By Craig Fox
Watertown Daily Times
WATERTOWN, N.Y. — Six months into the city’s fiscal year, the fire department has already spent $319,237 on overtime costs, or about two-thirds of what was budgeted for the entire year.
Fire Chief Dale C. Herman said that amount will “most likely” exceed $600,000 by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
Overtime has become a growing concern for the department. During the past four years, the fire department’s overtime has more than doubled, from $217,318 in 2012-13 to $489.042 last year.
But Chief Herman hopes that the fire department soon will get some overtime relief when two staff members return from short-term leave from on-the-job injuries.
Asked about the issue, City Manager Sharon A. Addison blamed the overtime increases on the “minimal man” clause in the union contract that stipulates 15 firefighters must be on duty at all times.
“Overtime just can’t be curtailed because of the minimal manning issue,” she said.
Fifteen firefighters must be working at all times, even when staff members have days off, are on vacation or call in sick, she said. About 30 percent of the overtime costs are due to shortages caused by firefighters calling in sick, with it reaching as high as 35 percent two years ago, she said.
To help reduce overtime expenses, however, Chief Herman has recommended the city apply for a federal Staffing for an Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant that would be used to fill vacant firefighter positions.
If additional firefighters were brought on, there would be less of a need for overtime expenses, he said.
If awarded, the city would pay 25 percent of the salaries for the new firefighters during the first two years of the grant and 65 percent in the third year. The city would be required to maintain staffing levels for that time or it would lose the federal funding. The grant application is due Feb. 10, with $345 million to be awarded to about 300 municipalities nationwide.
In 2015, the city was awarded $288,000 for the “SAFER grant” that would have paid all of the salaries and benefits for two unfilled firefighter positions.
But City Council members rejected the funding because they did not know how it would impact labor talks with the Watertown Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 191.
Chief Herman said he recommended applying for this round of the grant to Ms. Addison, but she has not responded back to him.
While Chief Herman would not say how many positions he would apply for, Ms. Addison said the fire chief would like to increase the number of staff members from 70 to 72.
When asked about reducing overtime by adding staff, Ms. Addison said it wasn’t financially feasible, because it would end up costing more money for salaries and health benefits.
“It’s not in the financial interest of the city,” she said.
The firefighters’ union also has blamed increasing overtime costs on not filling positions.
The union has been without a contract since July 1, 2014. The minimal manning has been the main sticking point in the stalled contract.
The contract talks became increasingly bitter in July after eight captains were demoted to firefighters. The city wants to reduce staff.
Since the demotions of the captains, the bargaining unit has filed for arbitration against the city on the contract dispute and for several other arbitration, grievances and improper labor practice cases.
Most recently, the union filed another arbitration on Thursday that’s associated with a new procedure involving the eight captains who were demoted on July 1.
At the direction of the city manager, a new set of Standard Operating Procedures — or SOPs — was put into place in October to make sure the fire department has adequate supervision during fires and other serious incidents.
According to the SOP, battalion chiefs were given the ability to temporarily promote firefighters to the role of acting captains — now called “co-drivers” — on an as-needed basis.
Battalion chiefs can decide whether the acting captains are needed, depending on the situation, such as when a call becomes more serious or another call comes in at another scene.
Elevated captains receive a 94-cent-an-hour pay differential for the entire shift, Chief Herman said. Daytime firefighters working 10-hour shifts now make $9.40 more a shift before taxes, while firefighters working 14 hours during a night shift earn $13.16 more a shift.
On 11 occasions, Ms. Addison refused to approve the differential pay for acting captains, contending the temporary promotions were not needed, union President Daniel Daugherty said.
“She wants to micromanage the department. The battalion chiefs thought that they had ‘command and control’ and are now getting second guessed,” Mr. Daugherty said. “I’ve had battalion chiefs complain to me. They’ve said maybe they should call her on a cell phone to get permission.”
The city manager refused to pay about $100 for the 11 occasions in question, Mr. Daugherty said. But it could cost thousands of dollars in legal bills for the union and the city for the arbitration case, he said.
When the union filed a grievance in November about the matter, Ms. Addison said she requested a meeting with the bargaining unit’s negotiating team.
She had hoped to come up with “a mutually accepted resolution,” Ms. Addison said.
“But they denied my request for a meeting,” she said.
The new SOP was devised as an alternative for making changes to the department’s deployment model involving its fleet of fire and rescue trucks. By using the new SOP, the same number of vehicles are able to respond to fire and emergency calls.
Battalion chiefs can either use preferred lists from eight former captains who lost their supervisory positions or from a promotional list of firefighters.
The city demoted the eight captains to save about $100,000 a year. The eight former captains lost about 20 percent of their annual salaries.
The city contends that the minimal manning stipulation causes the department to be overstaffed, while the union maintains that changing it would be unsafe.
By the numbers
Escalating overtime costs for the Watertown Fire Department
2015-16 $489,042
2014-15 $426,315
2013-14 $372,573
2012-13 $217,318
Copyright 2017 Watertown Daily Times