AFD Central Station, town center
The staffing problem at Amherst Fire Department -- or more precisely the lack of staffing -- has been well known for a v-e-r-y long time now.
Actually the problem is much bigger than that, including as well police, who often work shoulder to shoulder with firefighter/EMTs at the scene of an emergency.
The Town Manager acknowledges that (sort of) in his FY15 budget submitted to the Select Board last January:
But in his more recent memo (July 7) to the Select Board on "Long Term Staffing Plan Recommendations," there's not even a spark of hope for hiring more firefighters or increasing the minimum on-duty staffing.
One police officer is mentioned as a possible addition -- but only if the proposed regionalization of Emergency Dispatch saves $62,908 to fund that position. An unlikely scenario.
In 1992 AFD had a minimum of 7 on-duty personnel. Today, after a doubling of call volume, the department has that same 7 on-duty minimum. Actually the problem is much bigger than that, including as well police, who often work shoulder to shoulder with firefighter/EMTs at the scene of an emergency.
The Town Manager acknowledges that (sort of) in his FY15 budget submitted to the Select Board last January:
One police officer is mentioned as a possible addition -- but only if the proposed regionalization of Emergency Dispatch saves $62,908 to fund that position. An unlikely scenario.
Yes, UMass/Amherst has kicked in an extra $80,000 to fund 4 extra firefighters (2 ambulances) Thursday night thru Sunday morning during the academic year, but even then, with weekend partying, they are still overwhelmed.
A 2003 study done by the town recommended a minimum staffing of ten. Previously, the Fire Protection Needs Committee issued a report in 1966 recommending minimum staffing of fifteen.
Back in 2005 the department received a $500,000 SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Act) grant to hire five firefighter/EMTs. The federal grant program went into effect after 9/11 in an effort to bolster fire departments nationwide to at least minimum standards of protection.
The program has grown from $65 million awarded in 2005 to $340 million awarded last Fiscal Year. AFD was one of only two departments in Massachusetts to win the grant back in the program's inaugural year, when far less funding was available.
It's time to think about another SAFER grant application.
The terms have even changed to potentially being less costly to cities and towns, with the main difference being a municipality can lay off the employees at the end of the three years. Previously a full year (in year 5) of locally funded employment was part of the contract.
Sure it may seem unfair to hire folks for only the duration of a grant, in this case three years. But as long as you are up front about that during the hiring process, prospective first responders can decide for themselves if it's worth the risk.
The Amherst Police Department, for instance, just had to lay off a "crime analyst" after two years of state grant funding. But the department is better for having had her.
Considering interns often work for just for resume enhancement, at least these first responders would be fully paid while gaining valuable experience with one of the best departments (and certainly busiest per capita) in the state.
In building his FY14 budget the Town Manager relied upon ambulance revenues of $2,195,723. But because our department is so exceedingly busy (ambulance runs account for about 70% of all FD responses) actual revenues last fiscal year were a whopping $2,533,728 -- an additional, unexpected $338,000.
Or enough to fully fund five new firefighters, grant or no grant.
36 comments:
So those firefighters are making over $65,000/year? Wow. Not bad!
No, starting pay for police or FD is in the LOW $40K range, but you have to account for all those other pesky employee costs; unemployment, health insurance, retirement, etc.
Wow, $65,000 to walk into a burning building or get vomited on every weekend and you say "not bad". Go ahead and apply.
what is really cool about the graph that shows the fire and ambulance calls is that the fire calls are essentially flat over a period of at least 30 years. Ask yourself what was the population of Amherst 30 years ago. The per capita fire call numbers have gone down over the years. I have to believe that is in large part from all of the work of Firefighters educating adults and kids about fire safety, smoke detectors, etc. That is a benefit to our society rarely discussed.
Oh, and 40K to 60K a year to risk bodily injury, keep your cool when breaking up huge parties, coming to the rescue of others is a pretty modest amount. We should all be thankful that these guys hear to call to serve, because clearly it is not about the money.
Public safety has never been the priority of this town. All smoke n mirrors. Oh but wait, housing going up and services staying the same or less? Good luck folks!!
