Parma Professional Fire Fighters

Local 639 Members sign up your children soon to attend the Local 639 Christmas Party at Memorial Hall

Please follow the link to a local news broadcaster WEWS Channel 5 for a investigative report on cities cutting back on protection.   http://www.newsnet5.com/investigations/21467747/detail.html

Recently Channel 3 News did a report on the overtime of Parma Fire Fighters. Their website states they, "Support the facts. Respect the truth. Their recent report certainly did not support all the facts and slanted the truth. Below is and excerpt from Support Parma Fire Fighters Facebook page, which are some facts that were neglected.

       One can only assume that this information was distributed by the city in hopes that the media would run the story. What a coincidence that the information was provided just as the city wants to meet about hiring part time firefighters to replace career firefighters in the city.

What was not reported on the news is how these two members made the amount of money that they did. The Captain earned his additional pay by WORKING additional shifts so the manpower could be kept at 25. The overwhelming majority of overtime is for this purpose. These shifts had to be filled and he kept putting in to work them.

The Lieutenant that was featured earned part of his overtime the same way, working extra shifts. But what you were not told is that he is also the department's mechanic. He WORKS most of his off days repairing and maintaining the department apparatus. HIS OVERTIME RATE TO PERFORM REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE OF OUR FLEET IS LESS THAN THE STANDARD LABOR RATE FOR A MECHANIC AT A SERVICE CENTER.
He also holds all of the certifications that are required by national standards to be able to service and reapir fire apparatus. There are times that a repair must be handled by a factory or dealer representative and the apparatus is taken there.

His duties as a shift officer at one of the busiest (over 3000 runs annually) stations in the city, leave him little time to effect repairs during his normal work hours. But he does what he can. Hopefully the next reporter doing this story will talk to him and have him show his log book. He tracks his hours worked on shift, and off duty. HE EVEN TRACKS THE AMOUNT OF HOURS THAT HE DOESN'T BILL THE CITY FOR.

The department did hire their first full time mechanic in 2008. He worked for the city as a mechanic and transferred over to the fire department. After being unable to obtain his certifications as an EVT (Emergency Vehicle Technician) he was transferred back to the city garage. This Lt. and one other firefighter who just received his certifications continue to handle the fleet maintenance for the PFD.

The bottom line is that tens of thousands of dollars are saved annually by having the work done in house, the apparatus is out of service less often, and preventive maintenance is completed regularly. The equipment that our taxpayers have spent millions of dollars in purchasing is being very well maintained.

It should also be pointed out that ALL overtime is approved by the fire department administrative office AND the Safety Director. The city administration is and has been aware of the operations of the fleet maintenance department since they took office.

As lontime news legend Paul Harvey would say: "Now you know the rest of the story."

It should also be noted that the city participated in a large regionalization study.  Several communities paid to have Baldwin Wallace do a manpower study to determine the pros and cons of regionalization.  Some interesting facts came out of that study.  

1.  Dollar for dollar compared with several other department in Cuyahoga county, Parma gave its tax payers the best cost per run average.

2.  It determined that several more Fire Fighter would have to be hired to manage the region.  This included Parma needing additional FF's also.

Spring 09' had a very important levy renewal on the ballot. With the current economy it was questionable whether it would pass, but desperately needed to maintain the the departments level of service. A campaign was waged by City Hall, that if the levy passed services would be maintained. With the surprise of many, the levy overwhelmingly passed and taxpayers spoke to keep services intact.

In late May, the Mayors office requested a meeting with representatives of The Parma's Fire Union. The Mayor spoke of unexpected deficits from lower then projected tax revenues. He estimated by the end of 2009 that 2.4 million dollars would have to be made up to cover these losses. None of the union reps questioned the figures and took the Mayors presentation in good faith. The bottom line at the meeting is the Fire Department would have to cut $650,000 in its budget from July 2nd to the end of 2009. The Union reps reiterated that if a plan was produced to save that amount of money, no reductions in staffing would occur and no layoffs. The Union was assured and left the meeting and began building a package to present to the membership.

The package had 3 main goals.

1. To maintain manning at fullstrength, for the safety of our citizen and firefighters

2. To prevent layoffs of any member and preserve the command structure of the department

3. Toguaranteethat after taking concessions the City would not explore further cuts, for if they did our presented package would be nulled.

The concessions in the package exceeded the dollar amount the city was looking to save. This was done by each member giving up 2 vacation days (it should be noted that a fire fighters shift is 24 hours and equal to 3 eight hour shifts) and working 2 scheduled days off. In addition members would not use their earned comp time for the rest of 2009, defer sick leave bonus, and not cash in any sick time at a reduced 50% rate.

This proposal was voted on by the union members and passed with over a 90% approval. It was taken to the city and rejected because of the protection clause. A second proposal was rewritten which took out the protection language. It was voted on by the union needing a 2/3 majority vote. Even though it was approved by over 63% of the members in attendance, 2/3 was not achieved. Many votes were against, because of past experience with negotiating with the city and members felt giving up concessions needs some assurances. The union then reworded the proposal. This time with help from the City's Law Director and Safety Director. The combined efforts of the 2 camps made a language change satisfactory to both parties at the time. It was passed by the union, but rejected by the Mayor.