Columbia Firefighte's Association Local 793 Article page

WELCOME TO THE COLUMBIA FIREFIGHTER'S ASSOCIATION LOCAL 793

Let's set the Record Straight

During these past few weeks, various media sources have been reporting on the City of Columbia’s budget issues. The State recently reported that Columbia officials claim that the City’s reserves have dropped drastically since 2007, and that over the past decade it has been living beyond its means. Couple this with the recent economic downturn a proverbial financial “Perfect Storm” is brewing in the City. The State Newspaper highlighted several budget item concerns in last Thursday’s headline article. They included the purchase of two new fire trucks, recurring overtime for public safety workers, an $80 million loan for water and sewer, and the expense of paying holiday overtime to 12 and 24 hour shift workers.

We’d like to address each of these points, excluding the $80 million loan for water and sewer renovation, as they appeared in the side-bar column.

Item #1: A surprise $880,000 shortfall due to two fire truck purchases?

Nothing is purchased by the City without approval of City Council. The approval for these fire trucks is recorded in the minutes of City Council meetings from last year. A simple review of last year’s Fire Department budget fully discloses these purchases along with projections for salary and recurring overtime needs. The two engines that were referred to were actually budgeted in the 2007-2008 fiscal year, but were delivered in this budget year. As of February of this year, the Fire Department had not exceeded its projected operating budget, which included all of the overtime projections for 2009. It is one of the few City Departments that has managed to stay within their budgeted means.

Item #2: Reoccurring overtime from policemen, fire fighters, Homeland Security and 911 dispatch.

What is disturbing about this claim is that if you remove the overtime paid to these public safety employees there are only two options: reduce staffing or hire more entry level employees. Not understanding how overtime is paid and used to save money in these systems can easily lead a well meaning observer to come to the conclusion that overtime must be cut. In most instances, however, overtime in the public safety divisions is actually a cost savings measure.
In recent articles the City has repeatedly pointed to dramatic increases in the cost of health insurance and workman’s compensation as a major contributing factor in the current crisis. The fire, police and 911 communications departments request existing employees to work beyond their normal hours in order to maintain public safety without increasing the burden to the taxpayer. It is used to prevent the hiring of new employees to work those hours and prevents the city from incurring the overwhelming cost of hiring additional employees. In addition to the insurance and worker’s compensation costs associated with hiring each additional employee, there is training, uniforms and equipment. For example, the cost of the gear that allows firefighters to enter burning buildings in an attempt to preserve life and property costs more than $2,000 per employee. Overtime represents a fraction of what the city would pay if they fully staffed each of the public safety departments.

Additionally, all public safety divisions are regulated and evaluated by independent agencies. The police and 911 dispatchers are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. The Fire Department is rated by the Insurance Services Organization and receives standards on efficient and safe operation from the National Fire Protection Agency. All of these organizations consider the number and placement of resources in determining the level of protection a government is providing its tax payers. If the fire department were to reduce resources it would not only affect public safety, but could result in citizens and business owners paying significant increases on their hazard insurance as ISO ratings in an area drop due to the closing of fire stations. Yet another serious point of concern is that further reduction of staffing in the Columbia Fire Department will directly affect 13 of the 43 recommendations made in the Charleston Firefighter NIOSH Fatality report of the Super Sofa Store. (Full report available at http://static.wciv.com/niosh.pdf)

Item #4: The expense of paying hourly holiday pay – time and a half each hour - to emergency workers who work 12- to 24-hour shifts.

All 24-hour fire employees are strictly paid according to Fair Labor Standard Act practices, yet twice The State has reported that 24-hour shift employees are receiving time and half for each hour worked for holidays. The State even once reported that time and a half is paid after a public safety employee works 40 hours. Public safety employees are compensated differently for overtime than all other workers. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires firefighters assigned to a 24 hour shift schedule to work 53 hours a week before being eligible for overtime pay. On average, 24-hour Fire Shift Employees work 53 hours per week compared to 40 hours a week worked by an 8 hour workday employee without receiving any overtime. In order for firefighters to be eligible to receive time and a half, they must actually work at least 106 hours within a two week period. Vacation, holiday and sick-leave does not count toward worked hours. The fire, police, and 911 communications departments never close and must remain fully staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even on Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving weekend.

Attempting to repair the City’s finances requires long term surgical removal of non essential items from the budget, not an axe-chop approach that is certainly going to cost more in the long run and jeopardize public safety today. Stop-gap fixes such as shutting down fire stations, reducing staff, and benefit reductions seem like the most beneficial quick fix, however, there are many long-term effects that must be considered when taking this approach. Quite simply, there has to be a strong discussion and prioritization about the needs of essential and non-essential services.

The Columbia Fire Fighters Association fully agrees that concessions must be made by City employees. By August of this year, City of Columbia Firefighters with families will have lost approximately 3-5% of their current compensation and an additional 5.5% of lost benefits through unpaid furloughs benefit reductions, insurance premiums increases, and changing of retirement benefits. City employees are doing their part during these tough economic challenges.

In February of this year the Columbia Firefighters Association sent letters to each City Council Member offering the organization’s full cooperation in identifying and eliminating any unnecessary spending, and offering its expertise in the field to help make sure decisions made with good intentions did not have the unintended effect of jeopardizing the public safety. To date only Councilman Cromartie, Councilman Rickenman, and Mayor Coble have met with our organization and we still seek to open a cooperative dialogue with the rest of Council to look beyond the surface of the problem and work cooperatively to ensure the city’s financial health in regards to public safety.