Pencil Pushers Have Gone 3 Years Without a Raise

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, CITY MANAGER Troy Schulte presented his proposed budget to the City Council members on Tuesday.  His $1.3 billion proposal includes a lot of cutbacks in several city services, but the one measure that has raised eyebrows is his suggestion to lay off 105 firefighters.  He told the Kansas City Star, as Kansas City’s economy remains stubbornly sluggish, firefighters should no longer be untouchable. "We have to make strategic reductions in public safety," he said.

City Manager Schulte  (K.C. Star)

In a most absurd justification, he is also quoted by the Star:

His budget letter to (Mayor) James recommended reducing the Fire Department by 105 positions because fire calls have dropped by more than 60 percent in the past 10 years. He said he believes the reductions can be made without jeopardizing public safety.

So there you have it.  The number of firefighters and fire stations is to be determined by how many fires you get, not what you need when get a fire.  By his logic, all the firehouses will then be clustered around the high-activity neighborhoods leaving those slow residential areas to stand in the front yard and watch as their rare house fires consume all they own.  As for the airport… well, a hot-line phone box will do.  How often does a plane crash out there, anyway?

But as the late Ron Popeil used to say, Wait, there's more!  Again from The Star:

Those personnel cuts would help free up about $7.6 million — money that could go toward raises for other city employees. Many of them haven’t had a pay increase in three years.

No raise in three years, but at least they'll still have a job.  This is budgetary Russian roulette.

Note:   He earmarked $5 million for police raises and the balance for other management-level employees.

The City Council at its regular session today  (Wednesday) publicly reviewed the proposed budget.  The Local had exactly 105 firefighters in the council chambers this morning making their presence obvious.  KSHB-TV Ch. 41 had their video crew there too, and filed this report earlier today:

Local 42 President Mike Cambiano believes that this just might be some sort of dance and preening on the part othe city manager leading up to contract negotiations with the FF's that begin in April.  In addition, the fire chief was never consulted by the city manager on these proposed reductions.

Later this afternoon, following the above video report, Fire Chief Smokey Dyer addressed the Council.  The Star reported this afternoon:

Dyer told the city council’s Public Safety Committee that Chicago, Memphis, Louisville, Dallas and Houston are among major U.S. cities that require at least four firefighters per pumper, in compliance with national fire protection standards. That staffing allows two people in the first pumper on the scene to begin spraying water on a fire, while two others can begin attacking the fire within a building and rescuing any victims.

Chief Dyer  (KCUR)

Kansas City began increasing its firefighting ranks and staffed up its pumpers ten years ago to meet that standard. But City Manager Troy Schulte has recommended cutting 105 firefighters, saying the city has far fewer fires now and can save $7.5 million without compromising public safety.

Such a reduction would force deployment changes and reductions to the pumpers, Dyer said.

Mayor James will present his response to Schulte's plan tomorrow.  However one councilman didn't wait to voice his opinion:

Committee Chair John Sharp said the city made a conscious decision in 2001 to beef up its pumper staffing and he opposes any change. He said the fire department has to accept cuts like all other departments, but not this way.

“I can’t imagine a worse way to make cuts in the budget,” he said.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/08/3417307/fire-officials-warn-cutbacks-could.html#storylink=cpy

The City Council will approve whatever budget is decided on in late March for the fiscal year that begins on May 1.

Read the earlier referenced story from the Kansas City Star HERE.
Read a more in-depth report on the city manager's plans HERE.

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Save Money and Fight Fires (or something like that)

THE CITY OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN, HAS DIRECTED the Fire Chief Laura Knapp to cut spending 10% over the next three years.  So she has come up with a plan that the City Council loves to hear.  So much so that yesterday morning (Tuesday) they unanimously approved the plan and gave her the go-ahead to start implementing it.