Adage: Fools call it luck; a wise man understands the relationship between cause and effect..
Soo…run by fools?
Town manager took almost a 10% raise, employees got 3%. Unitarian church got over $100k for a window. Homeless non working individuals got an extended shelter. The school got a media climate specialist, and IT has more on duty than AFD or APD. And the town has no money???!!
Make the brown shirts (parking) CSO's
Perhaps with its $1 Billion annual budget UMass could contribute more? Naah. Faculty salaries are triple(at least) what our firefighters make to respond to student calls. 1% anyone?
Beyond the $40,000 or $65,000 what is the additional cost of extra pay for traffic duty, sick days, personal days, vacation, union representation, union contributions, health insurance, retirement, health insurance for town retirees? Ask anybody, including Larry, and he'll tell you the town is almost going broke paying for that health insurance. If they give up a couple of those things, we'll gladly hire more staff. It's unclear why municipal employees get so much more than private employees.
https://www.indiegogo.com/explore?utf8=%E2%9C%93&filter_title=firefighters
It's unclear why municipal employees get so much more than private employees.
What's the incentive to serve in an often thankless and dangerous public service job if there are not excellent benefits?
You want them to give up health insurance Tom? They arent getting it for free.
How many new positions have been added to the town and school budgets since the recession of 2008?
How can we pay for a sustainability coordinator, tree warden, climate communications specialist, 4 new central office administrators and not have enough police officers? How have we cut classroom teachers and programs (Russian, German, etc.) then added 4 (or more) new central adminstrators and be looking at regionalizing elementary schools to the tune of $300k a year?
Go look at the open check book on the towns web site,there is a lot of police and firefighters making 100k
Well, how many more officer could the town hire if they stopped paying the Quinn bill.
That's cause they work insane accounts of overtime. Those shifts have to be filled, it's nut their base salary.
Those are overtime details paid by private companies that they make $100k a year on.
Here is what you officers should do. Because these people think you make so much money, much of which is court and mandatory overtime and training, when you are ordered to fill weekend shifts this fall and spring don't show up. See what the town thinks then, let them fend for themselves.
Wow, $65,000 to walk into a burning building or get vomited on every weekend and you say "not bad"
That's $65,000 more than a volunteer gets -- and there are still a lot of volunteer departments around -- Hadley comes to mind.
How does our firefighting equipment compare to other communities, in terms of what we own and its cost and quality? Does anyone know? Do we have more, less? Better, worse equipment?
Dr. Ed, There are full time firefighters in Hadley that are getting paid. The Amherst Fire Dept. also provides ambulance service to their town. No disrdisrespecially to volunteers, but the Amherst guys are doing it full time, and they are certainly worth more than 65,000 a year!
Even with the quinn bill, officers in western mass are not earning what eastern mass or connecticut municipals are making. For you to suggest that taking a step backwards in hiring the best educated candidates as possible is ludicrous, especially in the community that hosts not only the flagship university for arguably the most academic state, but also to Amherst and Hampshire Colleges. Why don't you let the officers know how you feel about this issue when they are trying to protect your safety or property. This suggestion is so ignorant.
...when you are ordered to fill weekend shifts this fall and spring don't show up.
Why don't you let the officers know how you feel about this issue when they are trying to protect your safety or property.
Always with the suggestions that firefighters and police officers should betray the Law Enforcement Oath of Honor. Should we be scared that they will abandon public trust if we don't fulfill their funding requests, or share honest opinions with them about the issues?
"Always with the suggestions that firefighters and police officers should betray the Law Enforcement Oath of Honor. Should we be scared that they will abandon public trust if we don't fulfill their funding requests, or share honest opinions with them about the issues?"
August 7, 2014 at 2:31 PM
- Its true isn't it? You want them there during your time of need. When you don't need them, you threaten to cut their lively-hood.
Anon,
Should this not then carryover to the town hall staff, the library, and, how about public works?
