Thursday, January 19, 2012
By jeanne starmack
campbell
City leaders are talking about applying for grants to hire two full-time firefighters to boost manpower in the fire department.
Mayor Bill VanSuch brought up the idea Wednesday of applying for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants, which are made available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
An application period is expected to be open this month for 30 days and again in July for 30 days, according to information fire Chief Nick Herlec obtained from the International Association of Firefighters.
The grants are available for two years, VanSuch said, “then we have to pick up their pay.”
“But we have two retiring,” he continued.
The city has struggled with an understaffed department, which led to an increase in insurance rates for homeowners and businesses in the city.
The Insurance Services Office, a private agency that rates cities’ fire services on a scale of 1 to 10 for the insurance industry, lowered Campbell’s rating in 2010 from a 6 to a 10.
Former Mayor George Krinos recalled a laid-off firefighter that year, bringing the department from four to five full-timers. But the move was controversial, because the city council did not appropriate money for the firefighter’s salary.
The council also passed a financial recovery plan, required under state law when a city is in fiscal emergency, that includes the gradual transition from a full-time paid staff to volunteers. Full-timers can stay on until they retire.
The city also has hiring restrictions under its recovery plan.
Council member Mike Tsikouris and city finance director Sherman Miles reminded VanSuch Wednesday of that plan.
“Our goal was to work toward a volunteer department,” Tsikouris said.
Miles said the state would have to approve the hirings. “Right now, the plan calls for eventual move to volunteers as terms of getting out of fiscal emergency,” he said.
Herlec said the grants could buy “two years of free labor” because as he understands it, there are no retention requirements. He also said that the city could reapply for the grants to keep the firefighters after the first two years.