LAYOFF 11 FIREFIGHTERS

I wonder if the new City Manager will 'creatively' deal with declining tax revenues the way that he cavalierly wasted millions in Federal tax dollars for community development? What is his strategy for economic renewal of Middletown, not to mention the reclamation of blighted, older neighborhoods? What is the Dougmeister's grand plan? Where does he plan to find the capital for his projects? Show us the bacon, Doug.

Dean,

Because we have a difference of opinion I rub you the wrong way? I guess we'll never be friends.

Sorry about your mother. I do believe you are mistaken about the 10 guys.

First off, dispatchers (employed within the Police Department) make the call as to how serious the situation is and which units to respond. You need to find out what the nursing home told the dispatchers when they called 911. If dispatchers determined your mothers condition warranted advanced care, an engine company would have also been dispatched to care for your mother. Medics are staffed by two personnel, three would be a rare exception unless it was a reserve medic staffed by an engine company. Students from the area education institutions ride with our squads to get their state mandated ride time.

Engine companies are staffed by three personnel with the rare occasion of a fourth.

I have heard complaints when we have "loaded and go" about being to rough or uncaring. Now I hear we were too careful and took too long. What's a guy to do. Time frames are often grossly exaggerated (unintentionally) in stressful situations. If you care to list specifics, I could check on the documented run times.

I have worked in other professions. We have guys that left AK and came to work at the department.

Blast the siren? Yep, because in this day and age of "I need to be there before you", drivers routinely fail to yield. You do understand how quickly the brain dies without oxygen or how quickly fire doubles in size. Since you seem to constantly hear "MFD blast the sirens", you do understand its because we have been called to do our job? The number of calls keep increasing while the number of fire fighters to answer those calls continue to dwindle.

In the end, we will never agree and I'm okay with that. Some people want fire fighters to risk their lives for free and the day of volunteers in big cities are over. However, the Police Department does use loss-cost reserves.

Sorry, I don't know who or what "G" is. Please elaborate.

Ashkicker

70 people in your organization rub people the wrong way including you.

Seriously, isn't the city responsible for lying to the public? Remember, THE CITY LEADERS SAID that if we passed the safety levy the manpower count would remain the same. THE CITY LEADERS changed their minds AFTER the levy was passed and another lie was told to the people.

Look, this city must have the capability to put out fires and save lives and dealing with the criminals. With the ramp up of crime and drugs, CREATED BY THE CITY LEADERS with their over-saturation of low income Section 8 and the varying types of people the program typically attracts, we need the cops at full force to handle the ghetto activity this town is now seeing. Ya can't create more work and expect to cover that work adequately with less people. Bassackwards. Typical management nonsense.

IMO, the target is not the fire folks or the police. The target of the frustration of this whole situation should be focused on those who created the situation.......the CITY LEADERS.

If money is the issue with the city claiming they can't afford any increases to the union bargaining points, if they are asking the union to make some cuts to save money, why isn't the city building side of the negotiations also cutting manpower and salaries? Is this bargaining in good faith coming from the city's side of things? How about BOTH sides taking an equal hit in numbers and salary and BOTH sharing equally in the monetary misery? Shouldn't the theme be whatever it takes to place the situation in the realm of affordability for all concerned? The city shows the police and fire the financial books with revenue coming in and expenditures going out with the cuts in salary and poitions made to indicate money saved and the fire/police agreeing to a similar situation in their area. Now is the time for BOTH SIDES to give concessions. Neither should be asked to bear the total burden of the financial hits. We know what the fire and police have been asked to do. What, in detail, has the city done as their share in this? I see hiring going on perodically in the Econ. Dev Dept and in the Council Meeting notes. Why is the city building hiring and, at the same time, asking the fire and police to take hits? I'd rather have another fireman than a papershuffling admin manager in Econ. Dev. doing little to nothing each day.

"The union is allowing part timers" Ashkicker, who do you people think you are? You will allow it? Do you live in the city of Middletown? How many of you live in Middletown? I get so tired of your union thug tactics. You all orchestrated an election and the candidates you worked so hard for turned their backs on you.  Get it through your heads.....we, as a city, can't afford it anymore. Go get a job in another city or, perhaps the one you live in, and shake them down. 

The most vulgar, dispeccable behavior seen in Middletown were fire fighting employees acting as thugs, threatening Josh Laubach when he was attempting to have a peaceful, intelligent exchange, on SR5.No pity nor empathy for these guys, none. 20% fire fighters putting out brush fires, 80% runs with 2-3 trucks taking folks to Atrium. They burnt their own bridge pre SR5.    

Let me remind you all that you get what you pay for. Want a sh*tty police dept? Stop passing levies.

Step A - $45,071.56      (Entry level salary)
Step B - $47,194.12      $2122.56 or a 4.7% increase
Step C - $49,409.43      $2215.31 or a 4.7% increase
Step D - $52,999.37      $3589.94 or a 7.3% increase
Step E - $57,453.75      $4454.38 or a 8.4% increase
Step F – $60,152.60      $2698.85 or a 4.7% increase

These percentages are decent. Starting at 45 thou ain't too shabby either. Higher than most workers in private industry start out. 60 grand for a topped out salary? Not bad either. Might achieve that as a technician in R&D, in a large corporation like P&G or International Paper after 25 years if you attained the top raise percentage each year. As mentioned earlier, normally looking at .5 to 2-3% each year on raises now when, in earlier times, one could see 3% as a minimum raise. Never heard of a 7.3% or an 8.4% increase for worker bees in any company. This percentage level is withheld for manager levels.

