{"id":371201,"date":"2026-06-23T06:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T06:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/371201\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T06:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T06:30:12","slug":"letters-san-joses-problem-is-staffing-first-responders-not-ot-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/371201\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters: San Jose’s problem is staffing first responders, not OT pay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submit your letter to the editor via this form<\/a>. Read more Letters to the Editor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

San Jose\u2019s problem is staffing, not OT pay<\/p>\n

Re: \u201cFirefighter is highest-paid SJ employee<\/a>\u201d (Page A1, June 9).<\/p>\n

My reaction to fire engineer Spencer Piercy earning $437,000 with overtime? Thank you, sir, for protecting our city and doing whatever it takes to fill in for an agency grossly understaffed.<\/p>\n

Shame on San Jose for finding the funds to pay overtime and not apply funds to recruit new men and women. The public is quick to cry foul when they hear these enormous salaries, but there isn\u2019t enough pressure on the city to staff appropriately. Sadly, the SJPD is under the same disadvantage.<\/p>\n

Firefighters and police officers are critical to San Jose, and we should be grateful they haven\u2019t flamed out in exhaustion and fled to another city where they could have more family time.<\/p>\n

David WilkinsSan Jose<\/p>\n

Forest Service funding is crucial to fire safety<\/p>\n

Re: \u201cBrush fire at Camp Pendleton spreads into Cleveland National Forest, chars 1,500 acres<\/a>\u201d (June 17).<\/p>\n

As we head into the summer months, this fire is a stark reminder that California will continue to heat up, vegetation will dry out and the risk of wildfires will threaten our forests, homes, infrastructure and communities.<\/p>\n

My life has been greatly enriched by spending time in our beautiful forests. I\u2019m deeply concerned that the U.S. Forest Service is facing significant proposed cuts to funding and programs. A well-resourced USFS is essential to protecting communities, strengthening forest resilience and reducing the risks and emissions associated with catastrophic wildfires.<\/p>\n

Congress should provide robust FY2027 USFS funding to ensure the agency has adequate staffing, research capacity and operational resources to support wildfire preparedness, forest restoration and emergency response.<\/p>\n

Kudos to Rep. Sam Liccardo, Sen. Alex Padilla and Sen. Adam Schiff for supporting such funding. I urge them to encourage their colleagues to do the same, as a lack of funding could have devastating consequences.<\/p>\n

Paula DanzLos Altos<\/p>\n

Trace state\u2019s healthcare cliff to corporations<\/p>\n

Re: \u201cA healthcare cliff is coming but few notice<\/a>\u201d (Page A7, June 3).<\/p>\n

L.A. Times columnist Anita Chabria writes that Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s most recent budget plan includes cuts at the state level due to both the loss of federal money and rising health care costs.<\/p>\n

Chabria contends that the change needed is a complicated and largely ignored debate. What are the changes and who should bear the brunt?<\/p>\n

Her \u201cSort of Solutions\u201d is brilliant \u2014 the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy needs to stop subsidizing corporations that pay so meagerly that their employees qualify for Medi-Cal.<\/p>\n

Executive director of SEIU Tia Orr points out that Med-Cal has become a program for workers rather than for the disabled. \u201cThe idea that someone can work every day and qualify for food stamps and Medi-Cal should be eye-opening.\u201d<\/p>\n

While California taxpayers are paying about $7,800 a year for each person on Medi-Cal, the corporations they work for pay nothing \u2014 the \u201cproverbial \u201celephant in the room.<\/p>\n

Peggy BradyFoster City<\/p>\n

Social Security runs dry as war enriches wealthy<\/p>\n

Re: \u201cSocial Security\u2019s trust fund faces funding shortfall<\/a>\u201d (Page C7, June 10).<\/p>\n

With the latest news that Social Security may become insolvent earlier than anticipated in 2032, the immediate reaction from the Trump administration is to call for benefit cutbacks and increases in the retirement age.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, we wage war willy-nilly with complete disregard for costs and an incomprehensible rationale for it. Defense spending is beyond obscene: $2 billion for a stealth bomber, more than $100 million for fighter jets and $4 million for one Patriot missile. The Iran \u201cwar\u201d is adding tens of billions of dollars<\/a>to defense spending, that is, if you believe this administration.<\/p>\n

All of this is being orchestrated by someone whose first impulse is to line the pockets of his cronies, right after his pockets are fully engorged. Our priorities and values are woefully misguided. Government should be helping all people live better lives, not inventing ways to make obscenely rich people more obscene.<\/p>\n

Eugene ElySan Jose<\/p>\n

Restore foreign aid to restore US soft power<\/p>\n

In case you haven\u2019t noticed, we\u2019re not the good guys anymore; we\u2019re the thugs that use power indiscriminately to ensure personal gain and wreak havoc in the world.<\/p>\n

Withdrawing aid to USAID and laying off CDC experts have unleashed a new Ebola epidemic; strangling Cuba has left a country without basic needs; starting a war in Iran has endangered the world\u2019s energy supply; spending billions on vanity projects and slush funds has undercut social programs for millions of Americans; cutting funds to Ukraine has enabled Vladimir Putin to demand concessions from Volodymyr Zelenskyy; insulting long-held and cherished allies has alienated us from Western democracies; using the DOJ as a personal tool for vengeance has eroded our confidence in the rule of law; and finally, the lack of integrity in the Republican Party has shaken our trust in our elected representatives.<\/p>\n

Our 250-year birthday could be a wake, not a celebration.<\/p>\n

Claudia ParkerSan Jose<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor. San Jose\u2019s problem…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,16752,7,15841,1280,19378,181,2953,1564,188,1703,975,395,88,90,89,2125,397,198,200,1694,1695,535],"class_list":["post-371201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-budgets","tag-california","tag-foster-city","tag-health-care","tag-iran","tag-latest-headlines","tag-letters","tag-letters-to-the-editor","tag-los-altos","tag-military","tag-opinion","tag-peninsula","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-police-department","tag-san-mateo-county","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-taxes","tag-trump-administration","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}