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Firefighters' pay continues to lag: City Hall employees get largest increases
By Tim Bousquet
The Daily Citizen
Sunday, April 18, 2004 12:43 AM CST
Citing pay rates that are among the lowest in Arkansas, three Searcy firefighters have quit in recent years to find work in other departments, and at least six others would like to follow suit this summer.
Long-time observers of the department fear that Searcy may soon see a mass exodus of firefighters, costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars to train replacements, driving up insurance rates for residents and businesses, and possibly bringing down the quality of one of the highest rated departments in the state.
"North Little Rock is testing for new hires in August," said Jason Knife, a firefighter who left the Searcy Fire Department in 2002 for higher pay at the North Little Rock Fire Department. "And just in the past couple of weeks I've had six [Searcy firefighters] tell me they're going to take the test."
Two years ago, a group of Searcy firefighters gave then Mayor David Evans and the City Council a 46-page report comparing pay for firefighters in Searcy and nine other Arkansas cities, including Benton, Cabot, Jacksonville, Russellville and Mountain Home, among others.
The report showed that compared to those cities, Searcy was at the absolute bottom in pay for beginning firefighters, drivers, lieutenants and captains.
"[One] of the greatest needs [is] for a better pay/benefits package," reads the report. "While Searcy is a good place to live and work, it still remains that the job duties of a Searcy firefighter are almost exactly the same as those of other cities, but the other cities are afforded a somewhat higher salary and/or benefit package."
"That's the first I've seen of that report," Jay Shock, the city's Human Resource Director, said on Friday. "So it's hard for me to comment on."
But after reviewing it, Shock noted that other nearby cities like Sherwood and North Little Rock have higher tax rates than Searcy.
"Our sales tax is three or four cents less than in those communities," he said. "That means we're getting less revenue for the city, and less money available to pay our staff with. And those communities have passed special taxes to pay for their police and fire."
The report also noted that while Searcy pays all personal insurance costs for its employees, it covers none of the cost for family coverage. Employees who want family coverage must pay $412 a month to attain it.
The report suggests four different potential plans for the city to provide family coverage to firefighters, ranging from 100 percent coverage, which would cost $148,500 annually, to paying everything after a $100 monthly employee premium, which would cost $112,500 annually.
"I don't think we could afford to do that," mayor Belinda LaForce said. "Once we did it for one department, we'd have to do it for all the departments, and everyone would get it. We'd probably go broke.
"Most people have two-income homes nowadays, and so there's some flexibility in insurance plans. I'd rather give them a salary increase and let them find a cheaper family plan that works for them."
UNEVEN RAISES
While the disparity in pay between the Searcy Fire Department and other departments is vexing to local firefighters, they are additionally upset at what they say was an unfair application of "step-grade" pay increases given earlier this month.
In a departure from traditional city practice, which gave uniform percentage raises to all city employees, the step-grade system gives a range of raises based on department head recommendations, which are in turn based on employee longevity and merit.
Shock said the broad guidelines of the plan included direction to department heads to keep their total raises to less than three percent, but individual employees could be given more.
"And if they could make a good case for higher increases, we would certainly consider it. I can tell you that the raises for firefighters were recommended by their department head, not by anyone in City Hall."
Backers of the step-grade system say it rewards those employees who work hard over those who simply show up for the job. But critics, including many in the fire department, maintain that such a system can introduce a degree of arbitrariness, and can lead to unfair favoritism and retaliation against those employees who speak out.
In particular, firefighters fault the city administration for giving large raises to those employees who work in City Hall while giving firefighters perfunctory raises. Documents obtained by The Daily Citizen show that, in fact, raises were considerably higher for those in City Hall.
Three employees in the Clerk/Treasurer's office - a receptionist/secretary, a deputy clerk and an accounts payable clerk - saw their pay increased to $11.90 an hour, amounting to hourly raises of $2.23, $0.88 and $1.95 respectively, an average increase of 16.5 percent.
In contrast, the highest pay among the 31 firefighters below the rank of captain is $10.98 an hour. The highest hourly increase among those workers was $0.34, a 3.6 percent raise for that worker, while the average increase for the entire fire department was 2.65 percent.
The pay situation for the three fire captains isn't much better. Each received a 42-cent hourly raise, less than 3.5 percent. Eddie Hollis and Ryland Lauen now make $12.57 an hour, while Howard Reed makes $12.65.
Even Chief Bill Baldridge, who is among the most experienced and recognized fire chiefs in Arkansas, received a raise of just 2.38 percent . The chief now makes $52,769 annually.
But it isn't fair to compare the workers in City Hall to firefighters, LaForce said.
"We knew there would be some controversy with the raises," she said. "But we saw this as just the first step to getting the city salary scale where it should be. We're striving to get our employees what they deserve to be paid."
LaForce said salary increases for City Hall workers were increased by large amounts because comparable positions in nearby cities of about the same size are paid even more.
'The pay was so low for those offices that we had a problem keeping well-trained and qualified people," she said.
"The workers in City Hall aren't doing just clerical work. They're handling money, doing internal control, doing accounting. Most of the people in City Hall do multiple positions. Really, all of them have more than one job, they're doubling up. People that work in City Hall do double job duties, where other departments have single people doing single jobs.
"We don't hire additional personnel [in City Hall], we just take on more work. I know that the raises look extreme, but in other cities individuals with these job titles are getting paid more and they're only working one job."
But couldn't the same arguments be used to give firefighters big raises?
"Because there's so many of them," said LaForce, "when you start increasing firefighters' salaries, you're talking about big money.
"We thought the step-grade would make the employees happy, but apparently [the firefighters are] not happy. They didn't get everything they wanted in one full swoop, but they need to understand this is just the first step. There's potential for them to get some big pay increases down the road. If I were a city employee, I'd be doing the best job I could be doing between now and my next job evaluation, because I'd know it would get recognized and rewarded."
