Plan likely to impact safety services

ELYRIA — It seemed like they had only just sat down Thursday night when City Council members started to stand up again.

“That’s it?” someone muttered from the back of the room.

The special budget meeting — which drew a crowd of angry residents wanting answers — had lasted five minutes.

When it was all said and done, the city’s 2008 budget passed 6-4. Council members Garry Gibbs, R-3rd Ward, Mark Craig, I-4th Ward, Larry Tanner, D-1st Ward, and Kevin Krischer, I-5th Ward, opposed it.

Council President Ken Burkhard, D-7th Ward, said there was no discussion about the controversial budget because Council had had three prior meetings about it and officials should have already done all their homework.

“This document is going to change,” he said after the meeting adjourned. “But in order for this city to move forward, we needed to pass this tonight. We were out of time.”

The state requires Elyria to hand over the year’s operating projections by March 31, but many in attendance still felt that Thursday’s vote was rushed.

“It was a miscarriage of justice,” said resident Jim Slone, who expected to hear some debate about money for Elyria firefighters. “They didn’t want to discuss that. That’s why this mayor needs to go. He orchestrated this whole budget.”

Like many others, Slone was upset about Mayor Bill Grace’s recent proposal to permanently close the Broad Street fire station to save money.

Debbie Spangenberg, a secretary at the Broad Street station, said that issue has firefighters angry. They feel like every time there’s a money crunch in Elyria, their department gets scaled back, she said.

Firefighter Chuck Smalley said the city’s fire stations are dangerously understaffed. While Elyria’s charter calls for a roster of 88 firefighters, there are only 64 working at this time, he said.

That means there are only 14 firefighters responding to emergency calls, said Dean Marks, president of the Elyria firefighter’s union. Meanwhile, the National Fire Protection Agency says no fewer than 15 firefighters should be called to a house fire, he said.

Closing one more station to shore up the leaky budget isn’t going to solve that problem, Marks said.

“I know it can be black and white when you look at a budget, but it’s not black and white when you go on a fire call,” he said. “We know there’s not much money and we’re trying to do more with less, but we’re really doing less with less. There’s nothing more we can do with what we have.”

Marks said he wanted to address the Council with his concerns, but Burkhard pushed the vote through.

If he had been given time to speak, Marks said, he would have told Council the budget doesn’t count the savings from seven seasoned firefighters who will retire this year and who will be replaced with newer, less-expensive employees.

He said he also would have pointed out that he thinks it will be more expensive in the long run to replace firefighter dispatchers with civilian dispatchers, which is another cost-savings suggestion from Grace.

Others talking after the meeting asked why there are so many white-collar employees in Grace’s office during such trying financial times.

“We’re essential services. When there are so few of us to cover a fire, why do you have to have so many administrators working 9 to 5?” said firefighter Brett Bevan. “That’s just micromanaging. Trim the fat.”

Krischer, who voted against the budget, said he agrees, and he would be happy to see at least one assistant safety service director position cut from Elyria’s payroll.

“I like our safety service directors as people,” he said. “It’s just that with a budget like ours you have to cut somewhere and you can’t get things done by cutting the people out working on the streets.”

Contact Jason Hawk at 329-7148 or jhawk@chroniclet.com.

 

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