By Peter Spencer
Staten Island Advance (New York)
NEW YORK — Ratcheting up the rhetoric in the feud over FDNY staffing, members of the City Council said they are “drawing a line in the sand” to stop the mayor from closing fire companies.
The legislators made that message clear several times yesterday during a passionate hearing on the FDNY budget and a rally at City Hall. To break an impasse between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the firefighters union, the Council will use the power of its vote on the budget.
“I’m here to declare war against firehouse closings,” said City Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx), head of the Council’s Fire and Criminal Justice Services Committee, as he stood on the steps of City Hall with dozens of his Council colleagues, residents and firefighters.
Some held up signs that read: “Close Engine 161, Lose Our Vote.” The mayor said he would close the South Beach company and 15 others because the Uniformed Firefighters Association will not agree to reduce staff at 64 engine companies from five to four. The administration even went so far as to send official 45-day notice last weekend to three companies - including Engine 161 - telling them they will be shuttered permanently by July 1. The FDNY plans to shutter another 12 by May 2010.
UFA President Steve Cassidy won’t budge on the staffing levels, calling it a risk to public safety. Staten Island’s three councilmen said they oppose a reduction in engine company staffing for the same reason.
Cassidy suggested the FDNY instead cut some of its borough commanders or battalion chiefs, or look to reduce some of its contractors.
“Firefighters save lives, not New York City fire chiefs. If there have to be cuts in the Fire Department, it should start with those who are not saving lives every single day,” Cassidy said at the rally.
Response times
Asked about Cassidy’s suggestion during the hearing, FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta pointed out that 134 of the department’s engine companies already are staffed with four firefighters, yet the department’s response times are the lowest they have been since 1994.
“I find it astonishing. Just go down to four and we avoid these closings. Let’s not go anywhere near what the UFA wants, right? They want that overtime for the 64 firefighters,” Scoppetta said.
The administration projects the cuts would save about $17 million through attrition and overtime savings through fiscal year 2010, which starts in July.
Minority Leader James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) questioned that figure, citing the FDNY estimate that $4.5 million in savings would be realized this year by the overnight closing, starting in January, of Engine 161 and three other fire companies. Scoppetta admitted the FDNY has saved no money so far, because attrition in the department has been cut in half since the economic recession.
“This kind of analysis is a little bit iffy,” Scoppetta said.
Oddo implied that the threat of closings is less about dollars and cents than it is about getting the firefighters union to capitulate to the administration’s demands.
“You guys want to reach an end, and in the process you are threatening and holding over my community the fear of losing fire services,” Oddo said.
South Shore Republican Vincent Ignizio echoed those sentiments.
“I think this body is being used as a collective bargaining agent for the administration, and we in the Council need to say that won’t be tolerated today, tomorrow or ever,” he said.
Bloomberg is not given to idle threats. He closed six firehouses in 2003, a year after he made a similar proposal to reduce staffing at 53 engine companies. In that case, however, he had years to regain his popularity before he faced the voters. This time, he’ll have about five months.
Oddo advised his constituents to keep that in mind.
“I don’t know many things, but I do know politics, and I know we have an election in November. So to the people in New York, here’s your covenant: You have to say to all candidates, ‘Don’t come a-knockin’ on my door in October and November if you plan to shutter the doors of my engine company,’” he said.
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