The city has 11 fire stations and Knapp plans to replace the fire engines in three of them with "Quick Response Vehicles" (QRV's), described by the fire department as "basically a Dodge chassis with a box on the back" for a 300-gallon water tank and compressed-air foam system.

This GRFD drawing looks an awful lot like THIS ONE:

SGVN photo

The selling points for this conversion are first of all, replacement costs of $873,000 for all three units compared to a comparable price for one real fire engine. 

Secondly, the QRV's will only carry two firefighters instead of the three or four currently riding on the real fire engines.  This will allow the department to operate with 12 fewer firefighters, music to a councilman's ears.  Twelve is the magic number because the SAFER grant that the FD received to fund 12 positions runs out in three years and apparently the city does not have plans to retain those slots.

Chief Knapp projects a total savings of $21 million over the next 15 years once the plan goes into effect.

The Grand Rapids Press tells us:

Knapp hopes they will help the fire department maintain existing service levels in the face of coming staffing cuts.

About 89 percent of current fire-service calls are handled by a single unit, Knapp said. The "quick-response" units could handle those calls, she said.

"We need to better align our resources with these single-unit calls to ensure our performance is maintained (as we reduce firefighters to cut costs)," Knapp said. "Right now we don’t have a lot of flexibility in our deployment. The (‘quick-response vehicle’) is the answer for our current rigid operational system."

The firefighters themselves aren't convinced yet that fewer fire engines and fewer FF's will translate into "maintaining existing service levels."  William Smith, president of the Local tells the GR Press,  "If they’re rolled out, we’ll do what we’re told to do. There’s a question of how effective they’ll be."

WZZM-TV filed this brief video report:

Full report in the Grand Rapids Press HERE.
Local President Smith speaks more about their skepticism HERE.

Firegeezer notes:  These things became popular back in the great recession of the late 1970's.  Back then they were called "mini-pumpers" and were introduced with the same promises we're hearing from Grand Rapids.  Several dozens of fire departments jumped into the concept, but within three years they were all back to Plan A.  Why do people think it will magically start working now?  Or is this just a gimmick to get the budgeteers to turn their focus onto another agency?

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Godspeed to the members of the Pontiac, Michigan, Fire Department

April 23, 1883 – January 31, 2012

After nearly 180 years, "Pontiac Fire Department" will no longer be the name on the side to the engines or on the front of the Stations, but it will be the name that every pontiac fire fighter past and present will never forget because it is in our heart and soul.

Once a pontiac fire fighter always a pontiac fire fighter.

http://youtu.be/CL8MHzpSTPE

Pontiac Fire Department's Last Day

PONTIAC (WXYZ) – A lot of history hangs in the halls of Pontiac’s main fire station. Pictures showcase the brave men who risk their lives daily for their community.

Tuesday, a photographer documented the last day the building will be running as part of the Pontiac Fire Department.

Wednesday morning, the Waterford Fire Department will take over and respond to calls in the city of Pontiac. A decision made by an Emergency Manager to cut costs.

Read more of Tara Edwards article HERE

History of the Pontiac Fire Department

http://youtu.be/noBc9aC-G-w

According to the agreement, the top 13 Pontiac firefighters will be granted the opportunity to take early retirement rather than working until their 25th year. The 44 remaining firefighters are eligible for employment with Waterford Township. The city of Pontiac will grant them one-time bonuses of up to $15,000.

Leslie Shepard (2012 January 4) Pontiac firefighters accept Waterford service pact. SpinalColumn

There were 57 Pontiac firefighters. Tara Edward's article today stated that 42 firefighters got jobs at Waterford.

In the FY 2009 – 2010 budget there were 103 approved positions, shrinking to 80 positions in the FY 2010 – 2011 budget. 22 of the 23 positions eliminated were firefighters.

In 2010 the city police department was disbanded, replaced with Oakland County sheriffs.

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

A summer resort town grows up

A cryptic post in TheWatchDesk (TWD) indicates the end of an Eastern Shore tradition.

