But he says they won’t last long if income tax is voted down

ELYRIA — Six new firefighters could join the ranks of the Elyria Fire Department in a few months, Mayor Bill Grace said Monday.

But there’s a catch.

If residents fail to pass November’s income tax renewal issue, the freshly minted firefighters could be laid off by year’s end. Without the $6 million to the general fund provided by the tax, there is no way the city can afford to keep the new hires, Grace said.

“We have to be fair to the people we offer employment to and let them know the situation of the city,” he said. “I don’t want to make it sound like a threat, but we have to be realistic about what the city’s finances can afford.”

In their first year of employment, six new firefighters — at a cost of $75,000 each in wages and benefits — will run the city roughly $450,000.

While a mere fraction of what the 0.5 percent income tax brings in, city officials have said that without the revenue, the city will have to scale its resources back to the bare minimum.

Six new firefighters is a good start toward improving the department’s staffing, Assistant Fire Chief Ron Brlas said.

“It’s a number we can comfortably bring into the department at one time and start training,” he said.

However, he said it still won’t be enough to alleviate the current staffing concerns.

Brlas said 10 firefighters have given notice of their intent to retire by the first of next year. Such a move will leave the department right back in the same position: begging for more.

“Six new hires won’t affect staffing numbers for at least six months because of the time it takes to make sure they are adequately trained,” Brlas said.

Hiring six new firefighters is close to what Fire Chief John Zielinski said the department needs. In a 2007 annual report, Zielinski called for a five-year plan that would include hiring seven new firefighters, raising the minimum staffing level to 22 on-duty firefighters and constructing a new fire station on the city’s west side.

But several months after the report was issued, Grace cut minimum staffing levels from 17 to 14 after the Fire Department saw record-high overtime expenditures.

Grace said the new hires will help stave off future exorbitant overtime pay, a figure that typically boosts annual pay into the six figures for many in the department. The city will pay for the new firefighters out of the general fund.

“We can manage the new hires because of attrition in the department,” Grace said. “But if we don’t pay now, we will pay more through overtime expenses.”

The hires are not a done deal. The idea still must go through City Council’s Finance Committee as well as pass a vote of the full Council.

In the meantime, Grace is gearing up to present his plan to realign the Fire Department at a public hearing at 6 p.m. Thursday in Council Chambers.

At that time, Grace will discuss permanently closing Fire Station 2 on Broad Street and consolidating it with Fire Station 1 on Cedar Street; creating new fire district boundaries; reassigning fire dispatch duties to the Elyria Police Department dispatch unit; raising fire minimum staffing from 14 to 15 and adjusting officer ranks according to the proposed realignment.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

 

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