From overtime to over staffed

Department has 8 more firefighters than needed

By John Howell
Posted 12/15/16

The city administration started an 18-week academy for fire recruits knowing that possibly more recruits could graduate than there were jobs in the department. And that's what happened. A class of 24 graduated, giving the department eight

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From overtime to over staffed

Department has 8 more firefighters than needed

Posted

The city administration started an 18-week academy for fire recruits knowing that possibly more recruits could graduate than there were jobs in the department. And that’s what happened. A class of 24 graduated, giving the department eight more firefighters than needed to fill the budgeted ranks of the department.

While the city could have called up 16 of the graduates, leaving eight on the list to fill vacancies as they occurred, the administration chose to hire all 24.

Warwick Fire Chief James McLaughlin says it was the right decision. Mayor Scott Avedisian provided his blessing, reasoning the city would be faced with unemployment compensation costs had it not taken on the full 24 and that the added staff will reduce the overtime costs that have plagued the department year after year.

This year has been no different than others in terms of overtime. The department has spent two-thirds of their $1.3 million overtime budget already, and it’s just the halfway point of the fiscal year. Department overtime has long been a bone of contention with certain council members who consistently question why the chief can’t get overtime costs under control.

With a full complement of personnel, plus an additional eight firefighters, McLaughlin said the department is already starting to see a decline in overtime. Overtime costs for the pay period ending Dec. 2 was $24,895 compared to $2,650 for the Dec. 16 pay period, he said.

“You’re seeing the impact of the new firefighters,” McLaughlin said.

There’s no way of knowing when members of the force will retire or when an unforeseen event such as an accident or illness will happen. When it does having the added personnel will be of benefit.

But whether having all department positions filled will prove to be a savings over paying overtime is not a calculation the chief has made, nor will he venture a guess.

City Finance director Ernest Zmyslinski said the additional eight firefighters will cost the city $366,000 plus benefits through the end of the current fiscal year. That means the salary costs of the entire 24 will be $1,098,000 through the end of the year, or more than what the department would pay in overtime based on the expenditures for the first six months of the year.

There’s more than money to consider, in the opinion of Assistant Chief James Kenney. He points out that while paying overtime may result in savings, firefighters need a break from being on duty and without it they are subject to fatigue.

“Excessive overtime is not a good thing financially and for personnel,” he said.

McLaughlin’s goal is to avoid any predictable overtime by having 52 firefighters on a shift (six would be floaters) to cover vacation time.

“That’s the position here. To put a business plan to it,” he said.

Still, the department now has eight more firefighters than needed to staff all four shifts with 52. Keeping those eight “bonus” personnel on staff, as McLaughlin says, “was the right thing to do.” The eight have been assigned to Stations 10, 9 and 6, all single engine stations that are staffed by two firefighters and an officer.

Asked about keeping the eight firefighters as opposed to laying them off after graduating from the academy, Mayor Avedisian said in an email, “Annually, we have tried to balance out if it was better to pay overtime or to hire new people. In this case, the new recruits will substantially save on the overtime budget. In fact, I think that the Chief will show you that it is extremely low each week. In this case, the unemployment that you would need to pay recruits was the mitigating factor that swung the pendulum in favor of hiring new people instead of relying on overtime.”

However, neither Zmyslinski nor McLaughlin could say what unemployment compensation, which the city self-insures for, would have cost or, in fact, since they had been paid as trainees for 18 weeks whether they were eligible for unemployment.

McLaughlin feels the department is properly sized for the city, pointing out that Warwick is unique to other Rhode Island municipalities in that it has 39 miles of shoreline and Green Airport. The department maintains two fire boats – one in Pawtuxet Cove and a second in Warwick Cove – and foam equipment for fighting fuel fires as would be required if there was an aircraft fire.

“Forty-six [the number of personnel dictated by minimum manning requirements and stations] is a good number to protect 80,000 people,” McLaughlin said.

Last year, the department responded to 16,109 incidents of which 12,700 were rescue and fire calls. So far this calendar year, the department has responded to 15,183 incidents.

McLaughlin doesn’t see reducing the size of the department as an option, yet he points out cost is a constant consideration. He notes that department personnel have aggressively pursued grants and that in the last six years have won state and federal grants totaling $7.6 million. These grants have paid for training of the department’s technical rescue team to perform rescues from confined areas such as a wind turbine; development of a flammable liquids task force; training of the Port of Providence Maine Task Force; acquisition of the department’s boats and construction and equipping of the fire training tower at Station 8 next to Ann & Hope.

“We don’t sit here. We’re proactive to get funds to offset the taxpayer’s cost,” he said. “We’re watchful of all expenses.”

Firefighters work two 10-hour days and two 14-hour nights in a workweek. The department is divided into four platoons with a minimum staffing of 46 firefighters. Now with the addition of 24, the department has assigned six “floaters” to each platoon who fill in for those who are absent because of scheduled vacations (new members of the department get 12 days of vacation after the first year. The maximum is 24 days after 20 years.)

