By Dave Statter
STATter911.com
9NEWS NOW has learned details of how the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department is planning to handle the furlough of career firefighters and medics.
According to sources familiar with the plan, as many as seven different Prince George’s County fire stations could be without firefighters at various times during any 24-hour period.
Sources familiar with the plan tell 9NEWS NOW the fire department is awaiting final approval from top county officials in Upper Marlboro. County spokesman James Keary says Director of Public Safety and Homeland Security Vernon Herron has not yet received a plan from the fire department.
In a conversation Tuesday evening, after this story was first reported on wusa9.com and 9NEWS NOW, Keary objected to the characterization that any station would not be staffed or would be closed. According to Keary, “there is no plan”, because nothing has been approved by Herron.
Based on recent conversations with career and volunteer officials, and an email sent to volunteers earlier in the process, it is clear the plan proposed by Prince George’s County Fire & EMS Chief Lawrence Sedgwick Jr. and his staff would completely strip some stations of career firefighters for 8-hours at a time. The sources have asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak for the department on this issue.
Public Safety Director Herron has said previously, and spokesman Keary reiterated, that the safety of citizens will not be impacted by the furloughs. The sources familiar with the current proposal said having fire stations that aren’t staffed will increase the department’s response times to some emergencies.
According to the sources, the department’s plan as of Tuesday afternoon, calls for keeping current staffing levels at all stations from 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM, because of the higher volume of calls during that time period. Career firefighters and medics would be furloughed only during the daytime (7:00 AM to 3:00 PM) and overnight periods (11:00 PM to 7:00 AM).
The furloughs would rotate through each of the 44 fire stations in Prince George’s County until at least June, 2009. Under the plan, at any one time, it is likely that no more than three or four stations currently with career staffing would be without those firefighters. Up to seven stations could be impacted during any one 24-hour period. The sources tell 9NEWS NOW the department will spread the furloughs out geographically, to avoid stripping resources from any one area.
The furloughs for the fire department could begin as early as this Sunday. To meet contracted minimum staffing requirements, and for bookkeeping purposes, the plan is to remove entire crews from the stations during the eight-hour furlough periods.
Unless volunteer firefighters fill the gaps, those stations will effectively be closed. Not all stations have volunteer staffing and the volunteers are also being used to fill shifts due to overtime cut backs.
Career and volunteer sources tell 9NEWS NOW they likely won’t know with certainty what volunteer resources will be available until the beginning of a shift.
The fire department has approximately 720 career firefighters and medics and about 80 civilian employees. Firefighters and medics assigned to office duty will be used to cover for some furloughed positions.
On September 18, Volunteer Major James McClelland sent an email to volunteers providing an overview of the furlough plan. The details are very similar to what county sources told 9NEWS NOW on Tuesday. Here is what Major McClelland wrote:
Furlough Plan
1. Daywork stations will be furloughed for 8 hours once a month. This means for one shift per month you will not have staffing.
2. Shiftwork stations will be furloughed for 8 hours once a month for each specific shift (A thru D). This means that shift stations will not have staffing for 4 eight hour blocks per month. The eight hour blocks will be either the first 8 hours or the last 8 hours of the respective shift. Clearly this makes a difference, as to whether some stations will be able to fill the void with volunteer staffing.
3. Office staff may be utilized to help fill-in some gaps, but the feeling is that the office operations must still go on.
4. Stations that have 2 persons on daywork and 2 people on shift will use the shift work plan by assigning the 2 daywork personnel to one of the shifts for the purpose of the furlough. On other furlough days the two may be supplemented with office personnel or detailed out to avoid having just 2 personnel working.
5. For stations with a large first due or where a large service gap will occur, when that station is out of service another unit may be transferred in, leaving your station empty again.
The Prince George’s County Council approved the two week furloughs for all county employees to help bridge a $57 million budget shortfall. A coalition of five unions -- including firefighters -- is suing the county over the furloughs.
When asked for comment, Prince George’s County Fire & EMS Department Chief Spokesman Mark Brady said the furlough plans have been sent for review and have not been finalized.
Republished with permission of WUSA-TV.