This is first post from 73fire74. TWD is more known for busting chops than breaking news, but ….

No announcement posted on the city's employment page. 

We posted last year's job annoucement on January 5. (Mark Brady, PGFD PIO, took this surf rescue picture while off-duty.)

Work at 'da Shore

The town has been growing, and the combined efforts of the volunteers and career fire-ems seem to result in significant growth of the department.

New station and new rigs

A new Station 5 replaced a garage-with-a-toilet in West Ocean City, dedicated in September 2011.

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Two KME Predator pumpers were delivered in December:

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New Engine 2 and Engine 1 (OC announcement).

These rigs join the 2009 KME's assigned to Engine 16 and Engine 4.

There also is a fireboat under construction, a first for the town.

Pretty cool!

Mike "Fossilmedic" Ward, a seasonal employee in 1974.

A "back in the day" reflection in  Beach Patrol First Responders (August 21. 2007)

Correction: The 2011 surf rescue picture was taken by PGFD PIO Mark Brady, picked up by WUSA9 for article. Thanks to Dave Statter for keeping me accurate! Other pictures from OCVFD website.

Charlie LeDuff posts an update

One Year Later: Detroit's EMS System Still in Need of a Cure: MyFoxDETROIT.com

DETROIT (WJBK) – It's a story we've been covering for more than a year — FOX 2 taking a closer look at the way Detroit manages its ambulance service. What we uncovered was a deadly system on the verge of collapse.

Posted December 20, 2011

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

Earlier posts:

July 02, 2011: “More Ambulances, More Training, Less Fear” New Detroit Fire Commissioner Donald Austin reaches out to medical community, says 22 new transport units will start arriving in January. Not writing up guys for minor uniform infractions

Yesterday's report raises questions if the ambulances have been ordered.

Council Says Private EMS Will Be Better  (for who?…. ed.)

THE MOLINE, ILLINOIS, CITY COUNCIL met Tuesday night and, after several weeks of debate, voted to eliminate 12 firefighter/paramedic positions and turn the city's EMS responsibility over to a private ambulance company.

Moline firefighters and their families picketed in front of
city hall prior to last night's meeting.  (Quad City Times photo)

The council's consideration of the move initially led to the Fire Chief Ron Miller's abrupt resignation back on October 18.

The firefighters union rightly points out that not only is the city eliminating paramedics, but they are effectively reducing the on-duty roster of firefighters which translates into reduced ability to perform.  Brian Vyncke, president of Local 581, said that the battle to save the jobs is far from over, according to the Quad City Times. "There are still some negotiations we have to complete," Vyncke said after the meeting.

The QC Times also reports on the council's taking advice from a "consultant" who told them an all-too-familiar fable:

Aldermen heard from Alexander Weiss of Alexander Weiss Consulting of Evanston, Ill., who was commissioned in November to study fire department staffing levels before the council took its final vote on the budget.

Weiss told the council that according to his study, Moline could cut four firefighter/paramedics per shift and still maintain safety levels at fires. But, he said, the fire chief and fire marshal should show up at each fire.  However, Weiss added that days off and vacation time would have to be carefully monitored.

WQAD-TV Ch. 8 was at the meeting and filed this video report:

The new budget that goes into effect at the first of the year was passed on a 5-3 vote.

Moline Fire Department WEBPAGE.
Local 581 WEBSITE.

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Defensive Mayor Tries to Muffle the Truth

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, FIREFIGHTERS ARE ADAMANT about informing the citizens about the dangers of station "brownouts."  The City Council and Mayor have taken the policy of playing firehouse roulette instead of hiring firefighters to fill the many vacancies in the department.

The Lexington Firefighters Local 526 has responded by announcing that they will be placing signs in front of closed firehouses similar to this one pictured below:

The Commissioner of Public Safety issued a threatening statement Friday saying, "It would be illegal under the city's ethics ordinance for the fire union to post signs concerning so-called brownouts on fire equipment or fire stations."

