Slanted Journalism
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 06:31PM 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.
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