By Kathleen McLaughlin
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida)
Copyright 2006 Sarasota Herald-Tribune Co.
All Rights Reserved
SARASOTA, Fla. — Firefighters will be picketing the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport today in an effort to draw attention to the jobs they have lost to privatization.
The picketers will be along University Parkway at the airport’s entrance while the Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority signs off on an $18.8 million budget.
The airport’s contract with Rural/Metro Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz., to provide the specialized Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Service is part of that budget.
Rural/Metro will receive $380,195 over three years, starting Oct. 1.
The move will save the airport more than $325,000, mostly in salaries and pension contributions, in the first year.
Suncoast Professional Firefighters and Paramedics have asked the airport to pay the mostly middle-aged department staff their accrued pensions in a lump sum and for a three-month extension on medical benefits.
Airport chief executive Fred Piccolo said he is awaiting an actuary’s report on the cost of the early payout.
Although commercial air service and passenger counts are recovering from a long decline, Piccolo has presented a tight budget picture.
The airport can no longer put post-9/11 transportation grants toward operating costs, and property insurance may cost more than $1 million.
Rural/Metro will take over at midnight on Oct. 1 and is required to have a staff of 16 firefighters, including a chief, by that date.
Ken Smith, an executive at Rural/Metro’s specialty firefighting division in Memphis, said the company has hired a chief, a retired Air Force officer from Land O’ Lakes.
Smith said the chief earned his ARFF certification in the Air Force.
The union firefighters have criticized Rural/Metro as a threat to public safety because the new firefighters might not have Florida certification. Firefighters have one year to obtain it.
Smith refused to give any further details on the new firefighters.
The firefighters also say Rural/Metro’s lower pay and benefits will create a revolving door at the airport.
“I guarantee you, as soon as they get their certification, they’re going to get a job with Sarasota or Bradenton or Port Charlotte,” firefighter Blair Cook said.
Cook said the firefighters are picketing to call attention to safety risks, not to tell sob stories.
“We want to let the general public know what’s going on and get our jobs back for the safety of the public,” he said.
Piccolo maintains that Rural/Metro will bring greater safety because the company is restoring the position of chief. The department had been run by three captains, one on each shift.
State certification is not an issue because it pertains to structural fires, Piccolo said.
While the ARFF unit would respond to a fire in the terminal or at one of the hangars, those fires are the responsibility of Sarasota and Manatee counties, he said.
Asked whether it would be better for any responding firefighter to be state-certified, Piccolo said, “I don’t know whether they will be or won’t be. Everybody’s making judgments before I see what the roster’s going to be.”