Gilroy
– The city will pay $560,000 in overtime this fiscal year to 36
fire department employees – bumping earnings for 10 firefighters to
more than $100,000 annually, without counting benefits.
Gilroy – The city will pay $560,000 in overtime this fiscal year to 36 fire department employees – bumping earnings for 10 firefighters to more than $100,000 annually, without counting benefits.
After two months of wrangling and an initial denial of a Public Records Act request filed by The Dispatch, officials this week released city-wide wage figures, listed by position without names, and distributed them to city employees.
Fire Chief Dale Foster said overtime has ballooned because the department is plugging holes left by departing and injured employees. He said the Gilroy Fire Department has had to “back-fill” for a captain and two division chiefs, while operating most of the year with just four of six “relief” positions. The relief firefighters cover shifts in the absence of regularly-scheduled firefighters.
“I think it’s important for people to understand that we’ve got to have the positions on the engines,” Foster said. “This isn’t discretionary, both because of the (fire union) contract and because we need it.”
Firefighter overtime accounted for 40 percent of the city’s $1.19 million in overtime costs in 2004, according to city figures.
Other figures showed that in 2004:
• The highest-paid firefighter, who isn’t a chief or division head, earned $118,009 in base pay and overtime
• The lowest-paid firefighter who worked a full year earned $71,456 in salary and overtime
• Fourteen firefighters earned more than $15,000 in overtime
• The largest single overtime earner racked up $24,879
• Almost one in three firefighters who worked a full year earned more than $100,000; when counting benefits, all of them exceeded $100,000
• Benefit contributions for firefighters added roughly 49.5 percent to their base pay
Foster said little can be done to hold down overtime in such years, and city officials have been careful not to criticize the department’s management. They instead point to a bigger problem, namely, that firefighters who already rank among the highest-paid public employees are demanding major wage and benefit hikes as the city teeters on the edge of a budgetary crisis.
The union has asked for a roughly 9 percent wage increase over three years, an extensive retirement package identical to one police already receive, a monthly cash bonus for retirees, paid leave for union-related business, and the ability to allow multiple firefighters to vacation at the same time. Currently, two firefighters can only take vacation on the same days during five “non-peak” months of the year.
Those requests would represent a 26 percent increase in the current firefighter payroll, according to city estimates. The budgeted payroll for firefighters is currently $5.6 million.
“After taking a look at the city budget, it’s sure not able to take the hit that they’re asking for,” Councilman Bob Dillon said.
Foster said the department’s overtime issues are due to persistent under-staffing, combined with routine absences throughout the year. Under the current staffing model, the department roster includes three shifts of 10 firefighters, with four-person teams assigned to the Chestnut and Las Animas stations and two firefighters assigned to Sunrise Station in the northwest quadrant. Each shift is supposed to have two back-up relief positions, bringing total staffing to 36 firefighters.
A typical work cycle involves two of three teams rotating 24 hours on, 24 hours off, for four days, Foster said, while the third team rests for those days.
“Some (firefighters) are in Monterey for truck operations training now,” he said. “If they’re supposed to be off, then they have to get overtime.”
Vacancies in two of the relief positions have only compounded the problem, according to firefighter Jim Buessing, who also serves as treasurer of the fire union.
“We’ve been trying for almost three years to come up with 36-staffing,” he said. “Right now, with one of the chiefs promoted, it’s going to be short one again.”
The net effect of such shortages has been a significant increase in overtime since 2000, when a binding arbitration decision requiring four firefighters to an engine took effect.
In February, the city once again reached a standoff in labor negotiations with firefighters, in part because the union has refused to allow “greater flexibility” in staff scheduling  – a demand that amounts to rolling back the four-person minimum.
Yet both Foster and City Administrator Jay Baksa said the cost of overtime roughly equals the amount saved by not having to pay benefits for a regular employee. He plans to offset the increases in overtime by shifting unused funds from the fire department’s salary budget.
He pointed out that as the fire department reaches normal staffing levels, its budget request has dropped by nearly $200,000.
For Baksa, “the real story is benefits” – not overtime.
According to the salary figures, the city contributes roughly half of each firefighter’s base pay toward benefits. The median benefit contribution in 2004 was $38,816, the bulk of which went toward retirement contributions.
Benefit payments have spiked in recent years as the city has had to make up for lagging investment returns in the California Public Employee Retirement System.
To offset increases in that area, Mayor Al Pinheiro has pushed for greater flexibility in scheduling, saying the fire union has confronted the city with a costly list of requests at a financially precarious time. The city could go over the precipice, Pinheiro says, depending on how the current arbitration plays out.
Foster acknowledged that a wage increase would naturally spell more overtime costs, as would the request for two firefighters to vacation at the same time.
“We’ve got to study that issue, but we think it could increase overtime,” said Foster, who as chief is not part of the fire union. “Management’s position is we need to look at that because we … want to minimize usage.”
But he said the greatest impact on overtime would come from a change in staffing requirements.
“For any position now, if somebody goes home sick, we have to hire somebody back to fill that position,” Foster said. “If there’s greater latitude and we don’t have to back-fill that position, then that’s going to drop overtime. There are many (fire) departments in this region that have a different flexibility in how they staff.”
For members of the fire union, rolling back the minimum to three people to an engine, as the city has requested, is out of the question.
