Duty Roster Roundup

East St. Louis Decimates Public Safety Agencies

The East St. Louis, Illinois, city council announced Friday still more layoffs from their already-shortstaffed police and fire departments.  One-third of their police officers are to be laid off and eleven more firefighters will be let go bringing the assigned strength of the FD down to 29 firefighters.  The FD has seen 50% of its roster eliminated in just five years.

The layoffs took effect immediately on Sunday August 1.  The city that is nationally renowned for its continually high crime rate will now have just one police officer on patrol on the midnight shift.  The fire department was already below ability to handle structural fires without mutual aid assistance.

The city has been in and out of receivership since 1991 when the state had to take over governance and later oversight of the bumbling performance of the city government.  The mayor and two of the councilmen are blaming the need for layoffs on (who else?) the police officers and firefighters themselves. 

For more information, read:
Bellevue News-Democrat HERE.
The Post Dispatch via the Herald Review HERE.
KSDK-TV story and video HERE.

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San Jose Firefighters Local Proposes Concessions

The San Jose, California, firefighters union local held a news conference Sunday to announce that they will propose some alternatives that could lead to re-hiring the 49 firefighters that were laid off last week (see Firegeezer report HERE).  One of their major offers is to institute a 2-tier retirement system that will affect any FF’s hired from this point forward.  They also offered some token health insurance adjustments.

The city council is not to ammenable to the suggestions so far.

Read more here:
San Jose Mercury-News HERE.
KGO-TV story and video REPORT.

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Philadelphia Begins Planned “Firehouse Roulette” Today

The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Fire Department begins its mandated rolling “brownouts” today in an attempt to save money, or at least make the budget appear to be balanced.  One firehouse is being shut down for two years and each day there will be three engine companies closed on a rotating basis during the daytime and at night the roulette will close two engines and one ladder company.

Firefighters in the closed companies will be deployed to other stations for the day to cover vacancies that would normally be filled with firefighters called back on overtime.

WTXF-TV ran this video report Monday morning:

Notice that the city officials say that these closures are “perfectly safe” and will have no effect on fire protection.  Which will undoubtedly lead to the question, “Then why not close them permanently?”

The Philadelphia Daily News has the STORY.
WPVI-TV Ch. 6 has MORE.