The Blade
TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo firefighters have used an unusually large number of sick days so far this year, a pattern the city’s fire chief calls “fiscally unsustainable.”
From January through April, members of the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department called off sick for about 584 round-the-clock shifts, or the equivalent of roughly 1,751 eight-hour days.
Toledo firefighters are on the job 24 hours and then off for 48 hours.
Firefighters took 57 percent more sick days in January than average for that month based on sick time statistics for 2011 through 2014, according to a Blade review of public records.
Similarly, February saw a 25 percent increase, March a 33 percent increase, and April an 18 percent increase over the previous five-year average.
Sick leave, and its potential for abuse, has been a focal point for Fire Chief Luis Santiago throughout his four years leading the department.
He began a high-profile crackdown on sick-time abuse in 2011 and the issue has remained a sore point between the fire department administration and firefighters union, contributing to a union no-confidence vote against Santiago in May and prompting several grievances against the chief.
In his reply to such a grievance in March, Chief Santiago said this year’s jump carries “significant budgetary implications.”
Overtime expenses for the department through April were $327,000, which is only slightly less than the $374,000 in overtime costs for all of 2014.
“Bottom line, this disturbing trend is fiscally unsustainable,” he wrote.
This increase constitutes a pattern, the chief said, and he hopes to collaborate to find a solution.
“You can’t ignore or dispute the high percentage increase,” Chief Santiago said.
Local 92 President Jeff Romstadt denied there is a union abuse of sick time. Healthy firefighters calling off sick is not condoned, he said.
This recent uptick is at least partially because two firefighters are on lengthy long-term injury leave and a debilitating flu in January that infected union members, he said.
“Our men and women every day are being exposed to it, and when they come back to the station house, they expose everyone else,” Captain Romstadt said.
Firefighter morale is low, and the physical fatigue of constant calls makes recovering from illness more difficult, he said.
The department’s practice of sending officers to the homes of firefighters who have called in sick to verify their sick leave has prompted repeated grievances against the chief.
The union contract, which was ratified in late January and expires in 2018, allows for such visits from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Maximum punishments are a suspension of 15 days for the first offense, 30 days for the second offense, and termination for the third offense.
“If he has members he believes show a pattern of abuse, he has a right to visit them,” Captain Romstadt said of the chief.
But the department has inefficiently conducted its visits, Captain Romstadt said. Mr. Romstadt said the department sent a battalion chief to check on a firefighter in Detroit. Spokesmen for the union and department said checkups have been infrequent during the last few months and the chief said sick leave has mostly leveled off in recent months.
In his reply to a September, 2011, grievance, Chief Santiago said he must investigate potential dishonesty.
“I also have a fiscal obligation to the city administration and ultimately to the citizens of Toledo, realizing that this problem contributes to overtime cost,” he wrote.
A November, 2012, grievance filed against Chief Santiago claimed a department representative visited firefighters after a doctor verified their illnesses. The chief countered that abuse of sick and injury leave remained a problem.
Although sick leave contributes to overtime costs, additional factors such as staffing and training requirements do as well.
Department overtime costs totaled about $1.33 million in 2011, $1.45 million in 2012, $1.49 million in 2013, $374,000 in 2014 and $327,000 through April of this year.
Members of Local 92, which represents 490 privates, lieutenants, and captains, voted no confidence in Chief Santiago by a vote of 319-46 in May.
Late last month, Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson, who has repeatedly voiced support for the chief in the wake of the no-confidence vote, appointed former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Andy Douglas to work as a facilitator between the union and the chief.
The mayor said she believes the two groups discussing their concerns with a facilitator will be beneficial.
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