Even though there may have been enough bodies to fill all positions of a platoon, vacations still end up costing the department based on the rank of the position being filled. For example, a private can’t fill the position of a captain, whereas a lieutenant can. In this case, the lieutenant steps up to take the captain’s slot and the private fills in for the lieutenant with each getting a bump in pay commensurate to the position they are filling.

“We need to have 52 on a shift [the 46 plus the six floaters] to cover that vacation time,” says McLaughlin.

The department has an administrative staff of 12 that is made up of eight battalion chiefs [two battalion chiefs per platoon], a deputy chief of training, two assistant chiefs and the chief. Overall, according to the budget personnel costs for the department are budgeted at $16,565,935 this fiscal year.

So far this year personnel costs, exclusive of overtime, are running at 43 percent of budget because of the number of vacancies. Training academy costs were $259,200 for personnel plus $18,400 in other expenditures.

Unlike police that can send recruits to the state-run police academy when they have a vacancy, the department is faced with running its own academy. As a result, the department waits until there are a significant number of openings to make running an academy worthwhile, relying on current staffing and overtime to bridge the gap.

McLaughlin said a state fire academy is in the planning stages, and if that happens the department could fill vacancies more rapidly. At the moment, however, the department has an additional eight personnel.

Comments

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  • RISchadenfreude

    I can imagine the warm reception the "newbies" are going to receive with all that OT pay going away.

    Watch for an increase in disabling injuries from the experienced troops, not the recruits; that, and the union will begin pitching increased minimum manning requirements.

    Thursday, December 15, 2016 Report this

  • Thecaptain

    Once again,, more complete unadulterated BS from a buffoon that has no business running a lemonade stand let alone a fire department. Following in his fathers footsteps another scam artist, this non business man, who by the way, was the architect of the sick pay scam, is trying to now justify that we need more people than than a full compliment to correct overtime. That means that the last 3 moron chiefs were wrong in all of their assessments and statements that a "a full compliment of personnel would ELIMINATE" overtime. Now we also have the top dog incompetent mayor, signing on to this crap for one reason only. Keeping the promises he made for votes. We now have8 more people than required. What is also interesting is that 8 of the new fire dogs are children of existing personnel. Kind of interesting eh?

    This article should prove to any reasonable educated Warwick taxpayer that you have an organized group of poorly educated people running this department, overseen by a mayor who cares only about quid pro quo in the name of votes and nepotism, overseen again, by a city council who is completely incompetent, that lack the gonads of a tadpole to address the issue, and that takes massive political donations from theWarwick fire dept.

    First of all, the mayor is talking about unemployment. How have we put ourselves in a position to have to pay unemployment to someone who is a temporary trainee, training for a "possible position" if a slot opens up? Yet another example of incompetence. Here are some other facts which are not mentioned. Now we have 8 more people more than required by law. Bear in mind, the number of staff has always been argued by the point of minimum manning. Now we are over and above minimum manning. Who is making the rules now? Who agreed to that? With that comes an additional 160 days sick pay, 120 paid holidays, $8000 per year more in uniform allowance, (another scam) $3600 per year in laundry fees, health care, etc... etc. Not to mention now all of the increased trips to Daves and Stop & Shop to feed the pigs at the trough.

    And the chief idiot is trying to justify to the taxpayer that the added theft of your dollars in one line item of the budget, justifies the reduction from another line item in the budget. Meanwhile, this fool is unable to produce 1 document, (required by contract by the way) to substantiate change of shift or substitution. Ladies and gentlemen, the inmates are running the asylum. You better start calling them out and demanding accountability. I welcome dialogue from anyone that has done any research, produced any documents through APRA, or has any other substantiated fact to offer that is supported by official documents, not rhetoric.

    Here's what I want to happen. I want this mayor and this buffoon chief to put forth the proper documents as required by contract, to discredit my claims that this department is engaged in wide spread coordinated fraud, that is, and has been protected by this chief (even from the bar stool at Twin Willows) and several chiefs before him.

    Since as of this date they have not been able to substantiate the sick pay expenditures, have not been able to produce one document to suggest otherwise, I challenge this chief and Mayor to once and for all, embarrass me with documents and fact, substantiate the numbers that we know you cant, and make me go away. YOU CANT. Because the numbers don't lie, the math doesn't add up, and the track record suggests wide spread fraud.

    See, if I had such a loud mouth critic, I would put him in public, supply all of the documents, prove that every point he has made is pure conjecture with no basis, and humiliate him into exile. I'm begging for you to do that. When can I expect the documents and

    the audit ? Jimmy, when can we go head to head, point for point on your budget expenses? We can also talk about your "leave of absence from the dept. to try out for the state police? Tip of the iceberg.

