Firefighters from 10 departments protest planned Youngstown cuts

By David Skolnick | November 13, 2014 at 12:07a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown firefighters walked from the downtown fire station with firefighters from nine other area departments to a city council meeting to protest Youngstown’s plan to reduce its ranks.

Mayor John A. McNally said the city will take a firetruck off the road, starting in January, and not replace eight firefighters who will leave through retirement. It’s a key component of his plan to save the city $1 million annually.

Dave Cook, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 312, said the walk Wednesday was “to bring more awareness and express our displeasure with the disturbing decision to close a firetruck. Why would you shut down a fire truck in the city with the highest arson rate in Ohio?”

Removing the truck will impact response time to fires, and puts firefighters and residents in dangerous situations, he said.

Bill Gadd, a Warren firefighter, said his city went through a similar situation years ago with disastrous results.

“I don’t want to see this happening in another community,” he said. “When it comes to structure fires, your response time is everything.”

Youngstown is facing a $2.5 million to $2.8 million deficit in January 2016, and cuts need to be made now, McNally said.

“If we wait until 2016, we’ll have to close one station, two trucks and lay off 20 people,” he said. “This department hasn’t seen a staffing cut since 2002.”

The department currently has 138 on staff.

Fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr., who helped formulate the plan with McNally, said, “When you reduce staff, there is always safety concerns. But we believe this is the most-effective way to save money while keeping firefighters and citizens safe.”

The firefighters union rejected a three-year contract in September that included salary increases for its members for the first time in five years. It was turned down primarily because it would remove caps on the maximum amount an employee could contribute to health-care premiums.

Employees pay 10 percent of their premiums, but with caps in place.

The caps are $100 a month for single coverage and $200 for family coverage. The city’s health-insurance plans are $666 for single coverage and $1,678 for family coverage.

Meanwhile, council approved a contract with its 74-member wastewater employees union that removes health-insurance caps on May 1, 2016.

The deal includes a 1 percent pay raise Saturday, a 1.5 percent raise July 1, 2015, and another 1 percent raise July 1, 2016. The union’s members have gone four years without a pay raise.

Also, council approved ordinances for nonunion employees to receive raises of 1 percent on Nov. 29 and 1.5 percent on Jan. 1, and monetary bonuses for things such as longevity pay, not using sick time and for having college degrees.

The city’s 170 nonunion employees haven’t been given pay increases in six years.

Council voted unanimously to give the raises — its members receive the college-degree payments, but nothing else — except Councilman T.J. Rodgers, D-2nd, abstained from voting. His wife is a nonunion employee who works in the finance department.