Kokomo sheds 12 more firefighters

scott.smith@kokomotribune.com

It wasn't unexpected, but Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight's decision Wednesday to put 12 city firefighters on indefinite layoffs sent shockwaves through the Kokomo Fire Department.

Acting Firefighters Local 396 president Jeremy Shaw ripped into the Kokomo Board of Works & Public Safety prior to the Wednesday morning decision, saying the move will jeopardize public safety.

"We have numbers we need to maintain for the firefighters and the citizens to be safe," Shaw said. "These numbers make that impossible.

"It's going to be on this board when something happens," Shaw said.

Shaw said there were 121 firefighters when Goodnight took office last January. With Wednesday's announcement, Shaw said there will now be 100 firefighters on the department.

City director of operations Randy Morris brought the recommendation to lay off the firefighters to Wednesday's board of works meeting.

The recommendation simply reiterated prior statements made by the administration, saying firefighter positions had been made redundant by the administration's decision to end the Kokomo Fire Emergency Medical Service.

Board of works president Jim Brannon said ambulance runs previously made by Kokomo Fire EMS can be made by Kokomo's two hospitals with no loss in service to the citizens.

"I understand the passion everyone has for the fire department; I get it," Brannon said. "My personal opinion is I think the hospitals can do the [ambulance runs]."

For months, the firefighters' union has been threatened with the possibility Goodnight would end Fire EMS and allow the hospitals to expand their respective ambulance operations. Last month, Goodnight made it official, saying Fire EMS would no longer be a part of the 911 dispatch ambulance rotation.

The decision was made, he explained, to help patch a projected $2.5 million city budget deficit, a deficit created by rising unemployment and decreasing tax revenues.

But after Wednesday's meeting, clearly upset firefighters openly questioned whether the mayor's decision had more to do with personal animosity toward firefighters.

Cheryl Duncan, wife of former Fire Chief Dave Duncan and a spokeswoman for the firefighters' families, said she couldn't understand why so much of Goodnight's deficit reduction would be placed on the fire department.

"Why don't we have an independent committee look at this, and not just have it rubber stamped for the mayor?" Duncan asked board members Wednesday. "Why would you attack public safety when you have a senior citizens center ... with no revenue?"

The suggestion the city jettison the Kokomo Senior Center, which has an annual budget of $284,000, is one of the numerous points and counterpoints lobbed back and forth between the administration and the firefighters as positions became adversarial.

Until this week, however, Shaw said the union held out hope the administration would come forward with a buyout offer for longtime firefighters eligible for retirement.

Goodnight, however, said it was the union's responsibility to present ideas for cost savings which could also survive a union vote.

Both sides met without success three times in the past three weeks, including two hours prior to Wednesday's decisive board of works meeting.

"I asked [the union] for ideas on cost savings, and the only idea they came up with was closing Kokomo Beach. That would maybe save $150,000," Goodnight said. "Why would we take it out on young children who maybe the pool is the closest thing they'll have to a vacation?"

Both Goodnight and Shaw said no concessions package was ever presented to the union members for a vote.

Firefighters, however, remain adamant that they were willing to accept no wage increase and health benefits concessions last year, in return for a "no layoff" clause.

Instead, both sides ended up in arbitration. When arbitrators awarded firefighters a 1.5 percent raise, Goodnight indicated there would be a strong possibility of layoffs unless the firefighters turned it down.

But the firefighters backed council members who voted for the raises, and Goodnight promptly laid off four firefighters.

At Wednesday's meeting, District Chief Kevin Shaffer came forward to ask the board to consider "rolling layoffs" as an alternative to putting 12 firefighters out of work.

"I know most of the guys on the department would take a week off [unpaid] to keep these guys," Shaffer told the board.

And after the board of works meeting, Morris told Shaffer the administration was still open to further discussions, and firefighters gathered at the downtown fire station for an emergency meeting.

Kokomo Fire Chief Scott Kern could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday, but Shaw was adamant that the chief disagreed with the administration on the layoffs.

"Has the union or the chief said these numbers will provide safe service?" Shaw asked Brannon Wednesday.

"No, they have not," Brannon said, going on to reiterate his statement that the hospitals would be able to handle the extra runs.

Goodnight maintained that the layoffs were strictly related to the number of people involved with Fire EMS and non-critical front office positions.

"Do I think [the number of firefighters] could go lower? Probably. But the main thing is the level of firefighters running fire trucks is the same as it has been. The difference is either eliminating front office positions or reducing the ones assigned to ambulance duties," Goodnight said.

Goodnight said he didn't think union officials took any suggestions for concessions back to the membership, simply because the membership would have rejected the concessions.

He said the average amount of wages paid, per firefighter, now stands at $58,000 per year. That figure does not include the cost of health or other benefits, Goodnight said, and makes Kokomo's firefighters above the average for similar-sized cities.

Shaw said the union would continue to work to avoid the layoffs, which will be decided by seniority. The layoffs were effective Wednesday.