    So Jimmy, here is your latest challenge in the form of an APRA, submitted today:

    In accordance with the APRA, please find the following request for documents pertaining to the Warwick Fire Department personnel.

    Please supply the following documents from the time period of 7/1/16 - 12/10/16.

    Any and all personnel Roll Call sheets or documents

    Any and all Change of Shift forms or documents

    Any and all formal documents indicating personnel that have been authorized to "substitute" for any other person's regular duty sheet

    Any and all attendance documents

    Any and all documents indicating original personnel assignment status for the dates listed above and any and all documents indicating changes to original duty assignments.

    Get to work Jimmy !

    Thursday, December 15, 2016 Report this

  • Thecaptain

    I almost forgot, Rick Corrente, I await your union fellatio.

    Thursday, December 15, 2016 Report this

  • Warwick Man

    Hey hot shot, let's hear those 8 names you claim are "children of existing personnel". More compete BS from Cote.... keep talking we all know your full of crap.

    Thursday, December 15, 2016 Report this

  • richardcorrente

    I have met with the firefighters on many occasions. I have told them in several discussions what I thought was right and what I thought was wrong with their contracts. To their credit, they agreed with me for the vast majority of it. I have stated before, and will repeat now that I believe their salaries should be higher and their benefits "clearer" and less subject to interpretation. I also suggested that their "training salaries" be listed under a separate column, not grouped together with "overtime" as it is toay. It makes "overtime" look more extensive than it really is.

    I have no problem stating what is right or wrong but there are people who just focus on the negative.

    That is not constructive criticism, that may help find a better solution. That's destructive criticism that helps no one accomplish anything. It does, however, make people like Warwick Man post an excellent response.

    Merry Christmas Warwick Man and all.

    Rick Corrente

    Friday, December 16, 2016 Report this

  • Warwick Man

    Names Rob??????? Or are you counting now and realize you full of it. Second there will be a time when the city gives you your info, they probably haven't now because they realize you and Petri dish are wasting their time with false accusations. The time will come when you are fully exposed. Tick tock, captain. In the mean time I'll be waiting for those 8 names.

    Friday, December 16, 2016 Report this

  • Thecaptain

    Warwick Boy,

    Here's your 8 names. All family members of existing Warwick City Employees.

    Bellevance

    Burke

    Cahoon

    Colantonio

    Conway

    Kazarian

    Pacheco

    Sweeney

    Any other questions??? Sorry my response was not fast enough for your liking but I'm not sitting around the station or driving to Daves. Some of us business owners have places to be.

    Oh, and uh Rick, so you think Warwick Man posted an excellent response. Not unusual for someone of limited mental capabilities who fails to pay taxes and child support . But to the issue at hand, I guess you still haven't read the contract, or performed any kind of APRA, so you don't know anything about salaries, yet you state that they need to be paid more. Well, here is just a sample from the hundreds of pages of documents that Warwick Man thinks I don't have and that I am full of BS. Just as a small example here are some salaries taken from W2 forms. (ALL PUBLIC RECORD)

    Name EIN # 2013 2014 2015 Base pay

    Francis Colantonio 05-6000562 $123,411.73 $119,171.58 $ 124,275.78 $ 99,074.00

    James Jordan " " $109,208.66 $110,251.79 $ 116,734.45 $ 86,983.00

    Thomas Maymon " " $126,124.54 $138,575.92 $ 137,051.48 $ 70,561.00

    This is whats called homework. You both should learn how to do it prior to opening your mouth and challenging someone who is clearly on a much higher intellectual level than yourself.

    Friday, December 16, 2016 Report this

  • Warwick Man

    Well done moron, you got three right. The other five I don't know where you came up with those. Did you actually research any relation. So that's what you do,you randomly throw out names that sound correct but are factually incorrect. keep trying Bobby boy...

    Friday, December 16, 2016 Report this

  • Tim

    Who is this Captain???? Talk about a moron. What are you Captain of the men's room?. Why don't you put your name on the ballot instead of personally attcking people. Your a coward so you will hide or get your fifteen mins of fame on the radio with that other despicable human being John De Petro . You have absolutely no credibility. So why would anybody answer you.

    Monday, December 19, 2016 Report this

  • BeaconCommenter

    Warwickcitizen, The Captain is a "taxpayer watchdog", or in more simple terms, someone with too much time on his hands. He is obsessed with all things having to do with the fire department and has dedicated his life to his hatred of them and anyone who is a city employee. He follows fire trucks to Dave's Market and during their lunch hour and films them while doing so and posts the videos on YouTube. All while narrating with his angry voice and his signature expression, "on the taxpayer dime". To be fair he also follows around city workers although that job has been taken over by Warwick Watch, and despises the teachers in the city as well.

    Monday, December 19, 2016 Report this

  • Thecaptain

    You people are so funny and so uneducated. When will you debate based upon fact, documents, and math? Never, because you cant.

    Tuesday, December 20, 2016 Report this