PBA Out of Line

To the Editor:

I read your article (Jan. 11 issue) "COBA President Opts Not to Aid City Vs. PBA." The PBA for years has been maligning other city agencies in their bid for higher wages. If they feel that workers in other agencies are making more than them (none are) or their workload is easier than theirs (none are), stop complaining and take that agency's test and transfer.

The PBA leaders also talk about surrounding police departments making more than them. But all the departments they mention have a manpower pool of between 1,000 and 2,500 members. The NYPD has close to 40,000 members - more than the Coast Guard.

Like Mayor Bloomberg said, there are 300,000 employees on New York City's payroll. The other agencies help keep this city running, and their unions should not take less money to appease the PBA.

The PBA has also taken swipes at Sanitation and an agency close to me, the FDNY. In a recent Chief article, the PBA stated that the Fire Department stays in the firehouse until they are called but that the P.D. is always on patrol. But that only pertains to about 20,000 of your members who do actual patrol work. A larger percentage - more than the entire FDNY count - are on details that are not patrol and must be rousted to respond. These units include Aviation, Canine, Bomb Squad, CSI and ESU.

In addition, every precinct and the above-mentioned units have beds and plush couches, plus TVs, weight rooms, coffee pots, etc. Boy, sure sounds like a firehouse to me.

Now let's talk about a department that has three times the amount of manpower of the Fire Department, yet members of the F.D. have made the supreme sacrifice more than any agency in this country - and die more horribly than those killed from the P.D. They are crushed, burned, incinerated, die of smoke inhalation and suffer heart attacks from working in environments where humans cannot survive for long. And as cops go up in rank, so does their safety, which is not true in the FDNY. So please don't tell the members of the FDNY that you deserve more because you go on patrol. I believe the FDNY has the most dangerous job of any law-enforcement agency in this country.

JOSEPH V. DONOVAN, FDNY (Retired), Ladder Co. 26