The graphic from this year’s budget proposal shows that of the fire department’s total $26.2 million dollar operating budget request, that $22.7 million of that is for wages and benefits, or approximately 86.4% of the total budget. Only 13.6% or $3.5 million goes toward buying or repairing equipment, paying for fuel or repair on trucks, or paying for utilities or minor repairs on the 11 fire stations. Some larger repairs could be in the capital budget.
If finance used a pie chart or bar graph it would look bad and be more obvious how much of the budget the wages are.
They managed to cut what they are requesting to buy in supplies, equipment, and repairs, so even though the employees are getting a 3% wage increase, the “other” operating request is down by $200,000, so the department’s overall request for 2016 is only up by 1.95%
I know it’s tough to point this out because whenever you pick on firefighters there is always public outcry about what they do and how much they risk their lives, but someone needs to start asking them about their call volume:
• It’s about 70% medical (EMS). Paramedics make a lot less money per year - ask any working for Paramedics Plus
• You wonder how many fires they respond to in a year, I think it averages around 300+. How many of those required hooking up a hydrant? (this means there was a large enough fire the
firefighters had to mask up and actually work as firefighters in smoke). It takes the waste paper basket fires and prank dog poop fires out of the statistics.
• You wonder how long the crews are out of the stations each day on calls? The crews work 24 hour shifts but probably average 3 calls per day. If you take false alarms into account, the average is probably under 20 minutes. So if you look at all the factors, the actual time spent is probably about 1 hour in 24 responding to fires (hazards). No doubt, I’m sure other work is being done - business inspections, yardwork, station cleaning, tours, etc., but is that the kind of work that requires “hazardous duty” pay?
Maybe some questions the city council should be asking during the budget hearings.
Being a firefighter is a pretty good gig, you hit it on the head – how much do they really do? There is a federal fire department at the Sioux Falls airport that is there full time to respond to all the airplane crashes out there. I think there are 28 (possibly more)full time guys out there to handle all those airplane crashes.
What’s more, 1/3 live outside the city. They’re well trained but can’t get to a fire soon enough. Local tax is lose lose on the wrong race horse. There’s no citations city mad money harrassment. I’m envious. However, they sell good cook books lots of stud calenders.
Just be glad the general employee union isn’t as good at negotiations as the firefighter union. Can you imagine if we had to pay every high school educated level position position in the city $75,000 or more per year?
The only thing the Chief negotiates with the Union President is what lots they are going to buy on Lake Francis Case.
Is hazardous pay when a fireman buys a lot? What’s the extra compensation for those that fight fires?
9 days a month to work out and study up on CPR and safety placards is a pretty good job. They were smart to expand into medical services because the 10 fires we have a year isn’t enough to justify such a huge fire fighting team. The way things are built, we’ll see a new station and crew every 4 or 5 years now.
Lemming – That’s why so many communities are cutting back on the number of fire stations they are building and reducing to 3 person fire trucks. It isn’t cost effective to keep following the old model of doing things.
It doesn’t make sense to pay over $26 million per year to save $3 million per year in property.
There’s a presentation that ICMA puts out about questions your city government should ask your fire and police chief before giving them any more money but I forget exactly what it’s called. Our City Council needs to see it.
If I had known I could make $70k being a firefighter, I wouldn’t have wasted my time and $ with college.
And the money you saved on college you could have used to buy lake front property.