Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Copyright 2006 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
Six weeks ago, Mayor Ray Nagin and the City Council vowed to agree on much-needed pay raises for city firefighters.
They have yet to live up to that promise.
The city has already approved 10 percent raises for all other employees. The mayor is proposing to raise the Fire Department’s payroll by 10 percent, or $2.1 million annually. Unlike the citywide increase, the firefighters’ package would give proportionally larger raises to those in the low end of the pay scale and smaller raises to the brass. Firefighters have protested that distribution, but it seems appropriate, considering the department is having trouble recruiting rookies.
The administration, however, wants the firefighter raise to count for state-mandated longevity increases that it has failed to pay the department in recent years. That does not seem fair.
Firefighters were excluded from the last two rounds of citywide pay raises. And even with the longevity raises, the Fire Department pay scale is lower than competing departments. An 11-year veteran in New Orleans, for example, makes $10,500 less than a counterpart in East Jefferson. For 15-year veterans the difference is more than $14,000.
Firefighters do have generous retirement benefits, but those are consistent across the state.
The City Council’s proposal would place New Orleans firefighters in a more competitive position. It would give them the 10-percent department increase Mayor Nagin proposes and an additional $2.1 million for the unpaid longevity raises, totaling a roughly 20 percent jump in payroll.
That may prove too expensive in a city short on cash. But the council and the mayor need to find a compromise, as the department continues to lose personnel.
Mayor Nagin has said he wants a “fiscally responsible” pay raise to firefighters, and that’s the correct aim.
But he would have an easier time making his argument if the recent citywide increase had given proportionally larger raises to low-paid employees, as he’s proposing firefighters do. Instead, he gave his top administrators 10 percent raises as well.
Firefighters need a raise, and city officials need to come true on their promises to give one.