Excerpts from jg-tc.com:
The Mattoon city council is scheduled (Tuesday) tonight to consider eliminating the assistant fire chief position within the Mattoon Fire Department due to budgetary restraints.
The proposed ordinance also calls for restructuring the management of the fire department by transferring the assistant chief, currently Sean Junge, to fill a vacant shift captain position.
Regarding the budgetary restraints, the proposed ordinance states that the city approved a deficit budget for fiscal year 2018-19 and continues to make adjustments in an effort to reduce this deficit.
If Junge becomes a shift captain, he would be eligible to become a bargaining member of the firefighter union and would have to take a 15 percent reduction in salary if this change occurs.
The Mattoon firefighters posted a statement on their Facebook page that says the elimination of the assistant chief position puts “the community and our department in a more compromised position” and is “another direct attack on department staffing.
The statement indirectly referred to the city’s recent elimination of the Mattoon Fire Department’s ambulance service. City officials have said that this service was losing money as the city dealt with a budget deficit and that this service duplicated the work of existing private ambulance providers in Mattoon.
thanks Keith
#1 by Jim on October 17, 2018 - 5:03 PM
A correction to my comment. It should read can not be moved down not could not be moved down.
#2 by Big Moe on October 17, 2018 - 4:45 PM
Good luck brothers, in your battle with incompetent leadership at city hall. I wish the best for the staff of the fire dept. and the citizens of the City of Mattoon as they suffer (literally) waiting for the private ambulance to arrive.
#3 by jim on October 17, 2018 - 11:16 AM
The Assistant Chief could not be moved down into a vacant Captain position in the bargaining unit because of the promotional act. This has been ruled on a few years back in an arbitration hearing