It has never been the fire fighter way to fight.
Arizona’s fire fighters believe in public service. We believe in doing a hard day’s work for an honest day’s pay. We believe in giving back to the communities we work for and call home. We believe in helping to protect the taxpayers we work for and who pay our salaries.
Unfortunately, Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio believes in none of that.
Councilman DiCiccio attacks first and determines the facts later. He panders to the media and to a small, but loud group of voters motivated mostly by distortions and hate. Councilman DiCiccio has bashed our brother and sister fire fighters in Phoenix far too often and far too dishonestly for far too long.
That’s why we’ve created Phoenix Truth and Safety.
This group, funded by fire fighters and public safety workers from across the State of Arizona, has one simple mission: To speak the truth about the fire fighters who serve Phoenix and about Sal DiCiccio, the politician who attacks our brothers and sisters at every available opportunity.
Let’s start with a simple comparison.
A rookie Phoenix fire fighter, new to the job, earns $46,000 per year.
That fire fighter works 56 hours a week to earn this salary. He or she will never see a dime of Social Security. This rookie fire fighter will need to work at least 20 years to earn a middle-class pension.
City Councilman Sal DiCiccio earns $62,000 a year. For a part-time job.
DiCiccio attends a few meetings a month. His position comes with a nice downtown office, a staff of workers and a pension in return for part-time work. In fact, DiCiccio already receives a pension for his previous stint on City Council – a job he quit to pursue a losing run for Congress.
Who do you support?
Are you with the men and women on the frontlines, who answer emergency after emergency? Or are you with a politician who fights his battles one falsehood at a time?
Thank you for your time – and for your support.
Phoenix Truth and Safety 
The judge dropped the charges against Councilman Sal Diciccio and called this action nothing but character assination. You should spend your time and money on fighting fires and working with fire fighters. You just lost 19 that could have used more training.
Thank you for your comment, Jim. It’s good to know the Councilman’s supporters will not stop at insulting dead heroes and their colleagues when it comes to attacking public safety. As you should know, our group had nothing to do with the lawsuit you’ve mentioned. Though of course we do look forward to the existing complaints against the Councilman (which we did not file) continuing to work their way through the elections system.
Best of luck to you. We hope you find peace in what must be a sad, angry life.
You’re good at name calling even when you don’t have one. An editorial in the Arizona Republic called for the firefighters to investigate and fix the problems.Yes, I am sad and angry that 19 men are dead and the firefighters union is using my tax dollars…not for eqiptment and training but for your political agenda.
Jim,
After reviewing your comments, you made one false accusation in your most recent post. You stated, “I am sad and angry that 19 men are dead and the firefighters union is using my tax dollars…not for equipment and training but for your political agenda.” Please let me correct your misconception. The political effort taking place is funded 100% by members through voluntary contributions. Our tax dollars are not being spent on a Political Agenda. Unless you include the countless, emails, door booklets, and mailers that Councilman DiCiccio is sending out using OUR tax dollars, as public education then.,…I will not acknowledge your false claims of tax payers money being used by Firefighters for a political agenda.
Mister No Name,
Your misconception needs correcting. Every penny of your check comes from my tax dollars. Your 100% of voluntary contributions are your union dues from my tax dollars. Councilman DiCiccio receives contributions from private citizens.
Jim,
After working 56 hours a week, when does a firefigter get to obtain possession of the money they eraned and it be counted as their own? They make contributions voluntarily after they have been paid for doing a serivce. If it is always our tax dollars, then do we own their cars, homes, Etc? Mr. DiCiccio is using our tax dollars to boast his so called political agenda using mailers, door hangers and emails from his city council office. These corespondents are paid for by our tax dollars. This is the unfair political game all incumbent politians play. Maybe you like the insider advantage that a career politician like DiCiccio gets to take advantage of. Maybe you like seeing your tax dollars being wasted to help a career politians retain his office, allowing him to fight for the developers and lobbyist who make up the majority of his donors for his campaign finance. Wake up Jim do some research and don’t believe the sound bites DiCIccio spits out.
On a side note I found our comments on the above post extremely insulting to firefighters, their families and most importantly the 19 men who lost their lives helping save a community.
Gentlemen of public service. I think you are wasting your time trying to spread your word to Mr. Markins. He does not appear to be objective in any way and is willing to go so far as to dishonor the memory of 19 heroes. Do they get any lower than that. To anyone else who reads this article, consider this. Public safety gets paid for the job they do and the risk they take. The risk that many people in society do not take but find it easy to forget about. They don’t have to work weekends or holidays or be away from their families during disasters and other incidents. How many birthdays and family get togethers have they missed because they had to work? Probably not that many. How many times have they had to see someone on the worst day of their life and then carry that with them the rest of their life? Probably not many. I am not a firefighter but I am a police officer. I may have a skewed opinion but Mr Markins can still call 911 when someone is trying to hurt him or his family and I am sure we will both put our lives on the line to save his.
Wow. They’ve earned those checks. The money they have, to use for whatever they wish, is their hard earned cash. If you have to pay for private fire departments, it’s still your money paying for a service. The only thing a publicly paid employee owes a taxpayer is the service for which they are paid.
So, if you have a fire, or a drowning, or an auto accident, you’ll see the value. So will everyone else in the community. I don’t know about you, but my job doesn’t require me to put my life on the line on a regular basis. Sheesh
Jim, what do you do for a living? I am a firefighter, and I am paid by tax dollars to do a job. When I receive MY PAY it is no longer tax dollars, it’s my money to spend as I see fit. If I choose to pay union dues with it that is my business, and not yours. Do you have a problem with firefighters getting paid for the work they do?
I really want to know what it is you do for a living. It would be interesting to see how it is you come to the conclusion that the money I earn needs to clear your approval before I spend it.
You must be pulling my leg here with that comment.
Hold on John, I think Jim might have something here. Let’s take his concept a little further to a whole new business concept…
I stopped off at Safeway and bought a roast, potatoes and rolls for dinner the other night. So now I’m going to buy a bar across the street from Safeway and make all their employees buy their beer from me…because after all, they got paid with MY money!
Its too bad he wasn’t pulling your leg, the sad thing is people like him actually believe things like that.
PS; I hope Jim works at Safeway! 🙂
Canyon fire in globe area is paid under $9.00a hour. We also buy our own uniforms have no vacation or sick days. Maybe mr divi coo could give us a tax deductible donation so I might be able to buy school supplies for kids instead of replacing blood stained shirts
Jim’s job? I’d like to know what his level of education is? He clearly has no grasp of the facts… poor little puppet.
You can follow the political monies to DiCiccio to teabag Libertarians (The Rich) that are the donors to his campaign.
Obviously the councilman has learned something that the repubs at the national level have learned; tear down those who oppose you, say anything about them that will get others to see them as somehow bad and you as wonderful and, oh yes, don’t worry about the truth. Just worry about keeping your sweet little part-time job that pays over $60,000 a year and provides a pension. And, I would guess, either free or cheap health insurance and who knows what else.
I agree Sal DiCiccio lacks the character, credibility and integrity to hold public office.