LaForce said the salary scale could move upward even beyond the step-grade increases if the City Council awards cost of living adjustments (COLAs) and longevity awards, and that employees can earn extra pay for obtaining various professional certification. Firefighters, however, do not receive extra pay for obtaining certifications, she acknowledged.
Shock also said the step-grade increases were designed to address the very inequities the firefighters are complaining about.
"There's room for growth in each of those positions," he said. "They can grow into higher pay. It's not everything they want, but over time it will improve.
"We value our employees," he said. "What product does the city of Searcy have? Service. And the better people we have, the better equipment, the better training, the better service we'll give.
"We're making strides in improving pay," he said. "But we have to work with each other to get to where we want to be."
Highly Rated Department
Fire fighters have had an adversarial relationship with City Hall for decades and filed at least three lawsuits against the city in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1995 former mayor David Evans settled with the firefighters by agreeing to pay them holiday pay. That same year Bill Baldridge was hired as chief, and tensions cooled until last year.
Baldridge came to Searcy after retiring from 20 years of service in the Jacksonville Fire Department. He was the first fire chief in the state to hold a degree in Fire Administration, and has stressed training and education among his staff.
"It's a lot of work to train them," he said. "It takes three or four, sometimes five years to get them where I want them. They do all their classwork and get their certifications, but I also work with them one-on-one to teach them how to conduct themselves with the public. We're a customer service-oriented department, and every citizen is our customer."
Typically, new firefighters are hired about a month before the start of a class at the state fire academy in Camden. They are given uniforms, go through the department orientation and learn the various station duties. Rookies ride along to fires as observers, but don't fight them.
The department continues to pay the new hires' salaries while they attend basic fire fighting class at Camden for eight weeks. They continue to take classes on weekends for about another year, and while they begin to fight fires, they must travel with an officer and a seasoned firefighter.
Other training consists of a three-month EMT class, a two-week Hazardous Materials class, and various driving and pump operation lessons.
"It's an extremely large investment in training," Baldridge said.
"I'm amazed at how much training I got in Searcy," Knife, the former Searcy firefighter now working in North Little Rock, said. "I took over 800 hours of training at Searcy, over and above the certification. At North Little Rock, they don't offer any of that."
And Baldridge encourages his staff to pursue their education beyond the department. Several Searcy firefighters are taking advanced classes at the fire academy, as well as college classes at the University of Memphis and ASU-Russellville.
Baldridge's intensive training regimen resulted in part in Searcy being recognized as one of the best fire-protected communities in the nation.
Searcy's Fire Department is one of only six in Arkansas to receive a Class 2 rating from the national Insurance Service Office (ISO), which ranks fire agencies on a scale from 1 to 10. Only 39 of the 43,000 fire departments across the nation, and none in Arkansas, received the top Class 1 rating. The majority of the departments in Arkansas - 741 out of 1268 - are rated either 9 or 10.
The ISO rates fire departments after conducting on-site field inspections, said ISO spokesperson Dave Dasgupta. Half the rating comes from looking at the department itself - the equipment it has on hand, the location of the fire stations and especially at the training and expertise of the firefighters - and half depends on the ready availability of a water supply and the effectiveness of the 9-1-1 system.
When Searcy received its Class 2 rating, local insurance rates dropped immediately. The Searcy School District alone saw its insurance bills drop by $6,000 annually.
"A class 2 rating is very good - exceptionally good," Dasgupta said. "And the [insurance] industry rewards that kind of performance with lower rates."
eyes on the future
Baldridge credits his men for attaining the high rating.
"We have one of the best departments in the state," he said. "And that's because we have the best young men you can possibly get in today's world. They've proven to me that the youth of America are decent people. I look at them and know that the future will be in good hands.
"My most valuable resource is the human resource. These guys do their job and above their job. They work a lot of hours, and on their days off they often get awakened at 4 in the morning to go fight a fire."
Baldridge shies away from discussing pay issues or his staff's conflict with City Hall, but acknowledges that the firefighters are struggling.
About three-quarters of the firefighters work part-time jobs to supplement their income, he said.
It is that financial squeeze that is pushing some to consider leaving the department. While LaForce and Shock both would prefer that firefighters stay with the city, they are resigned to the possibility that some will move on.
"We've lost three firefighters, and we've maintained that class 2 rating," Shock said. "If we lose more, we'll replace them.
"If our employees think they have a chance to better themselves, they should pursue it. I'm not encouraging anyone to leave, and I certainly don't want to lose employees, but I've always encouraged people to pursue what's best for them."
The prospect of an exodus of firefighters bothers LaForce as well.
"Yes, I'm concerned," she said. "Absolutely. And that's the whole point of the step-grade system. It was a start, and it was a $200,000 impact on our budget.
"We want to keep the staff we have," she said. "And pay rates aren't the only issue affecting us. The city is growing fast, and we'll need more equipment, more fire stations, and to increase the city limits. All of that will cost money.
"We don't have the revenue source to pay for it all. We already have people screaming every day about leaf pick-up, about pot holes and every thing else. It takes money to get everything we want done. It's a constant struggle to maintain the right balance."
LaForce said the ultimate solution to all the city's needs, including pay issues related to the Fire Department, rest in the Five Year Plan she is developing, which will have a municipal services section.
Specific recommendations have yet to be drawn, but the mayor said a dedicated sales tax for police and fire services could be a suggestion of the plan.
She anticipates putting the matter before the voters sometime next year.
In the meantime, she urged caution and patience.
"I feel like we have to just sit down and hash out whatever problems we have, and we'll be able to make some progress."
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