Boardman trustees seeking contract change

By Denise Dick

With the provision, the township expects more overtime this summer because of vacations.

BOARDMAN — With nine township firefighters laid off, trustees are eliminating a contract provision requiring at least nine firefighters per shift to try to further trim costs.

Minimum manning in the contract approved earlier this year between the firefighters union and the township calls for a minimum of nine firefighters on shift: two at each outlying station and five at the main station. If less than nine are on per shift, firefighters must be called out on overtime.

Previous contracts had a minimum of eight firefighters per shift.

Trustees last month laid off nine firefighters among the 42 full- and part-time employees cut because of shrinking revenue. Voters in November rejected a 4-mill general operating levy that would have generated about $4 million annually.

Since the layoffs, the South Avenue fire station has been closed during many shifts because there weren’t enough people working to staff it.

A provision in the firefighters contract allows the township to discontinue minimum manning if it’s used more than five times in a calendar year, said Administrator Jason Loree.

“I think we’ve used it seven or eight times,” he said.

So far this year, the fire department has incurred 539 overtime hours costing about $13,000.

That’s expected to increase during summer months when vacations reach a peak, Loree said.

“We could be looking at overtime every day,” he said.

Loree sent a memo Thursday to Harry Wolfe, president of the International Association of Firefighters 1176, which represents township firefighters, and fire Chief James Dorman saying the township would discontinue the minimum manning practice.

“Due to the township financial conditions and the amount of overtime incurred within the fire department, the continuation of the minimum manning article will further negatively impact the township’s appropriations,” the memo said.

That upsets Wolfe.

Minimum manning provisions in firefighters’ contracts aren’t rare, he said. Many fire departments have them.

“It’s ironic that they just increased minimum manning in this last contract from eight to nine,” he said.

When the department staffed 41 firefighters — before the layoffs and the departure of two men through disability and retirement — there were 13 firefighters on shift, Wolfe said.

They’re in place to ensure safety for the firefighters and the public, Wolfe said.

“They’re gambling with the safety of the community,” he said. “Responsible leaders aren’t supposed to gamble.”

The trustees talk about wanting to foster a spirit of cooperation with the unions, asking unions to take concessions to bring laid-off members back, he said.

“I can’t open the contract when I see this going on,” Wolfe said.

He questions why when a roughly $2 million carry-over is projected for the end of this year, there’s still talk of drastic cuts.

“We are services,” Wolfe said. “We don’t make a product. If you’re going to eliminate services, you need to lower people’s taxes. That’s what people pay taxes for — services.”

Loree said the carry-over, which he projected at about $1.5 million, is there only because of the cuts made earlier this year. Without those layoffs, there wouldn’t be a carry-over.

“It’s the dollars here,” Loree said. “The overtime is causing us to expend more money.”