Channel 18 reported the Local's response:

A later release from the IAFF Local 526 Executive Board states, "signs created by The Lexington Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 526 to protest the pending Brownouts of Fire Department Apparatus are not illegal. The signs are nowhere misleading and in fact tell the truth. They will be outside of a fire station when a fire truck is browned out. It is in no way misleading and tells a simple truth city officials fail to grasp. The brownouts for any length of time WILL lead to increased response times for fire trucks responding to fires and medical calls and endangering the safety of the citizens of Lexington."

The release goes on to state that, "The signs made by the Lexington Professional Firefighters will be out in front of the station and in no way was ever mentioned to be attached to the trucks or the station. The fact that the Mayor's Office overreacted by threatening this Union shows that they are in the wrong. The protesters will be off duty firefighters and citizens, so again no violation of law. "In fact, I dare any city official to violate any member of this Union's First Amendment Rights when we point out a safety issue."

WTVQ-TV reported on this food fight in a video report:

The Lexington Herald-Leader continues:

This week, acting Fire Chief Keith Jackson detailed a plan under which some equipment would be "browned out," or taken out of service, from a few hours to two days to accommodate staffing shortages.

The shortages are likely because 40 firefighters are expected to retire this year — twice as many as usual. Bartley said many of them chose to retire in response to recent cuts at the fire department, including wage freezes, limited overtime and a $100 decrease in the city's contribution to health insurance as rates increase for many city employees.

It's unlikely that there will be brownouts before March, when firefighters typically start taking lots of vacation time, officials have said.

Apparently the city is already using next year's calendars and March has arrived at City Hall.  The next day after that statement, the departments only heavy rescue unit was browned out.  WTVQ-TV came right back with this video report:

Stay tuned.  Before March arrives in the rest of the country there will be more to report.

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City Council Wises Up

LAST YEAR THE VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON, City Council embarked on a campaign to whittle their fire department below minimum standards to keep from shrinking non-essential services any further as their budget was going  into the red.  Earlier this year on January 2 we posted an article (HERE) that began:

VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON, DECIDED SIX MONTHS AGO that the city’s fire department was overstaffed, so the city council voted to close one of their firehouses, and mothball one of their only two ladder trucks as well. It was Station 6, home to both an engine company and a truck that was deemed unnecessary and scheduled for a December 31 shutdown with the 30th being the last day of service.

The focus of that article was the closing of Station 6 and the strong community protest against the move with a large gathering on the firehouse apron the day it shut down.  At the rally a former city councilor spoke:   “This could have been avoided,” she said. “If the council had set it as a policy — fire stations will not be closed, public safety would not be compromised — staff would have had to find a way. We needed a couple more stations, not to be closing them down.”

The organizer of the rally, Mary Elkin pledged that they would continue to lobby and pester the city council to re-open their firehouse and their efforts appear to have swayed the council.  Fire Station 6 was revived and opened again on November 7.  The Columbian reported:

Noting there are few happy endings in government cutbacks, neighbor Mary Elkin on Sunday night proclaimed that the reopening of Fire Station 6 "says a lot about the great city we live in."

Elkin is president of Friends of Fire Station 6. She lives just 12 blocks from the Burton-area station with her husband, John, and son Robert. "It doesn’t make any sense to close a fire station," Elkin said before the evening’s speeches. "That’s one of the things our taxes should definitely pay for."

A two-year $2.3 million federal grant was a key ingredient in allowing the station to reopen. But Elkin said there is no need to apologize for taking federal dollars, explaining, "Hey, that’s our money."

Mayor Tim Leavitt, in stark opening comments, said the city has cut $30.6 million during the recent tough times. He said the station was reopened because of the federal grant, work by neighbors, a contract agreement with the Vancouver Firefighters Union and an open-mindedness by city council members. But he said the two-year grant is a "stopgap" measure and there is no guarantee another closure could not occur.