“Is it safe to be with four at this time, or is it safe to be with three at this time?” Buessing asked. “You can’t say at eight o’clock it’s okay. Anything can happen at any time. Yes, there are times when call volume is higher or lower, but nobody has a crystal ball.”
The impasse over the connected issues of staffing and overtime – along with all the union’s latest contract requests – seem to hinge on radically different perspectives of the overall economy.
Buessing defended the union’s most costly request – a retirement package that would allow firefighters to retire at age 50 with 90 percent of salary.
“We look at how CalPERS has historically been, through good times and bad,” Buessing said. “With the economic trend coming up, the rates are going to get better. You plan for the worst, and enjoy the best.”
City officials have a less rosy outlook, as reflected in a five-year budget that does not include a single new position through 2010. They have also identified millions of dollars in potential program cuts that would be triggered by an economic downturn, renewed state raiding of local revenues, or any one of various budget-busting scenarios.
“The days that city government says ‘Tomorrow we’ll take care of it’ are over,” Mayor Pinheiro said. “We need to cut back. It means being realistic.”
The $100,000 club
Position • Total • Salary • Overtime
Fire Captain 3 • $118,008.87 • $93,130.19 • $24,878.68
Fire Captain 7 • $116,534.89 • $93,130.19 • $23,404.70
Fire Captain 1 • $112,771.32 • $93,130.19 • $19,641.13
Fire Captain 9 • $111,755.18 • $97,591.94 • $14,163.24
Fire Captain 8 • $110,631.83 • $92,860.38 • $17,771.45
Fire Captain 2 • $107,910.89 • $88,695.33 • $19,215.56
Fire Engineer 1 • $104,465.12 • $82,379.62 • $22,085.50
Fire Captain 5 • $104,199.12 • $93,130.19 • $11,068.93
Fire Captain 4 • $102,965.58 • $93,130.19 • $9,835.39
Fire Captain 6 • $101,091.95 • $83,988.37 • $17,103.58
Top Overtime Earners
Position • Amount
Fire Captain 3 • $24,878.68
Fire Captain 7 • $23,404.70
Firefighter 10 • $22,836.75
Fire Engineer 1 • $22,085.50
Firefighter 09 • $20,848.42
Fire Engineer 6 • $20,070.38
Fire Captain 1 • $19,641.13
Fire Captain 2 • $19,215.56
Firefighter 01 • $18,703.97
Firefighter 07 • $17,800.31
Complete List Of Earnings for 2004
Position • Salary • Overtime • Total
Fire Captain 1 • $93,130.19 • $19,641.13 • $112,771.32
Fire Captain 2 • $88,695.33 • $19,215.56 • $107,910.89
Fire Captain 3 • $93,130.19 • $24,878.68 • $118,008.87
Fire Captain 4 • $93,130.19 • $9,835.39 • $102,965.58
Fire Captain 5 • $93,130.19 • $11,068.93 • $104,199.12
Fire Captain 6 • $83,988.37 • $17,103.58 • $101,091.95
Fire Captain 7 • $93,130.19 • $23,404.70 • $116,534.89
Fire Captain 8 • $92,860.38 • $17,771.45 • $110,631.83
Fire Captain 9 • $97,591.94 • $14,163.24 • $111,755.18
Fire Engineer 1 • $82,379.62 • $22,085.50 • $104,465.12
Fire Engineer 2 • $81,177.68 • $14,692.15 • $95,869.83
Fire Engineer 3 • $82,379.62 • $15,098.64 • $97,478.26
Fire Engineer 4 • $82,379.62 • $9,498.43 • $91,878.05
Fire Engineer 5 • $82,379.62 • $13,643.14 • $96,022.76
Fire Engineer 6 • $78,200.61 • $20,070.38 • $98,270.99
Firefighter 01 • $74,395.17 • $18,703.97 • $93,099.14
Firefighter 02 • $72,084.88 • $17,176.21 • $89,261.09
Firefighter 03 • $78,415.84 • $9,619.79 • $88,035.63
Firefighter 04 • $63,757.10 • $13,064.02 • $76,821.12
Firefighter 05 • $78,415.84 • $7,461.78 • $85,877.62
Firefighter 06 • $65,881.28 • $9,925.47 • $75,806.75
Firefighter 07 • $73,222.45 • $17,800.31 • $91,022.76
Firefighter 08 • $78,415.84 • $11,416.23 • $89,832.07
Firefighter 09 • $78,415.84 • $20,848.42 • $99,264.26
Firefighter 10 • $73,222.45 • $22,836.75 • $96,059.20
Firefighter 11 • $71,428.51 • $12,556.26 • $83,984.77
Firefighter 12 • $70,013.42 • $7,567.84 • $77,581.26
Firefighter 13 • $78,415.84 • $8,643.30 • $87,059.14
Firefighter 14 • $75,633.59 • $1,057.32 • $76,690.91
Firefighter 15 • $77,190.84 • $12,336.44 • $89,527.28
Firefighter 16 • $73,515.66 • $14,742.78 • $88,258.44
Firefighter 17 • $78,415.84 • $3,073.54 • $81,489.38
Firefighter 18 • $48,620.60 • $5,946.73 • $54,567.33
Firefighter 19 • $68,026.67 • $3,429.17 • $71,455.84
OT budget
• 1999-2000: $146,541
• 2000-2001: $496,851
• 2002-2003: $297,213
• 2003-2004: $342,126
• 2004-2005: $560,000*
• 2005-2006: $385,000*
*projections
