HE UNION (IAFF) EFFORT TO CONVINCE YOU THAT THEY NEED THREE FIREMAN PER SHIFT, MANDATORY OVERTIME, AND MORE PAY
At the last City Commission meeting, the fire department union (IAFF) president presented each of the five Commissioners with a 17-page document that he claimed justified why fire department staffing should not be reduced to two per shift.
(SEE LINK) As you will see, it is not just the ludicrous idea that a med/EVAC house call to a two-bedroom house needs a “crowd control officer”, to the fanciful, if not totally laughable, comment about the number of firefighters needed for an accident where a victim has to be “extricated”. Think of the number of pieces of equipment that show up even for fender-benefits. The number of fires went down to 104 from 117 in 2006, and only a small percentage were house fires. Again it appears all were a total loss—i.e. either fire or smoke finished the house off.
For the fun of it, page by page:
1. Page 1. The key for evaluation of the effectiveness of your fire department is the insurance industry rating system that is called ISO. On a scale of one to ten, all of Southeast Volusia County is 5 if it is within 5 miles of a fire station and there are fire hydrants no more than 1000 feet apart. This is independent of whether there is two or twenty firefighters on a truck. It is the same for med/EVAC, If they cannot get to you in under seven minutes you will have serious brain damage. That too is not dependent on the number of people riding on the truck.
2. Page 2. The so-called study on efficiency conducted in Austin, TX, by the fire department was for evaluating aerial truck efficiency (hook and ladder to us layman). It has nothing to do with the service that is available on all but one of the City’s fire trucks, and in any event, was done by firefighters, for firefighters. If you want to see that this is a nationwide effort by the IAFF to bootstrap its arguments, see the slick web site presentation made on the web by a department near Austin.
LINK. The presentation points here was basically copied from this web site. On the other hand, maybe it was from a union handout on how to counter arguments that staffing levels, as well as pay and pensions, have gotten out of hand.
3. Page 3. This statistical comparison to Edgewater is amusing. Number one, with almost the same population, we supposedly had 40% more med/EVAC calls than Edgewater. We think an independent audit by the County or State is in order. Secondly, they had 199 fires with a property loss of about $500,000, and NSB had 104 total fires, which we estimate is only about 10 or 12 house fires, for a loss of almost $3 million. Edgewater's ISO rating is “5”, NSB is”4”, and Silver Sands a “5”. Most Insurance Companies make no distinction in fire coverage rates between four and six ISO. By the way, 10 is no coverage and one probably is a fire at the firehouse which is bricks and stone.
4. Page 4. Edgewater has annexed out to I-95, just like NSB, and its total area is 22.24 square miles, not 13. Statistically, the Union misrepresented Edgewater's size by almost half. Remember too, much of the area of both Cities is farmland West of I-95 and not heavily settled for the most part, just east of I-95.
5. Page 5. We laughed at the comment about the need for a crowd control firefighter for med/EVAC calls. What about the police on the scene? There are only two to an ambulance, and we are told they handle their job well. However, the more important question is how many sudden cardiac heart failures do they treat? Does anyone arrive in time to save the victim, how many are taken to the hospital alive, and how many leave the hospital alive? Unfortunately, the number is so small that it is unlikely that even if you are in an ICU unit in the hospital you will survive that type of heart attack. In a survey of all U.S. Hospitals, only 42% do. Bert Fish does not keep statistics of those “saved” with sudden cardiac arrest.
6. Page 6. Those numbers work when the special rescue vehicle, two fire trucks, and the Battalion Commander in his SUV are on the scene. Add at least two police vehicles. At a recent fender bender last year on A1A at 27th Avenue there were seven emergency vehicles on the scene. The driver of the car had a cut hand and refused to be taken to Bert Fish.
7. Page 7. Their overtime is a three hour per week built in gift that costs the City the City between $5,000 to $10,000 a week. Their normal workweek is 53 hours at regular pay which includes at least 16 hours of sleep time. We do not know of any other employees, Federal, State or local, other than fireman who have a built in sleep component even though they are on “duty”. The City has tried to cut their hours to a normal workweek, 40 hours for you, for them 53 hours. On top of that, overtime is a management decision and should not have been in the contract at all. Last, overtime abuse was the principal method used to the abuse sick leave.
8. Pages 8-10. Fire department personnel have tripled their wages over the last six years. They have also changed the retirement multiplier from 2% to 3% which has resulted in Cindy Richenberg receiving a $63,000 annual pension for a person less than 50 years of age, instead of at $40-45,000 pension if the multiplier had not been changed. For those of you on Social Security, the current retirement age is 67 and will soon go up to 68. Reducing the compensation and benefits of the fire department must happen, or in about ten years, the City will be bankrupt. They should not complain about redressing pay increases that are not sustainable by the City. Eliminating the three hours of mandatory overtime will go a long way toward putting an end to their sick leave abuse. We hope that they give back more than the pittance of $400,000. Getting rid of the three hours of overtime alone will save more than $500,000.
9. Pages 11- 15. This is the “pennies per day” argument: it does not cost you much so stop complaining. On that basis, Port Orange firefighters should have their pay tripled immediately. They have almost three times the number of residents. They want you to ignore the fact that the IAFF has successfully turned a reasonable blue-collar job into one that pays two or three times the average wage earner’s salary in Volusia County. Where in the real world they would they command such wages. They cannot justify these pay scales by attempting to equate their services as worth just a little more from each taxpayer. It is a specious argument, just like claiming that the firefighter who dies of a heart attack while eating dinner in the firehouse is a hero.
10. Pages 16 and 17 are “loaded” questions. Here are the answers
The City saved about $140,000 in 2007 and 2008 by cutting out sick and overtime
abuse.
Even if our ISO rating went from four to five, it would make no difference in fire
Insurance rates. Your insurance rates will not change. There would be absolutely no
change in fire, med/EVAC, or Public safety response. Edgewater is not unsafe by any
stretch of the imagination, and on top of that there is no statistical difference between
county fire stations manned by two firefighters per shift rather than three. Seven
County fire districts seem to get along with only two per Shift. Silver Sands has not
suffered and has a fire station within five miles of each house and fire hydrants closer
than 1000 feet apart. we believe Silver Sands is one of thousands of areas in this
country with only two to a shift.
You should take all of the cuts in budget because you fed so well at the public table
during the fat years. You have much more fat to give up than any other group in the
City.
For your information, you should be aware that the Union representative did not provide a copy of his presentation to the City Manager. However, he attacked him throughout the presentation for positions he has taken during contract negotiations that were clearly in the best interest of the City and its taxpayers. We asked for a copy on Monday, and the City Clerk made one available, to the City Manager and then to the Shadow. Can you believe the disrespect shown to the City Manager by this good ole’ boy union president? The Shadow does, and particularly when they have at least a three to two vote advantage on the City Commission. Keep in mind the City Manager is the one who stopped them from abusing sick leave, and has been negotiating with them to eliminate three hours per week of embedded overtime and a 3% pay raise, not the Mayor and Commissioners. You cannot expect too much from a person who shows his disdain for elected officials and the public attendees by wearing a baseball cap when he made his unannounced presentation. The Union (IAFF) must be worried that ordinary citizens may be getting the message about their sweetheart contract last time, and will bring pressure to bear on the Commission. We hope so!