By Andrew Kitchenman
The Times of Trenton (New Jersey)
TRENTON — As tensions over the proposed demotion of 13 fire captains rose, city officials told the city council last night that the city is facing 69 layoffs to help close a $26 million budget gap.
Acting Fire Director Henry Gliottone said he didn’t know how he would restructure the fire department to accommodate the demotions proposed by senior city officials.
“We can’t crumple up a piece of paper, throw it out and start all over again,” Gliottone said. He cited the importance of having a captain commanding each fire engine and ladder truck for safety reasons.
“My concern (is) my guys, period,” Gliottone said.
Business Administrator Jane Feigenbaum said Trenton isn’t the only city that would reduce the number of fire captains.
“We really need to understand the constraints that we have to operate under,” Feigenbaum said, referring to the budget situation.
She said the city will have 69 layoffs, 27 demotions and 89 vacancies eliminated, including 16 police officer vacancies under a proposal the city will submit to the state Department of Personnel on Friday. The city has roughly 1,700 employees.
The budget would eliminate the 25 new police officers the police department added last year, as well as the 25 new officers that it had been planned for this year.
Fire Battalion Chief William Paradiso said the fire department has done everything it has been asked to do through a series of cuts in the past six years. He said eliminating the fire positions is a step too far.
“This is strictly a safety issue,” said Paradiso, who heads the fire supervisors union.
Fire Capt. Robert Tharp said that if there were fewer captains to supervise in a dangerous fire in December 2006, “the results would have been fatal.”
South Ward Councilman Jim Coston proposed a new table of organization that would maintain the current level of captains.
Council President Paul M. Pintella, an at-large member, was the only council member to vote against the measure. He said it would set a dangerous precedent for the council to support additional costs or open up the city to a lawsuit if it falls below the number of firefighters in the ordinance.
Feigenbaum said the city will face a dire tax situation if the Board of Public Utilities doesn’t approve the proposed sale of the suburban portion of the city’s water utility. She said that even with the proposed reductions, it would face a $19 million shortfall with the utility sale.
Coston also proposed a measure that would set the number of police officers, rather than having a range of officers that is included in the current table of organization. Police Director Irving Bradley Jr. said he preferred to have flexibility and the measure didn’t pass.
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