When Mayor Scott Avedisian sits down to garner concessions from the Warwick Firefighter’s union, he’ll be negotiating with a bargaining unit that has 32 members who were paid more than him last year.

Avedisian, Warwick’s chief executive officer, is paid $100,000 per year.

The Beacon recently requested a list from the City Treasurer of the number of firefighters in Warwick earning $100,000 or more, and a brief description of how those firefighters are paid.

There are 217 firefighter positions in the city, with 200 of those positions filled. That means 32 members of the 200-member fire department make a total of $3.5 million before factoring in benefits like pension or health care insurance.

The list is comprised exclusively of the Fire Department’s ranking officers, including the Chief, Assistant Chief, Fire Marshal, Superintendent of Fire Alarms, Rescue Captain, EMS Coordinator, Battalion Chiefs, Captains, and Lieutenants. There were no privates on the list.

Those numbers represent last year’s calendar year – a year in which the fire department union agreed to take pay cuts ranging from 3-5 percent over the last 4 months of the year in order for the city to balance a difficult budget due to cutbacks in state aid to municipalities.

A firefighter’s total compensation package is made up of several factors that include: base pay, overtime, step increases, clothing allowances, unused sick time, firefighters filling in for superiors and therefore working above rank, holiday pay, and working details (which is, in fact, paid for the most part by private companies).

The compensation packages for those 32 firefighters represent only the money they were paid last year and does not take into account the health insurance and pension benefits the city also spent for fire protection services.

In sum, Warwick’s 32 highest paid firefighters were paid roughly $2.4 million in base salary.

Those same 32 firefighters were collectively paid about $550,935 in overtime costs. Of that group of 32, 14 were paid more than $20,000 in 2009 in overtime costs.

Fire Department Captain Peter F. Sisson was paid $33,521.58 in overtime last year. Capt. Sisson earned the most money in overtime amongst the department’s 32 highest paid firefighters.

All things considered, Sisson earned $120,141.41 in 2009.

Firefighters normally work two 10-hour day shifts per week, and two 14-hour night shifts per week. Anything extra goes to overtime.

Fire Department Chief Kevin Sullivan does not work any overtime, but earned $127,596.90 – the most money in the Fire Department last year.

In addition to base pay, firefighters are also paid step increases, formerly known as longevity. Longevity is paid to firefighters as de facto raises for their years of service. That group of firefighters was paid almost $330,000 in sum for achieving step increases last year.

Firefighters are also paid a yearly “clothing allowance.” In sum, that same group of firefighters was paid 9,600 in clothing allowances.

When firefighters agreed to concessions last year, they consented to the 3-5 percent pay cut, but never agreed to have that reduced rate apply to overtime. Instead, the union was paid their normal rate for overtime, forcing the finance department to create a separate line item to account for those costs. For Warwick’s 32 highest paid firefighters, those costs accounted for $6,061.

That group of firefighters was also paid $24,733 collectively under the “on the job injury” line item.

Under Warwick’s contract with firefighters, the firefighters are paid for not using their allotted sick time. That line item totaled $72,809 for Warwick’s 32 highest paid firefighters.

When a fire department management official is absent from the job due to illness or for any other reason, one of the lower ranking firefighters often has to cover that person’s responsibilities. That practice is commonly referred to as “working out of class.” Warwick’s firefighters who made more than $100,000 last year were paid a collective $3,159 for working out of class.

Given the nature of a Fire Department, firefighters are often forced to work on holidays. According to their contract with the city, whether or not they’re forced to work on those holidays, each firefighter is paid 14 days pay for holidays, whether they worked them or not. The holiday pay earned by the collective group of Warwick’s 32 highest paid firefighters totaled $83,865.

Lastly, firefighters are often needed to perform detail work for large events. Those costs, encumbered usually by the private sector business owners, netted Warwick’s 32 highest paid firefighters $11,952.

A recent compiled by the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) revealed that on a statewide basis, taxpayers in Rhode Island spend the most on fire protection services in the country.

On average, the report showed that Rhode Islanders spend about $6.24 on fire services for every $1,000 of personal income, or just under double the national average of $3.21 per $1,000 of income.

Put another way, on average, every Rhode Islander spends about $233 per year to pay for fire protection.

The study, released in the fall of last year, used information from the year 2007, the last year that nation-wide data was available from the U.S. Census Bureau. Public sector union leaders have taken issue with the report, but RIPEC’s Suzanne Greschner said she and RIPEC stand completely behind the numbers.

A survey by Harris Interactive conducted in 2007 found that based on public opinion, firefighters have the most prestigious job in America.

Calls placed to Marcel Fontenault, President of Local 2748 were not returned by press time.

City Personnel Director Oscar Shelton, one of the leaders of the negotiations on behalf of the taxpayers with the public sector unions, said that its difficult to gain concessions with a union that can always resort to binding arbitration to protect the benefits it already has.

“It’s difficult to deal with an organization that can go to arbitration and overrule anything that we do,” said Shelton.

Shelton said that the firefighters who earned the most money did so for a reason.

“They do put the time in,” said Shelton.

Council President Bruce Place (Ward-2) was surprised by those costs.

“I don’t think anybody except for the top echelon in the Fire Department should make that,” said Place.

Place also said he’d like to see the overtime costs reduced.

“The big concern on the part of the council is the amount of overtime paid to firefighters over the years,” said Place.

Place also said that at city council hearings last spring, the council was told that new recruits would be brought in to cut down on overtime, yet from what he understands, that hasn’t happened.

“Here we are in mid-January, and as of last week there was no class of new recruits that had begun, and so the overtime is piling up,” said Place.

City Councilman Steve Merolla, (Ward-9) said that the City can’t afford to be paying those types of wages to so many firefighters.

“What are our priorities? You can’t be paying people this amount of overtime, sick time, etc. while you’re closing four schools, while people’s homes are getting foreclosed on, and the unemployment rate is almost 13-percent,” said Merolla.

“The department of public works doesn’t have overtime like this. City Hall employees don’t have overtime like this. And the school department doesn’t have overtime like this.”

In an email yesterday, Avedisian pointed out that it might seem like an easy fix by hiring people in order to reduce overtime, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the city will save money.

“You can always look to reduce expenses but you would need to analyze how much is attributed to overtime and whether or not hiring people instead of paying overtime is cost effective,” said Avedisian.

Hiring new firefighters would cut down on overtime, but the city would have to pay new firefighters health care and pension benefits.