By Shawn Regan
The Eagle-Tribune
HAVERHILL, Mass. — The Fire Department is down 10 firefighters and recently lost three senior officers to retirement — leaving the department bleeding overtime money.
The three officers who have retired within the last two months — Deputy Chief Lewis Poore and captains Paul Garon and Michael Friel — held several key public safety jobs and assignments that have either yet to be filled or have been filled on a temporary basis.
Mayor James Fiorentini said he expects to hear within two weeks whether the city is to receive $457,000 in federal stimulus money to hire four firefighters and boost the overtime account. Keeping the Bradford fire station open through the winter hinges on the stimulus money and the new hires, the mayor said.
Without the money, the station — the only firehouse located on the Bradford side of the Merrimack River — could be closed soon. The mayor previously said the station faced closing as soon as this month without the stimulus money, but last week he declined to put a timetable on that decision.
Mayor to soften feud with firefighters?
Fiorentini, who won re-election last week, has been feuding with the firefighters union for months on a variety of issues, including a new contract, suspensions he handed down to four firefighters for violating sick-leave rules, and use of GPS equipment to track the locations of fire trucks. In his victory speech on election night, the mayor said improving relations with the firefighters and resolving their disputes will be a priority.
The retirements of Poore, Garon and Friel leave the department with 85 firefighters for 95 positions that are funded in this year’s budget.
Haverhill’s complement of firefighters has been on a downward spiral for decades, during which time its population has risen. When Poore joined the Haverhill Fire Department in 1977, the city had 132 firefighters, he said.
For most of this year, the department, at the mayor’s direction, has been spending unused salary money to pay for overtime and cover for its depleted ranks. The surplus salary money is the result of having money in the budget for workers who have since retired.
Department has surge in overtime
After the first quarter of the fiscal year that ended in early October, the department had already spent $518,000 of $854,000 in this year’s overtime account, according to city Finance Director Charles Benevento. However, Benevento said this year’s spending is not up significantly compared to the same point a year ago, when overtime spending was at $503,000. The department spent a total of $1.6 million on overtime last year and $1.4 million two years ago, he said.
The excessive overtime last year led to firefighters seeing their pay checks boosted by $1.5 million in 2008, when the average firefighter made $79,000 and the average deputy chief made $131,000. Five firefighters earned more than $100,000, with Deputy William Laliberty topping the list at $161,064, including $63,596 in overtime pay, according to city financial records.
Critics pointed to the large paychecks when firefighters refused to accept days off without pay, called furloughs, as the city was in the midst of a financial crisis last summer. The firefighters union blamed the mayor for poor planning, saying the fact he has not hired any new firefighters in four years is causing the overtime surge.
Fiorentini said he does not expect the department to overshoot its budget this year. Because the department is now down 10 employees funded in the budget, the city is projecting an end-of-the-year surplus in the salary and wages account of $384,000, he said. He also said the city is in the process of hiring several firefighters, including a deputy chief to replace Poore.
Reinforcements possible, but losses to hurt
Gov. Deval Patrick’s office is expected to announce the communities receiving public safety grants within two weeks, Fiorentini said.
Beyond that, the mayor said he hopes later this fiscal year to hire two or three more firefighters, in addition to the four he plans to hire with stimulus money.
Fire Chief Richard Borden and officials from the fire union said the department had been in the process of hiring several applicants who were laid off from their firefighter jobs in other communities. That process was halted last month, however, when the state made millions available to cities and towns to rehire firefighters let go earlier this year due to budget cuts.
“We have to start over from scratch,” Borden said. “And it’s a shame because those guys (whom the city was considering hiring from other communities) were experienced firefighters who have already been through the academy. ... But we’re going to ‘fast-track’ these new hires, as long as we get the stimulus money.”
The loss of Friel, Garon and Poore is particularly concerning because each man had specific responsibilities in the department, said fire Captain Paul Weinburgh, president of the firefighters union.
Friel was the department’s training officer and safety officer, Weinburgh said. The training officer is a full-time position responsible for scheduling training exercises and training firefighters. The safety officer is responsible for watching over firefighters at the scene of fires and automobile accidents.
While Friel often performed the role of safety officer, Borden said the ranking firefighter on the scene of any emergency can assign that job to any senior officer or experienced firefighter.
“It would be great to have a departmental safety officer, but it’s not feasible given our financial constraints and limited resources,” Borden said.
The training officer, on the other hand, is a vital position that must be quickly filled, Borden said. He said he hopes to have someone in place for that job by the end of the month.
“But like so much right now, it depends on the stimulus money,” he said.
The chief said Garon’s retirement was a big loss because he was one of only two licensed electricians in the department. The other licensed electrician, Mike Lavoy, is not a firefighter so he does not respond to emergencies as Garon did as a fire captain. However, Lavoy does handle some of Garon’s electrician duties for the department.
As the department’s fire alarm superintendent, Garon was in charge of maintaining and repairing traffic lights and fire alarms, including emergency fire pull boxes on city streets. He was also in charge of overseeing the department’s emergency dispatch center at the police station.
Poore oversaw the department’s arson division. But the chief said there are still two firefighters in the division who were “hands-on investigators” under Poore. They are running the arson division until the chief is able to fill Poore’s job with a senior officer, Borden said.
Poore also was in charge of issuing permits and inspecting businesses to make sure they are following state and local rules and safety codes. Borden said he has temporarily taken over most of Poore’s permitting duties until he can find a permanent replacement.
Copyright 2009