Youngstown mayor, fire chief agree to union's firetruck counterproposal

YOUNGSTOWN — With some hesitation, Mayor John A. McNally and fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr. agreed to a counterproposal to their plan to take a firetruck off the road starting next month.

A key component of McNally’s and O’Neill’s plan to save $1 million a year was to not use a truck and eliminate three captains, three lieutenants and two firefighters through attrition.

Late last week, union officials agreed to eliminate eight positions — all firefighters — also through attrition, and keep the truck on the road while agreeing to have no more than seven of its members on vacation at any given time, down from eight.

The changes proposed by the union, as long as the union gives its full cooperation, would save $1,035,000 in 2015, McNally and O’Neill wrote.

But they expressed some concerns in the letter.

“The most problematic part of the proposal is that it leaves the department with very little staff on each turn,” McNally and O’Neill wrote in a letter to David Cook, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 312. “There is very little allowance for sickness, injury, death-in-family or other approved forms of leave.”

Cook said union members have agreed to the vacation change and other issues to implement the plan.

For the complete story, read Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com