Then, Leavitt read a declaration, saying the station is "open and in service to our community."

Read the entire story in The Columbian HERE.

The ladder truck had been relocated to Station 5 and is remaining there after its former quarters has opened.  It was the topic of an unusual story when the former station closed.  From our report in January we said:

Truck 6 is being shut down also and it ran its last call late Thursday night shortly after midnight. The truck was dispatched to an auto accident on Interstate 205 and was parked in the right lane blocking the accident scene when an airport taxi slid on a patch of ice and crashed into the ladder truck. Truck 6 is out of service.

Vancouver FD photo

Thanks and a hat tip to Firefighter Dave.

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Mortgage Problem on Faulty Building

THE OLDEST RESCUE SQUAD IN THE DAYTON, OHIO, AREA was forced to close Wednesday when it went into receivership with a $1.1 million debt.

Box 21 Rescue Squad was organized 76 years ago in 1935 as a canteen unit to support Dayton area fire departments.  It's name was suggested by the then-fire chief referring to the street box that had transmitted the highest number of serious fires in Dayton.  Over the decades its service expanded and is described on the squads website:

Box 21 operates heavy rescue trucks, mobile intensive care ambulances, mobile rehabilitation units, water rescue equipment, an air cascade vehicle and multiple water craft. Aid is rendered primarily to fire, police, and medical authorities who are actively engaged in helping others. By its charter the organization will travel any reasonable distance to assist;

Their current problem arose when they took out a mortgage to build a new storage sub-station and the builder tried to scam them by using faulty construction methods rendering the building unusable, and then over-billing them.  The Dayton Daily News continues:

The squad owed $1,113,484.77 in judgments — plus interest, late fees and attorneys’ fees — to PNC Bank, arising from a contractor’s lawsuit involving unpaid bills, according to Montgomery County court records.

A receiver was appointed by the court Feb. 17 and has begun the process of selling off the squad’s equipment and other assets. The certificate of judgment was filed Oct. 21, according to court records.

The squad has sued the contractor, but in the meantime their assets were frozen by the bank, effectively shutting them down.

WDTN-TV filed this video report:

Box 21 services shutdown: wdtn.com

Box 21 Rescue Squad WEBSITE.

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The Problem is Strictly Financial

THE FIRE SCIENCE ACADEMY AT THE University of Nevada, Reno will probably be shut down by the end of the year and sold to the Nevada National Guard.  The modern facility is widely used by firefighters from all over the world and also contributes to the Elko County economy.  But the school has an unsustainable debt that continues to increase with no foreseeable turnaround.  There is a $24 million bond indebtedness and a $12 million operating deficit.  The closure will cause the layoff of 28 people, as well.

Fire Science Academy photo

The Elko Daily Free Press reports:

"It is my decision to go to the Board of Regents to propose the closure. The actual decision will be with the Board of Regents,"UNR President Marc Johnson said Monday. "The reason is completely financial," he said.

The university plans to recommend the closure to the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents at their meeting Dec. 1-2 in Las Vegas, according to UNR’s announcement Monday.

Elko County, the City of Elko and the Elko Convention and Visitors Authority all contributed $25,000 a year under a sustainability effort to keep the doors open, and Carlin provided a break on water rates. Academy clients also contributed.

Johnson said the contributions from the cities and county were supposed to be a stopgap measure for three years while the academy sought funds elsewhere for long-term financial support, but that didn’t happen.

KRNV-TV posted this video report:

The sale of the academy to the National Guard is progressing and is expected to be completed within the next few months.  National Guard officials say that their usage of the facility will replace the room sales and related economic activities, plus a planned expansion construction program will benefit the area as well.

The Gardnerville Record-Courier has more DETAILS HERE.
The Elko Daily Times report is HERE.
University of Nevada press release HERE (click on letter for full size).
University of Nevada, Reno Fire Science Academy WEBSITE.

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