By William Kaempffer
The New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The Fire Department has “critical staffing shortages” that, while not impacting public safety, is driving overtime costs and creating the potential for burnout over time as firefighters pick up extra shifts, the assistant chief said Wednesday.
In the firehouses, the city is 65 firefighters under its 347 budgeted positions. In the supervisory ranks, the fire service is 30 percent under budget with 61 officers out of 87 at full staff.
With a minimum staffing level per shift, “it requires a lot of people working a lot,” said Assistant Chief Patrick Egan.
As it stands, the city is hoping to seat a fire academy class this spring to fill vacancies at the entry-level firefighter rank. That could translate to 30 to 40 hires. The solution for supervisors, he said, could take longer. The department is planning a test for battalion chief within the next six months and anticipates additional promotional exams for lieutenant, captain and deputy chief over the next two years. In the department’s higher ranks — deputy and battalion chief — there are more vacancies than officers.
The entry-level recruitment process could begin as soon as next month.
Contractual obligations in the fire department make it somewhat unique in the city. When it’s fully staffed, most overtime is paid at regular pay, but in exchange firefighters get job security with minimum staffing requirements. Under the existing labor pact, the city has a mandatory staffing level of 73 line firefighters per shift, meaning the department must hire on overtime if it runs short. In return, the firefighter union agreed that overtime would be paid at straight time until a firefighter reached a threshold of 212 hours in a 28-day period.
With normal staffing levels, Egan estimated, 90 percent of overtime hours were paid at regular pay rates. But with the shortage, he said, between 30 to 35 percent of overtime hours now exceed the threshold and are paid at time-and-a-half.
“We have substantial vacancies and I anticipate more,” Egan said. So far this year, approximately 35 firefighters retired, in part driven by uncertainty about potential concessions in the upcoming contract.
Chief Administrative Officer Robert Smuts also attributed part of it to hiring practices from two decades ago when, in the 1980s and early 1990s, the city went five to seven years without hiring new firefighters. That means today, large clusters of firefighters are becoming eligible for pensions at one time.
The projections were presented Wednesday to the aldermanic public safety committee.
Alderman Gerald Antunes, a retired police captain, questioned what the department, like its police counterpart with its Explorer’s program, does to help prepare young city residents for the profession. The fire department does have an EMT cadet program to help high-schoolers get emergency medical technician certification. Beyond that, Egan said, the department planned an aggressive recruitment drive to let city residents know about the upcoming class. In the suburbs, particularly ones with volunteer departments, networks quickly spread about new openings.
In 2007, the city received 1,400 applications for a class that seated 28 recruits.
“It’s easier to get into Yale than to get into the New Haven Fire Department,” Smuts said.
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