In Which We Find That Bud Freel Was Right
Remember this? There was an effort a year and a half ago to try to reign in City costs by reigning in personnel vacancies, starting with those at the WFD. At the time, the WFD threatened and tried to frighten people into what would happen if these vacant positions were cut , including some vauge threats for targeting districts whose Councilperson voted for these cuts with some degraded response time. This is from Chief Goode’s blog at the time:
On the other hand, if you believe in what they are doing than I will have no choice but to believe that those Council Persons who believe the City of Wilmington should cut firefighter jobs and close fire engines actually do represent you and your council districts wishes and intentions. In doing so, all of those Council districts will be the districts that we will be forced to consider reducing coverage in!
The measure that would delete these vacants and the associated budget passed the City Council, but not by a veto-proof margin. So that the usual suspects s– the ones who routinely are not interested in the fiscal health of the city — voted no. They were (for those keeping score at home): Sam Prado, Justin Wright, Trippi Congo, Sherry Dorsey-Walker and Bob Williams.
So jump to now, where we discover that the WFD is 6 months into its budget and $300,000 over its overtime budget for the year. What does that mean? It means that the rolling company shutdowns are back as a cost cutting measure AND both Goode and Williams are now quite open to eliminating those vacant positions:
The higher-than-average overtime cost was blamed on five vacancies in the department and coverage for personnel out because of injury or extended sick leave. As a result, Goode said one of the city’s fire companies will regularly be shut down on a rotating basis to offset the costs and he could move to eliminate a handful of vacant positions in the agency. […]
Mayor Dennis Williams (D) said Tuesday morning he was already aware of the overtime issues and removing the five vacancies currently found in the department could save more than $390,000. He called the option a “strong possibility.”
Got that? The WFD started its budget year with its vacants intact, with an overtime budget and still overspent its overtime. Which says to me that if City Council had been taking its job seriously a year and a half ago, this could have been avoided. Especially since we can tell now that neither the vacants or the rolling shutdowns was really a problem.
Bud Freel had convinced Theo Gregory to embark on this review of vacant positions in the city and once they got the WFD push back, Gregory apparently did not want to return to that work. Some fiscal responsibility is hard work — especially in the face of an Administration who doesn’t value that much. But some of this current situation with the WFD could have been avoided if Sam Prado, Justin Wright, Trippi Congo, Sherry Dorsey-Walker and Bob Williams were as committed to the City’s fiscal health as Bud Freel is.
So where are the other smoking guns out there? Theo Gregory abandoned the effort to review vacant positions in other departments after this. He shouldn’t have. And the WFD blowing its budget when there was an earlier fix should be the lesson.
Tags: Featured, Mayor Dennis Williams, Wilmington City Council
The level of incompetence is stunning.
I had missed Goode’s mafia threat (Nice council you have there. Shame if something would happen to it.). He should be fired.
If you are not marching lock-step with this administration, you are the enemy. And these clowns will never forget and forever hold a grudge. The primary won’t get here fast enough. 4 more years of this and the City may never recover.
In Theo Gregory’s defense, the fire chief did threaten to let his house burn down. That might explain his reluctance.
One thing that I should have noted is that of the folks who voted NO to let the WFD continue to bleed taxpayer funds include two folks who actually want a higher office. Justin Wright is running for City Council President and Sherry Dorsey Walker is running for Lt. Governor. People who can’t engage with a basic spreadsheet really don’t need to be in any office, at all. They’ll never be in a position to adequately manage their fiduciary responsibilities.
Between his blog and his twitter feed, it would be nice if Goode could keep his mouth shut and just put out fires. He comes off as a whiny, petulant child.
We just need to start all over in this city.
First of all the WFD can’t be blamed. The overtime budget was $1.2 millions dollars 10 plus years ago and never had a problem with overtime. Over the past 2 chief to include the current one, they have diminished the overtime budget. The current overtime budget is $250,000 dollars, which is not enough to cover the Captains sick nor overtime alone. So why dont y’all ask these individuals to give the proper funding for overtime so this over budgeting does not happen. And then the constant attack on individuals that risk there life to save “YOU” a stranger. Also city council seems to forget to enlighten its constituents that in the fire department contract there is a clause that whenever a fireman reports of sick or is off injured they must be replaced by another firemen in order for us to do are job effectively and without entering or killing anybody. Without that clause you would have 1 or 2 fire trucks on the street. And at the end of the day, if we can’t effectively response to a fire or medical emergency and save your loved ones, whos fault is it? Answer that question!
