The Fayetteville Observer
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Some offhand remarks made at last week’s Fayetteville City Council budget meeting have created a fervor by firefighters who feel under appreciated.
And the Fayetteville Professional Fire Fighters Association has come to the rescue in a letter Friday defending the duties and training for the city’s 321 firefighters.
Several firefighters are expected to crowd today’s council meeting that begins at 5 p.m. in the Lafayette Room at City Hall.
The letter and the backlash over some of the council’s comments about firefighters’ work schedules and how they spend their off time underscore the simmering discontent over the lack of a pay step plan for the Fire Department.
“It’s definitely stirred the pot,” Chief Ben Major said this afternoon. “Some feelings were hurt. Some people felt a little disrespected.”
Since 2006, the Police Department has had a pay step plan that guarantees lower-ranked officers will receive salary raises of 4 percent and 5 percent annually through much of their careers.
In City Manager Ted Voorhees’ recommended budget for fiscal 2016, he has proposed giving firefighters ranked as lieutenants and below pay raises of either 3 percent, 2.5 percent or 2 percent annually, over a 20-year step plan. In addition, Voorhees wants to raise the minimum salaries for all firefighter positions, except that of the fire chief.
That recommendation will have the effect of some firefighters seeing double-digit pay raises next year before going on the pay step plan. But some upper-ranked firefighters with several years in the department would see pay raises of less than 1 percent next year, under the new plan.
According to the association’s letter, which went to the council on Friday, the proposed new pay plan is “too little, too late.”
The council is tentatively scheduled to vote on a new budget June 8, ahead of the July 1 start of the fiscal year. Some council members, including Bill Crisp, said the council needs to further discuss the proposed fire step plan in light of the firefighters backlash.
At a budget meeting last week, Councilman Chalmers McDougald said firefighters work 120 days a year.
“It’s 100 days less than the average worker, which allows them to do a lot of other things,” McDougald said, referring to the common practice of firefighters doing part-time work during their off days.
One odd job, McDougald cited as an example, was fixing cars.
“The guys love these kind of jobs,” McDougald said.
Mayor Nat Robertson chimed in.
“It’s like being retired and still working,” the mayor said, with a laugh.
After the city posted an audio recording of the meeting on YouTube, the council received at least a half-dozen emails, mostly from spouses of Fayetteville firefighters, who said they found the remarks insensitive and ignorant.
“I have been recently appalled at the comments directed at the entire department of firemen,” one letter said. “It appears as though the council members have very little grasp of being a fireman.”
Today, Robertson said that anybody in the room would have known he was only kidding.
“Our firefighters have real concerns, and this council is starting to address them,” Robertson said, adding he had been unaware of the level of discontent over pay.
“I sincerely appreciate the dedication and service the Fire Department provides, and I will work to get their salaries in line with other communities our size.”
On Friday, the first-term mayor offered a letter of explanation about his remark to families who had emailed the council.
The local fire association said firefighters work roughly 24-hour shifts, and many need to work part-time jobs afterward, even though they would prefer to rest between shifts or spend time with family.
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