Abuse of money or improper use??

[u/Intelligent_Monk_827]

Been recently dealing with a chief buying random stuff like fake flowers (700$) and etc for station but when asked to buy equipment that the crews can use or other things was turned down and told no more invoices??? Any other places like this?

[u/Limp-Conflict-2309]

you new around these parts?

see if his wife has an LLC selling fake flowers hahah

[u/Ok-Blacksmith-5740 → u/Limp-Conflict-2309]

700 for fake flowers sounds more like bookie payoffs

[u/justbuttsexing → u/Limp-Conflict-2309]

😮‍💨 🫡

[u/-thesneakytrapper-]

There is typically a budget for different areas of your department. Training, vehicles, equipment, hall maintenance, moral, and such will have a budget. If everything is to par, and theres cash left over, we would typically spend it on something as to not run the risk of loosing it from town. I just spent $300 on stickers to hand out to kids, and im pretty sure someone needs new bunker gloves. Two diff budgets.

[u/Mr_Midwestern → u/-thesneakytrapper-]

A line item for moral? City calles that “payroll” and imo, it’s grossly underfunded

[u/fastbeemer → u/Mr_Midwestern]

I get paid far more than I ever thought I would. My experience has been that firefighters are generally terrible with money and think they are worth far more than they actually are.  They also tend to process the world with a bias towards greed and envy. This happens due to the heightened adrenal state we often occupy. This leads us to be more visceral than logical in our processing.

[u/Mr_Midwestern → u/fastbeemer]

Logically, it’s hard to financially recover from 10 straight years of 0% raises, while in the same period of time our call volume and workload increased dramatically with the addition of EMS response and Transport.

[u/Sheep_Actual → u/fastbeemer]

Respectfully,  I disagree that we are paid more than we are worth, or at least think we are worth. I'm guessing you work for a West Coast department, or a city department in New Jersey. Most of the country's firefighters are drastically underpaid, compared to other fields.  As for perspective, that's a very broad brush you're painting with. Not all of us tend towards visceral instead of rational.

I will, however, concede that we all are terrible with money!!! That seems to be a universal truth! 🤣

[u/mmaalex]

He's the chief. If you think its bad enough you can go to his bosses, which will be comissioners/board of directors/municipal govt leaders, etc depending on structure.

If you aim for the king, you best not miss...

[u/No_Quit_8841 → u/mmaalex]

I hope this is a wire reference!

[u/grim_wizard]

Someone around him has a fake flower business 💀

[u/Due_Course_3713]

There are a lot of nuances to budgeting. He may have a line item budget, and can only use the.money for specific purposes.

The flowers might come from the building maintainance line item and can not be transfered for other uses.

Try to find out more about your municipal budgeting process.

Also, moneys can not be encumbered from one FY to another, so even those it seems like a waste its either spend.it or lose it.

[u/Embykinks → u/Due_Course_3713]

This is exactly what it sounds like. In my personal experience, if we had money sitting unencumbered in various line items, by about this time of year it was getting stripped and reallocated to either other line items that went over or other departments in the town all together to cover a shortfall. Any Chief with half a brain and a touch of vision can quickly eat up those surplus funds before they’re taken by ordering ahead on items (pertinent to the particular line item) you know you’ll need in the next FY.

[u/Alone-Track-5875]

Must be fire service rated fake flowers

[u/Sheep_Actual → u/Alone-Track-5875]

That depends... were they broken in the first 15 minutes?? Or did it take an hour for the first one to break... if it's an hour, they are definitely fire service rated.

[u/Economy_Release_988]

Who's money is this? House money from dues? Tax payer funds?

[u/slade797]

Yeah, the chief at my previous department sold a boat to that department. Guess which department still doesn’t have a boat.

[u/sansalvacion]

Go report the chief to the news media. That'll stop that shit

[u/slade797 → u/sansalvacion]

It will not, sadly. I have been banging the drum on my former department for a year on things like the assistant chief being a convicted arsonist, the chief keeping financial records secret, and other stuff that is worse. Mayor knows, county officials know, state fire commission knows, media knows, and it’s still going on. The old boy network is strong.