Ahem. The employees got 2% and the Town pays NOTHING toward union dues. I'm so glad Amherst is so progressive and touchy-feeley. First you gripe at getting a parking ticket, then you complain that you can't keep all of the revenue from the parking machines. You don't want Cherry Hill, but you don't want developers to put housing on it. Whine, whine, whine. YOU won't work for minimum wage, but you don't want to raise it for others who do. Get a job. Try working for the Town. BTW, even if it's true that some officers make $100,000, do YOU have to wear riot gear 3 weekends out of the month?
When do any of the librarians, town hall staff, or dpw workers have to fight drunks, deal with people who have violent mental issues, parent other people's children, see horrifiction death scenes, have no time off weekends, work overnights and forced doubles? Where does their liability come into affect? What is there level of danger on a day to day basis?....I don't see your argument here.
It's always the same in the public sector: people CHOOSE their career paths, they know the monetary compensation they will receive, know what the job entails, know that towns face budget issues, they go to school to earn the qualifications for the job they want, bend over backwards at job interviews because they want the job so badly, then they spend the next thirty years complaining about what the job entails.
Become a librarian or a DPW worker if you can't handle the: pay; wearing riot gear; working weekends; seeing horrific death; danger.
You are all very easily replaceable, and no one is asking any individual one of you to stay.
You sound like the town manager. No one cares if you are compensated for the work you do. No one cares if you are compensated equally. Take your crappy pay, and if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you in the a**!...I feel sorry for those who work with you or for you.
And that's the problem with the private sector. Everyone can be replaced because no one cares about you.
Dr. Ed,
Hadley isn't a volunteer department. They are paid call firefighters
You sound like a disgruntled town employee, go get a real job!
What do you consider a real job?
Hadley isn't a volunteer department. They are paid call firefighters
My bad.
Was this in response to the situation some years back where the firefighter was seriously injured but not covered by the town's insurance because he wasn't an "employee"?
I may be wrong, but I believe Hadley has paid on-call firefighters. They also Don not have paramedics or an ambulance. Ambulance serine for Hadley is provided by Amherst firefighters. While it is true that there are many volunteer and on-call fire departments, their call volume, population, and population density are usually much lower than ours. While volunteer firefighters preform a remakable service to their communities, they are frequently unavailable due to full time work and other comittments. The time involved in training for both firefighting and EMS often limits volunteer departments ability to recruit and retain their members. Forgive me for making an assumption, I don't think the citizens of the town want to rely completely on first responders that may, or may not be available, however well meaning they may be. The solution to the staffing problem in Amherst is not volunteers. It lies in properly staffing the police and fire departments with full time personnel to safely meet the call volume generated by our population level.
Jeff Parr
Amherst Firefighters
IAFF Local 1764
I have read through all of the comments in this thread and I feel that it has moved way off track. Somehow it has headed in the direction of compensation and left the issue of staffing. While I reject the assertion that I am overpaid, and certainly would like to be compensated at as high a rate possible (who doesn't), I would have to say that staffing is the number one issue at AFD. I will go out on a limb and say that most, if not all, of my brother and sister firefighters feel similarly. I also reject the notion that after securing our jobs we "then they spend the next thirty years complaining about what the job entails". To the contrary, we love the job. Most firefighters consider their career a calling. The day we are appointed is often the fulfillment of a life long dream and many remain long after they are eligible for full retirement...having to be forced out on their 65th birthday. We often refer to firefighting as the best job in the world and look forward to reporting for duty each and every day. Exactly how many folks can say that? What concerns us, and should concern all of you, is the simple fact that our staffing level is dangerously low. We do not have adequate personnel to adequately meet our call volume. When I talk with firefighters from around other parts of the state, and around the country. they are truly shocked at our staffing level as compared to population and call volume. The town has not increased staffing as the call volume increased. This leaves us with an overwhelming problem. There is no doubt that it will be very expensive to correct 30 years of ignoring the problem. However, continuing to ignore the problem will only make it worse. By asserting that there is no staffing problem, simply a scheduling problem as has been done repeatedly, the town is doing just that. This is an issue of safety, yours and ours. The residents of the town, through their elected representatives, have the right to spend their tax dollars as they see fit. However they must be informed of the real situation before they can make that choice. To deny the truth of the matter is reckless.
Jeff Parr
Post a Comment