Madison or Milwaukee Hiring?

[Breech31]

Per the Madison Fire Dept's website, it appears the recruitment process is to begin a bit sooner, than formerly posted. It states the recruitment will begin in the Fall of 2008, as opposed to December of 2008.

[jsin925]

read the paper this morning about the city budget and things look grim. can't imagine the dept will hire more people when they're cutting 45 jobs. i'm 33 (34 in september), do you think i'm getting too old to try out for the dept considering it will be a few years until they hire again?

[clark918]

Overpaid and underworked?!?! You've got to be kidding me. You guys start at $34k which has to be one of the lowest, if not THE lowest, paid dept in WI. On top of that, you guys are the busiest fire department in WI.

[jsin925]

jasper45, check out my latest post in the wisconsin forum. it might interest you. let me know.

[jasper45]

if the dept doesn't have any money how are they going to train people? if there is no money for testing how are they going to know who to hire? the fire dept should be one of the best funded depts of the city. maybe the aldermen should take a pay cut. they make $70k a year and get a car allowance, and they don't do jack.

You have me sold!!

The situation is that we may be facing layoffs, depending on how deeply they want to cut us. We don't now yet. There are close to 80 vacancies as we speak, which should be enough to not have guys let go.
The fact is is that we will most likely not be hiring any recruit classes for at least the next year, maybe two.

The chiefs notes, and the word out of the union is ugly. If we take the cuts that we're now expecting, we will have a significantly different department next year at this time. Our ability to respond to emergencies, our ability to handle fires is going to be impacted drastically.

Do you live in the city? If you do, or you have friends and family in the city, please call your alderman and the mayor. Write them letters, and send them e-mail messages. The elected officials need to hear what the people have to say.
My alderman flat out told me that we are a waste of money. We're over paid and under worked, that is a direct quote.



As far as alderman are concerned, they want to cut us, I think they should be cut. They've compared us as a department to other cities, and call us "fat". Other cities that we've compared our common council to reveals they are too "fat".
Here are some examples :

Phoenix - 8 districts
Denver - 11
Seattle - 9
Chicago - 21
Columbus - 7

Milwaukee has 15 districts.


Sorry for the hijack, I wish there was good news for you guys, here.

[jsin925]

will the dept be taking apps in late spring or early summer like the website says, or is this wishful thinking? or will they take apps, but not test anyone until they have more money, which means that they'll be sitting on the apps for year or so?

[Jourdan]

Jasper,
can you contact me at [email protected]?
Thanks brotha

[clark918]

Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear that staffing may be cut from your department. Like I stated earlier, I would love to work for MFD. I know quite a few guys that work there(friends and teachers) that have so much knowledge that they learned from the MFD.

[jasper45]

I also heard today that Waukesha(I'm in their process) may have lost their grant for a new station and funding of new firefighters. Seems a lot of cities are struggling with money.

Don't get too down, Clark. I spoke with my brother, who works for the City of Waukesha, and that was all just political noise.
The new station is being built, and is scheduled to open January 1, 2009. They're also still anticipating hiring 9 guys, which should happen sometime around October of this year. Make no mistake about it, Waukesha is not struggling for money.


As far as we go, that's a different story. The word out of the union is that the mayor wants 4.2 million off our budget for next year. The quote from our e-board is that this will be a "dooms-day" budget for us, and will significantly impact our ability to maintain service. This means that companies will be disbanded, maybe houses. Along with a potentially "radical" reorganization of the department.
It's early in the process, as this is phase 1 of the process. Our chief will now put a budget together for the mayor to see, as will all other city departments. The mayor will then present his plan/budget sometime in late summer, maybe September. Fall is when we will know for sure how deeply we will be cut.

The hiring list process will most likely be put on hold, for now. However, that is done by a different city department, on it's own city budget-so who really knows.
We do know that the chief is going to take all recruit classes out of his plan for next year, as well as the paramedic classes that were going to be run.

[jsin925]

Not so much, I'm afraid. Word is coming down that all recruit classes next year have no funding. There also may not be any money for the testing process; that money comes from a different budget, so who knows.

It's starting to sound really bleak for the near future.

if the dept doesn't have any money how are they going to train people? if there is no money for testing how are they going to know who to hire? the fire dept should be one of the best funded depts of the city. maybe the aldermen should take a pay cut. they make $70k a year and get a car allowance, and they don't do jack. the more risk you take on the job the less you get paid and the more you're not appreciated. i still want to be a firefighter though. at least there is some honor in it.

[clark918]

Not so much, I'm afraid. Word is coming down that all recruit classes next year have no funding. There also may not be any money for the testing process; that money comes from a different budget, so who knows.

It's starting to sound really bleak for the near future.

Wow, I really can't stand hearing these things anymore. I also heard today that Waukesha(I'm in their process) may have lost their grant for a new station and funding of new firefighters. Seems a lot of cities are struggling with money.

This would really suck if it happens. Milwaukee is a great fire department and I would love to work there. I know you guys lost those 5 positions last year when they down-sized truck staffing.

Well hopefully they keep with the process. Thanks for the update jasper!

[jasper45]

The first class is scheduled for January 09. It will be 60 people. After that they are expecting two more classes from the list of 30 people.

Not so much, I'm afraid. Word is coming down that all recruit classes next year have no funding. There also may not be any money for the testing process; that money comes from a different budget, so who knows.

It's starting to sound really bleak for the near future.

[jsin925]

so with 3500-5000 applicants there are only going to be 120 openings! how does one shine out of so many people? get a perfect score on everything? it almost sounds disheartening. with the state of job opportunities in this city i'm assuming the competition will be stiff.

anyone here competing in the firefighter combat challenge in september?

[clark918]

Yea, they want to keep it more local this time. They won't be advertising on tv or the paper. They are expecting 3500-5000 applicants.

The BPAD is the interview that they've run in the past. It's a video interview with scenarios. Here's more info: http://www.bpad.com/

Keep in mind that these are "rumors", but they are most likely true. I have heard this information from two retired Battalion Chiefs of the department. One happens to be the head of the Fire Tech program at the local community college and this is what some recruiters from MFD said when they came in last week.

[Surtur]

It sounds like you really have the inside scoop on Milwaukee, clark! I'm surprised to hear that they're only taking applications for a week?! That's a much shorter window than most departments have open for applying. About a month seems more common. I'm sure they'll still get plenty of applicants, though. From what you're saying, it sounds like they'll be hiring a lot of firefighters - pretty exciting.

What is the BPAD, anyway?