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Firefighter overtime poses financial risk to Margate taxpayers
• $1 million awarded over three-year period above and beyond original budget projections
Monday,
August 16, 2010
Margate firefighters have already burned through $250,000 in overtime the first eight months of Fiscal Year 2010 and have been granted another $50,000 to cover OT costs through to September.
Last year, Fire Department OT reached $250,000 in the city and in 2008 fire rescue overtime cost taxpayers roughly half a million dollars – ten times the amount originally adopted by elected officials that year.
What are Margate officials doing about out-of-control overtime costs during one of the most cash-strapped times in Margate history since city coffers ran red in the 1980s?
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They're proposing more overtime pay for firefighters, compliments of Margate taxpayers, many of whom are having a tough time making ends meet themselves during tough economic times.
As part of union negotiations in June, the city agreed to raise the fire department’s existing overtime (OT) cap from $250,000 to $300,000. Then, after further consideration and cajoling by fire union officials, Margate City Manager, Frank Porcella, raised the OT cap again to $350,000 – a 71 percent increase over last year’s overtime cap as it appears in the city’s online version of the proposed FY 2011 budget.
Why all the overtime?
Because of the high average age of Margate firefighters (40s), said Local 3080 Division Vice President, Eric Achiron of the IAFF (International Association of FireFighters), more and more of the 107 Margate / Coconut Creek fire rescue workers are calling out sick with injuries. In addition, many have taken advantage of the federal medical leave act, which although is unpaid leave, fire rescue personnel covering vacant shifts get paid time and half by taxpayers, who also continue to pay the health benefits of the absent worker for up to 12 weeks.
Moreover, low morale and burnout at the Fire Department has rescue workers calling out sick on one another, said a union official.
Why bring in another worker when one calls out sick? Why not just go with fewer?
Personnel mandates set by fire officials require a minimum number of fire rescue workers per shift at each of Margate's three fire stations. These minimums are the reason why residents often see an overabundance of rescue workers dispatched to the same call - even if all are not needed to treat known victims.
For instance, of the 468 calls the Fire Department answered at Coconut Creek’s Seminole Casino in years 2007-2009; 398 calls were for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to which an average 5.81 fire rescue workers were dispatched for each call. According to the Fire Department’s Incident Summary Report detailing casino calls for service, EMS workers were dispatched for an average 30 minutes per call and treated only one injury in the 900 man-hours expended over the two-year period.
Other high-volume calls include Coconut Creek’s Wynmoor, a retirement community to which firefighters say they answer up to ten calls a day, many of which are non-emergency, but a full contingent of Fire / EMS workers are dispatched regardless. One example of a non-emergency call is when a Wynmoor senior dialed 911 to get help retrieving items from the top shelf of her cupboard, but made it sound like an emergency over the phone. Similar scenarios are not uncommon say firefighters.
What does Fire Department overtime mean for taxpayers?
It means taxpayers pay fire rescue workers who call out sick (sick days are included in their union contract) while simultaneously paying on-call personnel time and a half (above and beyond regularly scheduled hours) to replace absent workers.
Every time a firefighter calls out sick, taxpayers pay dearly. So much so, the department could have purchased a new fire truck in cash had it done a better job of controlling overtime costs incurred in the last three years, the same new fire truck Porcella pitched to taxpayers in his attempt to increase Margate’s fire fee by 20 percent this year, a proposal shot down by Margate City Commissioners last month.
Why are city officials approving so much overtime for firefighters?
When residents complain about firefighters using fire trucks to grocery shop, and when an average six EMS workers are dispatched for non-emergencies on a regular basis – many with no known victims on record; it’s safe to say the Fire Department’s scheduling and response system is broken and in desperate need of repair.
During the three-year period firefighter overtime skyrocketed in the city; total fire and medical calls dropped, the local population declined and housing occupancy in the region was at an all time low.
That said, the Margate Fire Department is proposing to increase staff size by one in FY 2011.
Fire officials in New York City (FDNY) have cut staffing at 49 of the city’s194 engine companies as a result of fire rescue workers calling out sick. In Mobile, Alabama in May, Fire officials visited the homes of 32 firefighters who called in sick on a Saturday to find out that only one was actually ill.
Other cities across America have instituted “No Overtime” policies in their Fire Departments as a means of shoring up city budgets.
Instead of putting their own house in order, fire union employees in Margate are draining city coffers by calling out sick, some unscrupulously, costing taxpayers overtime they cannot afford.
Not only do Margate officials continue to allow the expensive habit, they enable it by raising the Department’s cap on OT, year after year, despite declining demand for fire rescue services in the city and fewer property tax revenues to support city services.
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