Fire Department, city leaders engage
As a part of ongoing budget discussions, the White Settlement City Council and city leaders met with representatives of the White Settlement Fire Department last Thursday evening at City Hall. Fire Chief Brian Thompson presented a fire department budget that if adopted would institute paid firefighters in what has long been a volunteer department.
The proposal calls for six full time paid firefighters. They would work in teams of two, doing twenty-four hour shifts followed by forty eight hours off. This would mean that two firefighters would be at the station seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day.
“This guarantees that a fire truck will always get to a house within minutes,” Thompson said.
He spoke about the importance in response time, as administering CPR sooner reduces chances of brain damage, and getting to a fire sooner greatly boosts the chance to contain it.
“My main concern is response time,” Thompson said.
When some in the room said they see a lot of the volunteer firefighters hanging out at the station, Thompson said that this was true during certain parts of the week, but not at others.
“We have dead zones in our day,” Thompson said. “That’s what scares me.”
Early in the morning when most volunteers are on their way to their regular jobs was given as an example of one of these dead zones. Thompson spoke about the danger of this time in the morning that can stretch from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
“If we have a big fire, we are absolutely depending on mutual aid,” Thompson said.
The proposed salary for the full time firefighters is $27,000 a year, which according to City Manager Linda Ryan worked out to $7.25 per hour. This doesn’t include overtime costs that could see that yearly salary jump by a few thousand dollars.
The overall cost for installing the six paid firefighters would be around $140,000. Without them in the fire department budget, the final cost of the budget is $440,000. With them in the budget, it moves into the $580,000 range.
The reason the increase isn’t more is because in order to lessen the financial blow, Thompson proposed getting rid of the in house dispatchers.
“The police department has said they can handle the dispatching,” Thompson said.
Thompson was asked about the newly installed incentive program, which sees volunteers who go on more than twenty five calls a month rewarded with some money that caps out at a few hundred dollars.
“The incentive program has helped,” Thompson said. “But it hasn’t stopped those dead times when we don’t have the personnel.”
Mayor Jerry Burns voiced a fear that if they took this step and started paying firefighters, the state would step in and force them to make costly upgrades to the fire station. Thompson said that according to the current standards, the station is in compliance beyond a few paperwork type issues that can be easily addressed.
“We’re opening up probably a can of worms,” Council member Gene Hatcher said, echoing Burns’ fear about the state stepping in.
Fire Marshall R.J. Schwartz assured him it wouldn’t happen.
“Everything is up to standard,” Schwartz said. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
Another concern voiced by the council was what the remaining volunteers will think if the paid firefighter plan goes through.
“If we went to paid, how many volunteers are we going to lose?” Council member Paul Moore asked. “I would expect that we may lose a few,” Thompson said.
Schwartz estimated that there would be four or five volunteers that would quit. He also reminded the council that there are a large number of unemployed firefighters in the Tarrant County area.
Council member Garry Wilson said he believed that the paid firefighters would get to do things like fighting the fires, while the volunteers will be stuck doing clean up work. Council member Gene Hatcher also spoke on this subject.
“There’s going to be a lot of conflict,” Hatcher said. “We don’t want the conflict it will cause.”
His words were echoed by Council member Mike Arnold.
“It’s going to cause some problems,” Arnold agreed.
City Manager Linda Ryan brought up another concern, saying that due to the low salary being offered, she thinks even the paid firefighters would move on to nearby cities that pay more.
“Twenty-seven thousand is low,” Ryan said. “Real low.”
One issue that persisted throughout the night was Burns’ desire to know not only what the program was going to cost in this budget, but how it would impact future budgets.
“What’s your projected rate of increase per year?” Burns asked.
Thompson stated that he only had the numbers for the upcoming year, but didn’t foresee any major cost increases.
“We’re trying to get something started that’s been talked about around here for years,” Thompson said.
Burns said that the council needed to know what the program was going to cost them down the road. None were as outspoken about this matter than Hatcher, who on several different occasions spoke his mind about the possibility of growing costs.
“More, more, more, that’s usually what happens when something like this gets started,” Hatcher said. The discussion slowly turned towards volunteerism itself.
“The spirit of a volunteer is something awesome,” Thompson said. “And we just push the limits of our volunteers, we really do.”
Thompson gave examples of times when they put out the call for volunteers to come to the station but get little to no response. He also spoke about certain times of the week, such as Friday night, when it is hard to get volunteers.
Ryan mentioned that on top of the new incentive program, volunteers also get a portion of their water bill paid.
“I think the city should get something back for that,” Ryan said. “They shouldn’t be a volunteer if they can’t give something back when we need them.”
This steered the conversation deeper into the subject of volunteers.
“The culture has changed,” Mayor Burns said. “Volunteerism is dying.”
Economic Development Director Jim Ryan and many others in the room agreed with this. Mr. Ryan recalled a time when volunteers would mow parks in the city.
“Times are different now, they really are,” Mr. Ryan said.
Even though he too agreed that there has been a shift in attitudes towards volunteering, Schwartz defended how much he and many of the others are putting into the White Settlement Fire Department.
“We’re giving everything we’ve got,” Schwartz said.
Thompson backed up these comments.
“The job requirement is much greater than it once was,” Thompson said. “They’re doing a dangerous job, and you’re asking a bunch of guys to do it for free.”
