Warren council not consulted on grant for firefighters

January 8, 2011 at 12:03a.m.

WARREN

Top Warren administrators decided to move forward with application and acceptance of a $5 million firefighters grant without consulting with city council.

Accepting the grant seemed like a “no-brainer,” said Gary Cicero, city human resources officer.

The grant, which brought 10 firefighters back from layoff in October and November and is expected to pay for 14 more in the spring, could cost the city $250,000 in unemployment benefits if the city can’t pay to keep them after the grant runs out after two years, council members said.

The city now has 61 firefighters. It had 75 in 2008 before layoffs in 2009 and attrition dropped their ranks to 51 last summer.

Councilman Eddie Colbert, chairman of council’s police and fire committee, said Thursday the grant application asked whether the grant application had the support of the city’s “governing body,” and the administration answered yes.

Cicero admits the administration — Mayor Michael O’Brien, Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin, Auditor David Griffing and Cicero — didn’t ask for a meeting to talk to council about it.

For one thing, the administration didn’t think the application would be successful, Cicero said.

Then, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that the city had been approved for its Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant in September, one deadline for accepting the grant already had passed, Cicero said.

In order to receive the highest percentage of the grant possible, the administration had to respond quickly, so the administration moved forward without any public meetings, Cicero said.

Several council members expressed their concerns about the ramifications of the grant while reviewing the 2011 budget recently.

When council members sat down to talk to Cicero and Franklin about the grant at a police- and fire-committee meeting Thursday, they had an assortment of questions.

That’s because the hiring of 14 additional firefighters this spring has implications for the hiring of minorities and women, the re-opening of the closed fire stations on Parkman Road and Atlantic Street and the return of emergency medical service to the department.

“We were just brought in at the end, and ultimately we’re the ones on the line for the money,” Councilman John Brown said.