By Anne Snabes
The Detroit News
GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. ― Grand Blanc Township leaders voted to add a full-time firefighter position to the township’s fire department as fire officials push for more staff in the department in the aftermath of a mass shooting and blaze at a local church.
The board of trustees said it would use some of the money from unfilled part-time firefighter positions to pay for a full-time position before the body passed its annual budget, which starts Jan. 1.
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“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Fire Chief Jamie Jent, who has been asking for an increase in staffing.
Jent had called for hiring three more full-time firefighters in the budget in the upcoming year, in addition to the one approved Tuesday. The department has six full-time firefighters and 28 part-time firefighters, according to township records.
Supervisor Scott Bennett said he and other township officials recently met with fire department leaders.
“Before we can plan on hiring more people, we got to have the money in hand,” he told The Detroit News.
Bennett said at the meeting there are 40 budgeted part-time firefighter positions for the upcoming fiscal year, but only 28 of those are filled. The board agreed to use some of the part-time money to pay for the full-time firefighter.
Jent said the Fire Department needs increased daily staffing. He said full-time positions are “a more reliable staffing model” than part-time positions.
“They’re going to be there nine days a month for 24 hours a day,” he said, “so I know how to staff every single day.”
Jent told the township board last month raising the number of firefighters at each station to five would help the department more efficiently achieve the federal “two in, two out” rule, which requires two firefighters to be outside a structure while two others conduct search and rescue.
He was placed on leave for about a week in the fall and then given a 90-day probationary period, he said, after the Sept. 28 attack of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the township. Four people were killed in a shooting and fire at the church.
Jent’s leave spurred a recall petition against Bennett, the clerk, treasurer and three trustees. The Genesee County Election Commission denied petition language this month.
Officials didn’t publicly indicate why Jent was placed on leave, but the fire chief said then the action came after officials wanted him to present “a unified front” of his department’s operations after he raised concerns about staffing levels, which he said had been a concern of his before the church attack.
On Tuesday, Bennett proposed that the township meet with fire officials and craft a plan on how to fund more staff. He said in the short-term, the township could reallocate funding from part-time positions to a full-time position, and it can look at recruitment of part-time firefighters. But he wants the township to put together a four to five-year plan.
Treasurer Mike Yancho said he’d like to continue the discussion with the fire officials to “figure out how we’re going to do this ― how many firefighters do we need, what the cost is going to be.” He said the cost could be different in 2027 than in 2026.
“We have to figure out where the money is, how we’re going to get it, and until we do that, I don’t think that we should put the cart in front of the horse,” he said.
Jent said last month that the township already has a dedicated 1-mill property tax for fire services, but it could raise the millage to 3.5 mills. He also proposed canceling capital projects for the Ffire Department to fund the new positions, or to start billing for EMS services.
Bennett said he would rather explore other ways of finding revenue than change the millage.
Michael Hertzberg, secretary of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 4962, the firefighters’ union, said Grand Blanc Township Fire Department’s staffing model is to only have two people on each truck. But the industry standard, he said, is to have four.
“So in order to operate safely and effectively, we’re trying to improve the number of people that we have on each apparatus on every shift,” he said.
Hertzberg said that since the department is relying on part-time staffing, it sometimes has difficulty filling shifts, and it is “running short on crews at times.”
“I think it’s a good first step of many steps that need to be taken,” he said of the board’s decision on Tuesday.
Hertzberg said the fire department has made traction in gaining support from the township since the LDS church attack.
“It really brought a lot to light that day for us,” he said. “It’s been an ongoing need. It’s something we’ve been talking about for years. That’s not the first time this is come up, but it’s something we’ve really been forcefully pushing, because we want to have proper search capabilities and things like that and safety for us and for the community.”
Jent said April 1 is the proposed opening for a new fire station in the township, and he would like the township to add more full-time positions by that point.
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