Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:
Elgin Fire Department union officials oppose a cut in overtime in 2018 but stopped short of saying they’d file a complaint.
The city’s proposed budget includes cutting department staffing from 34 from 32 firefighters per shift, a savings of $700,000. No one would be laid off.
Edward Hanson, vice president of International Association of Firefighters Local 439, said the issue is not the loss of overtime pay, but having fewer people on shift. “There definitely will not be enough people to do our job to the level we have done it,” he said.
The department operates on a high overtime model, meaning the city chooses to pay overtime rather than hire more firefighters — whose starting pay is $67,181.
The mayor said it’s appropriate to cut overtime to balance the $116.4 million general fund. The plan is to also use $876,000 from reserves, create a new gasoline tax, and increase sales and hotel/motel taxes.
The department would create two more jump companies. About 80 percent of calls are for ambulance service.
Hanson said firefighters have been overworked since the city decreased shift staffing from 36 to 34 people a few years ago, a decision supported by an arbitrator in 2015. He claimed that, as a result, there have been more injuries on the job, but couldn’t immediately produce data to that effect.
It was suggested that the department should consider taking on alarm monitoring for businesses, which one expert estimated at up to $450,000 in revenues. The city also could draw more money from reserves next year, he said. The proposed budget has $43.6 million in reserves at the end of 2018, or 38 percent of operations, above the city’s policy of 30 percent or more.
thanks Dan