Question:

Do fire department people pay into their retirements, similar to employee contributions into their IRA in private industry, while working? Do they have payroll deductions for dental and medical premiums each pay period, again, like private industry? IE, do they share the cost with the city for benefit premiums like most companies require nowadays?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Vivian,

Disrespectful?????

A term of endearment vs. posting misinformation about a group of individuals? I’ll take the term of endearment.

Happy? Absolutely! All I was looking for was truthful information.

Perplexed,

I don’t know the exact number of employees but I will research that and the number of employees getting step increases. I will post that information here.

In the meantime, here is the breakdown for step increases for the last six years:

Step A - $45,071.56      (Entry level salary)
Step B - $47,194.12      $2122.56 or a 4.7% increase
Step C - $49,409.43      $2215.31 or a 4.7% increase
Step D - $52,999.37      $3589.94 or a 7.3% increase
Step E - $57,453.75      $4454.38 or a 8.4% increase
Step F – $60,152.60      $2698.85 or a 4.7% increase

To advance to Step B the employee must have “passed a written test, to be prepared by the Chief of the Division of Fire, regarding familiarity with the City of Middletown, specifically streets and landmarks.”

To advance to Step C the employee must have “received state certification as a paramedic.” (This is a moot requirement because ALL employees must be state certified paramedics before their first day on the job.)

There is no performance requirement to advance to Step D.

To advance to Step E the employee must have “completed training and received Division of Fire certification for operation of pumper trucks.”

To advance to Step F the employee must have “completed training and received Division of Fire certification for operation of an aerial apparatus.”

From the Collective Bargaining Agreement:

"SALARY ADJUSTMENT The salary of each employee shall be reviewed annually or otherwise as herein provided by the Fire Chief for the purpose of determining which employee shall be entitled to a step increase. All of his personnel records, performance and length of service shall be considered in making recommendations with major emphasis placed on the evaluation of services rendered. On the recommendation of the Fire Chief, the City Manager may advance an employee at the time of such review until the maximum step has been reached."

I have known at least one employee that never advanced past Step D and at least one employee that had their step increase delayed until they passed the required performance level.

Before you ask, I have no idea why the disparity in percentages through the step program.

The city has not increased the ranks of fire fighters in several years. (The anomaly in 2012 was due to fire fighters being laid off and then rehired at a later date.) Fire fighters have been hired to replace retiring fire fighters. With that being said, the city saves money with the step program.

Here’s how the city saves money:

In a new hire’s first year, the city saves $15,081.04, the difference between Step A (entry level) and Step F (top paid retiree). In the second year, the city saves $12,958.48, the difference between Step B and Step F. In the third year, the city saves $10,743.17, the difference between Step C and Step F. In the fourth year, the city saves $7153.23, the difference between Step D and Step F. In the fifth and final year of savings, the city saves $2698.85, the difference between Step E and Step F.

Whenever an employee is getting a step increase, it is because they replaced a top paid fire fighter. That translates to a direct savings of $48,634.77 over five years. You have to include benefit costs also, i.e. – pension contribution, workers comp, etc. which pushes the total savings over $60,000. I have worked in other industry (non-union) where everybody gets paid the same to do the same job. If that practice where used in the fire fighting profession, the city would never see that $60k+ savings.

Any other questions?

Ashkicker

It seems that Vivian's question is a simple one.

In the year 2000 how many people were employed?
In the year 2014 how many people are employed?
Between 2000 and 2014 how many people received step increases?
Between 2000 and 2014 what was the dollar amount annually of step increases that people received?

It also seems that modest cost of living increases and fringe benefits are really not the issue. An examination of the cost of step increases is needed.

Viv baby..........................still waiting.

Ashkicker

Vivian,

How does the amount of fire fighters employed have anything to do with individual salaries and benefits?

One more time I'll give this a try.

What increased salaries and benefits were you referring to in your original post? Don't cloud the issue with requests for new (used) vehicles, amount of fire fighters employed or overall budgets.

You know, something like more vacation days (didn't happen), 2% raise (didn't happen) or bonuses for saving lives (again, didn't happen).

One of the things that did happen was the Chief limited when personnel could use their compensatory time off. That will save the city money. Too be perfectly honest, the Union opposes the Chief's plan and have fought it. It is a change in department policy that is decades old.

Bottom line, I would like specific monetary values and benefits we have received.

Ashkicker

Vivian,

Let me reread my posts.......................

Yep, just as I thought, I never once mentioned an increase in the fire departments budget. That was your information. Did it increase? If you say so I'll believe you.

On the other hand, YOU mentioned increased salaries and benefits. Once more I'll ask you a direct question. What increased salary and benefit did Middletown fire fighters receive?

"Hmmm...at the last council meeting you requested $60,000 for a truck." You must think I'm Chief Botts. I can guarantee you that I am not Chief Botts. With that being said, I didn't request $60,000. The department did. Please explain how the department's request for money for a vehicle translates into increased salaries and benefits.

Have fire fighters received a pay raise in those 14 years? Yes we did. However, fire fighters haven't had a raise in approximately 6 years and may not get one in the next couple of years. Of course our insurance premiums HAVE increased and fire fighters agreed to remove it from our contract and give the city more control over the cost.

Step increases? Yes, less senior fire fighters have received step increases once they meet city mandated standards. Most members of the department are at the top step of our pay range and did not get any step increase.

Because a budget increases doesn't mean fire fighters are reaping the benefits. It could have been due to medical supplies, fuel supplies, safety gear, uniforms, etc. going up in price.

Ashkicker