Hatcher continued to voice his belief that instituting this program would result in escalating costs.
“I guarantee you, it doesn’t matter what you ask for tonight, next year you’re going to ask for more,” Hatcher said. “I guarantee it.”
Hatcher also said that he feels there’s a good team in place right now at the fire department, and he doesn’t want to see it get torn apart.
Ryan gave a few alternative thoughts on the proposal. These included putting volunteers on call, and paying them incentive money per shift they are on call. She also mentioned the possibility of having paid firefighters only on the weekend, or only during the day shifts during the week.
Talks eventually turned to the police department and the Crime Board that funds some of it. Ryan said that the police department accounts for a large part of the budget.
“Public safety is more than fifty percent of the general fund,” Ryan said.
According to Thompson, the fire department is only five percent of the budget, meaning that ten times as much money is being spent on police than on fire.
Ryan said the large budget of the police department demonstrated the lack of balance between fire and police in the city. She spoke about trying to find some money to bring them more in line. “The citizens deserve fire protection,” Ryan said. “But you can’t fix this overnight.”
Moore agreed with her comments as he spoke about the difference in money available to police and fire.
“Let’s share the wealth,” Moore said.
Throughout the three hour long meeting, many council members made sure to voice their appreciation for the fire department as well as the police department. When it came to backing the paid firefighter proposal for the additional $140,000, it was hard to tell how the council was leaning.
“The desire is there; I’m just not sure about the money,” Mayor Burns said to Thompson towards the close of the meeting.
Last night on Tuesday evening, budget talks continued and once again the Fire Department was a large part of that discussion. Thompson addressed the council, and while he didn’t have spreadsheets of future projections put together yet, he did say that the hope would be to move to nine full time paid firefighters in two years, and then to twelve in five years.
As talks got into money, Ryan said she spoke to some other fire departments to get a better idea on salaries.
“Most fire departments of our size are paying around $40,000,” Ryan said.
She also said that other departments seemed to believe that there are qualified firefighters that would be willing to work for the lower amount of money that would be offered in White Settlement.
“Staffing those jobs won’t be a problem,” Burns said, saying people will want the job to get experience.
The current incentive program was also discussed.
“Last year when the council approved the incentive program we had hoped that it would keep everyone satisfied for about four years,” Ryan said.
Burns said it wasn’t about satisfaction, but about having fire coverage.
“When we talked last year, it was because there was a lack of coverage in the city at certain hours and our people were exposed,” Burns said.
Thompson agreed with him, saying it’s been brought on by the decline of volunteers over the past five years.
“What we can afford that’s going to protect our people the best, that’s what we’re looking for,” Burns said.
Ryan spoke of the good sales tax numbers in the city, but said she still has concerns about ongoing funding for a paid fire department.
“I have this concern that different things are happening with our royalty money and our gas well money,” Ryan said. “I would just hate to start such a program and not be able to go through with it if we didn’t have the money the next year.”
Ryan also spoke about how many citizens probably feel like the current fire department is adequate, but that they don’t always see everything that goes into being a volunteer.
“Sometimes you’ve got to step out on faith,” Clements said. “You can’t just stand still.”
Clements said he also realizes you have to have funds available to put programs into action. This led Burns to mention that some towns with a paid fire department can have a better chance to bring in businesses.
“When these people volunteer they’re not only giving their time, they’re actually giving money to this city, because their time is worth something,” Burns said. “If it was for me to do, I’d keep the dispatchers and I’d give you two people. Will it fit in the budget? I don’t know.”
Wilson said he’d like to keep dispatch and add the paid firefighters as well. Arnold voiced his agreement with this. Leaving in the dispatchers would raise the cost of the proposed paid fire department budget by more than $100,000.
Ryan mentioned that this could mean that a position within the city that was going to be unfrozen might have to remain frozen. She also reminded the council that they had an interest in bringing on a second street crew, something that was going to cost around $140,000.
“There’s not going to be enough money to do both,” Ryan said.
Burns mentioned the idea of coming up with a dollar amount that can be freed up in the budget and moving it to the fire department and allowing them to do what they can within that amount.
Talks of enhancing the incentive program began and seemed to be met with approval. Instead of offering volunteers $200 when they go on twenty five or more calls in a month, Ryan suggested paying them a flat fee to be on call for a shift. In the current budget, the incentive money is up to $75,000, which is a $15,000 increase from where it was last year.
“If we’re going to enhance the incentive program we need those guys to enhance what they do,” Clements said.
The possibility of paying $70 to a volunteer for doing a ten hour on-call shift was discussed, and later in the meeting led to what was the best received idea in these talks so far. Assistant Fire Chief Mike Chandler was still on hand at the meeting. While answering some questions for the council about scheduling, they came to discuss the possibility of doing what would essentially be a large scale incentive program.
The idea would be to offer incentive money to current volunteers and reserves to cover all of the shifts throughout the week that needed to be covered. This would also leave the department as a volunteer department, lowering the money needed by eliminating certain increases in insurance.
The council seemed very receptive to this idea. The need for leaders from the fire department to sit down with Ryan and discuss this possibility in more detail was discussed.
As the council looks toward a September adoption of their budget, this is one of the main issues that will continue to be worked out.
Keep reading The Grizzly Detail each week, as we’ll continue to follow the ongoing talks between the fire department and city leaders.
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