Y’all need to go back to school and learn how to spell and write the English language.
If the vacant positions were eliminated doesn’t it seem reasonable that OT costs would’ve increased due to the fact that your manpower was reduced. Also to educate the uninformed, Firefighters Overtime is paid at a straight pay rate. (No time and one half) the overtime budget is continuously being reduced. The Firefighters are constantly asked to do more with less, the Fire Department staffing has been reduced from a high of 256 in the early 70’s to its current strength of 172. Today they respond to EMS runs, (this has not always been the case) Motor Vehicle Accidents with Personal Injuries (in the past they only responded to reported serious accidents) they perform an array of Public Service activities and monthly Building Inspections (which serves a dual purpose of exposing Life Safety Hazards and gives the members a chance to familiarize themselves with the buildings layout and utility locations) on top of their primary duty of Protecting Life and Property. The apparatus staffing has been reduced from 5 or 6 personnel to 4 depending on shift staffing. At Some Point People Will Have To Standup and Support Our Firefighters Who Put Their Lives On The Line Day In and Day Out To Keep Them Safe. Thankfully They Did Have The Support Of Some Of The Council Members Who Realize At Some Point The Cuts Have To Cease In The Interest Of Public Safety. Just Know That You Are Being Protected By A Great Bunch Of Dedicated Firefighters Who Are Willing To Do What It Takes To Protect The Citizens and Visitors Of The City Of Wilmington.
y says: “And then the constant attack on individuals that risk there life to save “YOU” a stranger.” Which is the job description, no? Unless I missed the part where fire fighters only save people they know.
Single Party Control.
LOL
You should laugh, Tom Kline. Single party control happens when the other party tosses in the white flag.
If the vacant positions were eliminated doesn’t it seem reasonable that OT costs would’ve increased due to the fact that your manpower was reduced.
No. Because then they would have had to go back to the rolling shutdowns. We are struggling here because the WFD is not right-sized for the size of the city. The WFD and the Williams Admin are trying to maintain previous levels of staffing for a city that no longer needs it.
And do keep the thread here. No one is impugning the character of the WFD here — just whether or not they’ve been a good steward of taxpayer money. And Chief Goode certainly has not been. Overspending the OT budget 6 months early isn’t a sign of good management skills. If he needed more OT then he should have made that case earlier.
Cassandra, as I stated before the departmental strength has been reduced. If you took a picture of the city skyline in 1971 and compared to today you would see that the city has grown up and those buildings are the biggest tax of departmental resources. There have been fires in some of those buildings and luckily no major injuries to civilian or firefighting personnel. It’s easy for people who are unfamiliar with the operations of the fire department to critize, take it from someone who’s suffered the physical and emotional pain of fires, when you’re involved in fireground operations you are always looking for additional staffing to perform the task needed to mitigate the situation. People don’t look at the Big Picture, how you gonna explain to a parent, mother, father, sister, brother or other family member that there wasn’t anyone available to make the response. Finally I don’t know of any Fires that have not been extinguished in a timely manner.
I don’t question at all how hard firemen work. The problem is poor management. Budget projections should be relatively close to actual numbers unless there are very unexpected circumstances.
Firefighters are constantly asked to do more with less,
Hey, welcome to running government like a business! Or even better — welcome to how those of us in the private sector work.
Departmental strength has been reduced because the need is reduced. There are no where near the number of people in the city now that were here in the 70’s.
those buildings are the biggest tax of departmental resources.
So perhaps you can get your supporters on City Council to tax the folks in those buildings enough to cover your increased costs.
Cassandra:
“Hey, welcome to running government like a business! Or even better — welcome to how those of us in the private sector work.”
Wow that is a bold statement, especially on this site.
I agree!
@ pandora-
Which is the job description, no? Unless I missed the part where fire fighters only save people they know.
Stop it. You jumped all over me a few years ago when I pointed out that police and firefighters typically don’t even make the top ten most dangerous jobs. You said something about how cops/firemen are somehow “better” than commercial fishermen (who typically work in a more dangerous job than cops or firefighters) because they protect us. You then made some comment about some kind of seafood.
Hypocrite much?
You’ll need to provide a link to back up that claim, Lebay.
Cass – Thanks for this update. I wish I had had this information last week. I was in the same room with Gregory and Freel (and two other mayoral candidates, Griffiths and Kelly). I would have brought this specific topic up!
Lebay, here’s the link to the post containing the comments you cite. You might want to take a look.
