By Dianna Smith
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — The city’s continuous push to tout it as a wonderful place to be may be enough to lure tourists here, but firefighters need more convincing.
The 16 vacancies in the city’s fire department are the most David Harden said he’s seen in his 16 years as city manager of Delray Beach. The city is having a difficult time recruiting firefighters who also qualify as paramedics, so much so that Harden suggested to city commissioners Tuesday night that they approve more than $300,000 for an increase in firefighter salaries alone.
The average salary for a firefighter last year was $70,000 and the city’s starting salary was $45,293. Harden said the starting salary needs to increase by at least $2,000 or more. If commissioners approve the increase, that would put Delray Beach’s starting salary ahead of Boynton Beach and West Palm Beach.
Harden said many communities in Palm Beach County negotiated their contracts after Delray Beach did.
“They set their salaries higher than ours,” he said. “It kind of put us behind.”
Commissioners will spend the next few weeks studying the proposed budget, which includes a drop in the tax rate to $7.30 per $1,000 of taxable property value. They will vote on the final budget in mid-September.
There are 154 employees in the fire department and six fire stations in the city, Harden said.
Mayor Jeff Perlman asked if lack of affordable housing is playing a factor in the vacancies. Fire Chief Kerry Koen said no.
“We haven’t had that many viable candidates to talk about that,” Koen said.
Perlman said, “We’ve got to stop the bleeding.”
Koen said other Florida cities are experiencing the same problem.
“Everybody is stressed to find these people,” Koen said. “It’s a huge struggle.”
Harden said more than $1 million is budgeted in overtime expenses for the fire department alone in the upcoming budget. This year, $768,000 has already been spent in overtime. Koen said he doesn’t want to continue to use overtime to solve the vacancy problem.
Vice Mayor Rita Ellis and Commissioner Brenda Montague said they wanted to pay for four more paramedic positions as well, which would cost an estimated $340,000, but Harden suggested they wait until mid-year to consider that because the vacancy problem should be addressed first.
The mayor asked that the commission be more informed on vacancies in city departments, especially in the public safety field.
“It’s a lot cheaper and quicker to fix,” Perlman said of knowing sooner than later.