By Cynthia Daniels
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When Sandy Springs launches its own fire department in late December, some Fulton County firefighters who work there now won’t be answering alarms in the city.
The problems, some say, are lower pay and inadequate benefits, including reduced vacation and leave time. Some Sandy Springs-based firefighters will choose instead to stay with Fulton County or put out fires somewhere else.
“When this all got started, that’s all anybody talked about — Sandy Springs, Sandy Springs,” said Mark Akins, a trustee for Fulton Professional Firefighters Local 3920 of the International Association of Firefighters and a 27-year Fulton County firefighter. “There’s zero interest now.”
But Sandy Springs officials say although they’re not offering as much as Fulton County, they’re still within the market value for the metro area.
“We tried to craft the best compensation package we could based on our resources and analysis,” City Manager John McDonough said. “We’re higher than some and lower than some, but we believe it’s going to be a competitive plan.”
In the current pay scale, a full-time firefighter in Sandy Springs will make between $36,887 and $42,661 a year. The same position in Fulton County has a salary range of $42,484 to $62,886 a year, and in Marietta, it’s $33,002 to $54,367.
McDonough said the city was so committed to providing a competitive salary for the fire department that it used half of its fire department contingency budget, $150,000, to increase salaries.
In addition, applicants with local experience will earn evaluation bonus points and a one-time stipend of several thousand dollars.
McDonough says the incentives worked — the city received 800 resumes to fill its 86 openings.
The applicants included 27 firefighters who met the qualifications and had worked in Sandy Springs.
The fire department is one of the few Sandy Springs departments not handled through the $27 million contract with private company CH2M Hill-OMI. Fire Chief Jack McElfish and his 86-member department will all be direct employees of the city.
Sandy Springs will be taking over three Fulton County fire stations. Earlier this year, the city purchased two stations from the county at $5,000 apiece and agreed to pick up the $285,000 mortgage on a third station. A fourth station currently serving the area is leased from the city of Atlanta.
In addition to personnel, Sandy Springs expects new costs from the stations themselves. Unsure whether they will receive items inside the fire stations — from ovens to telephones — the city has embarked upon a campaign to ask homeowners associations and businesses for donations. The $200,000 marked for station renovations in the 2007 budget will more than likely go toward building repairs, McDonough said.
When Sandy Springs created its police department, the city hired 36 Fulton County officers without having to offer the incentives offered firefighters.
Akins said few of the firefighters he works with have applied in Sandy Springs, and some who have applied are having second thoughts about accepting a job.
For Akins, who worked in Sandy Springs for 22 years, the thought of someone with less local experience stepping in is troublesome. He constantly wonders whether the city’s firefighters, new to the area, will know which high-rise buildings have partial sprinkler systems or that Johnson Ferry Road stops in the middle of the city, only to start back up again near the hospitals.
McElfish said there should be no concerns regarding response times — GPS locators will lead firefighters to the correct location, and dispatchers always provide cross streets.
He added that the city’s level of service will not change.
“These are career professionals,” said McElfish, who is a former Gwinnett County fire chief. “It’s no different than a Fulton County firefighter who’s working on the south side and being promoted to come here. People have to know what they’re doing.”
FIRE SERVICE IN SANDY SPRINGS
* Sandy Springs will contract with Fulton County for its fire service until the end of the year.
* The city will launch its own fire department in late December and has agreed to purchase two fire stations from the county at $5,000 apiece, take on a $285,000 mortgage for the third county station and lease one fire station from the city of Atlanta for $1 a year.
* In July, Sandy Springs launched its own police department with 86 officers, up from 65 under Fulton County’s patrols.