conversation, a type of guideline, not a script.
Example: How are you today? followed up with why, what put you in this mood.

Storyline: ask the questions in a way that can be told in a story. This will help others relate.
Example: How did you find yourself in this job. Why did you pick this career?
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/09/foxs_bill_oreilly_obama_interv.html
Bill O'Reilly starts with a topic which was War on Terror that branched off to other questions.

Correlating Questions: have a theme. This will have a more structured interview where a point can be made.
Example: how did you get involved in this job? what was appealing about it? These questions focus around the subject's job.

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/9217-kris-holm-interview