Firefighters: Staffing change imperils city

HAMMOND | Removal of full-time staffing from a Fire Department ladder truck is saving the city thousands of dollars a week in overtime, but at a cost to public safety, firefighters say.

The department averaged more than $25,000 per week in overtime pay during the five months preceding the December reassignment of manpower from aerial truck No. 1, according to payroll records obtained from the city controller's office.

That overtime dropped to less than $5,000 per week this year after the three shifts of three or four firefighters formerly manning the apparatus rejoined the other 40 firefighters regularly scheduled for duty every day.

Those numbers are in line with estimates made last month by Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. that the move would save the city $1.2 million over the year.

Aerial truck No. 1 -- one of four maintained by the department -- remains ready for emergency service, but the removal of permanent staffing has put both firefighters and the community in danger, according to fliers distributed this week by the Hammond Professional Firefighters Association Local 556.

"This has nothing to do with overtime money," said Ed Lomeli, Local 556 president. "It's about safety -- response times will be longer, and we run the risk of a staffing gap."

Acceptable manpower levels are spelled out in a four-year contract approved by firefighters in 2009, and keeping the ladder truck ready but unmanned complies with terms of the contract, which also guaranteed firefighters raises of 3 percent in 2009 and 2010, and of 4 percent in 2011 and this year.

Since that contract was approved, the number of city firefighters has dropped from 180 to 155, mostly through retirements, and the city's share of property tax collections has fallen from $37 million to $26.1 million -- $16 million of which is earmarked for Fire Department payroll, operations and pensions.

A 2010 proposal by McDermott to Local 556 to reduce the 4 percent raises to 2 percent in exchange for an assurance that there would be no layoffs was rejected by firefighters.

Since then, no firefighters have been laid off, but neither have any been hired, and Lomeli said beefing up the department -- with as many as six new hires, at an estimated cost of $60,000 per year each -- is more important than overtime pay.

The firefighters local hopes to hammer out a new contract by September, Lomeli said. Last week, the city hired Muncie-based management consulting firm Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele & Associates, Inc. to assist in negotiations.

And if aerial truck No. 1 is needed in an emergency, it will be manned and on the scene, said Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Margraff.