Hint: It wasn’t me who said those things. An apology would be nice.
You Moms all look the same…
LOL! Guess it’s a “woman” thing.
“how you gonna explain to a parent, mother, father, sister, brother or other family member that there wasn’t anyone available to make the response.”
Fuck you. You will never do any such thing, even if such a tragedy comes to pass. And most of your union rules concerning pay rates etc. has nothing to do with preventing any tragedy.
We all know the No. 1 interest of you “public servants” — your pay rate. You’re not fooling anybody by waving the toasty shirt.
OMG PEOPLE – this is 2015
FIREMEN – a person that shovels coal into the and makes a train go
FIREFIGHTER – a person tasked with putting out fires to save life and property
for all the eqality and “words matter” folks in here – could we a least get this terminology right
becasue it DOES MATTER……..
Because of all of the guys shoveling coal on trains these days… got it.
Along those same lines Cassandra, why do we need 13 council people representing the number of residents in the city. New Castle County has 13 council members representing approximately 550,000 residents. As previously stated the department has lost 84 positions and I’ll admit I don’t know the actual population of the city, but I do know that there has been a lot of new construction projects along the waterfront, on the east side, on Market Street and along the Brandywine. Most are completely new buildings and others are existing structures that have been rehabbed. There are old office buildings and commercial buildings that now are apartments and condominiums. Apparently someone is providing you with statistics from surveys and studies conducted on fire department staffing, the problem with them are you are paying someone to tell you what you want to hear. I could do the same for justifying why the staffing levels should remain the same, surveys and studies are biased to achieve the results the paying parties request.
Another great blog post today.
http://wilmfirechief.com/2015/12/17/wfd-operational-update/
Also, if more people would understand just how much Firefighters do beside fight fires, they would not be so apt to want to cut them. Motor vehicle accidents, gun shots, gas leaks, plumbing issues, bridge jumpers, assistance in storms, homeless assistance in inclement weather, drug overdoses, dogs in reservoirs, cats in trees, down power lines, the list goes on and on.
There are about 80,000 residents in the city with only 40% home owners and 25% below the poverty line.
Just don’t move to the beach. Too many bugs and horseshoe crabs
@K: This isn’t about what firefighters do. It’s about how much they are paid and how many of them there are.
Geezer, I wasn’t implying that firefighters would refuse to respond I was implying if they keep cutting firefighter staffing that the possibility of all resources being tied up on responses at the same time increases. Don’t know if you know exactly what a firefighters pay scale is, but you have to take into consideration that there are firefighters working 24/7 365 no snow days, no holidays. They endure weather conditions from extreme heat and humidity to sub-freezing weather that causes the water used to extinguish fires to freeze on equipment, personnel and create hazardous working conditions, but they continue to perform till the situation is mitigated. I can’t believe people complain about a firefighters salary considering the sacrifices they endure to protect life and property. Another consideration is if you continue to cut firefighter staffing it could impact home owners insurance rates due to ISO ratings.
@Rgbsr–
I can’t believe people complain about a firefighters salary considering the sacrifices they endure to protect life and property.
Are you fucking kidding me? How many times has the WFD (THE CELLAR SAVERS!) responded to rowhouse fire calls & simply hosed down adjoining homes while the burning home burned to the ground?
I can’t believe the number of WFD retirees I know who are worthless pieces of shit who spent 30 years smoking cigarettes and playing cards and occasionally working who are now collecting a nice, fat pension at the expense of the tax payers.
Pandora–
I apologize wholeheartedly.
I don’t know why I mis-attributed that memory to you.
Again, I’m sorry.
Lebay, I don’t know where you get your information about firefighting Tactics of WFD, but I can tell you they are an aggressive interior firefighting force. A lot of times fires occur in older dwellings that have common cockloffs which can contribute to fire spread. If you looked at statistics you would see a majority of the fires are contained to room and contents or at least the fire damage is contained to building of origin. Smoke damage is another issue its almost impossible to control the smoke from a fire, it can travel thru any openings in construction. I also am amazed at how You Stereotype firefighters, I could do the Same with Liberals Like Yourself, but that’s Not How I Run. I would rather state the true facts and educate the uninformed or misinformed.
I personally admire firefighters for the work they do, that doesn’t mean there is an unlimited budget to do it. If the city wants to put more money into firefighting, it has to take from somewhere else. And, as with the deployment of police, the city should answer to how they use these resources.
AQC, I understand the concerns, but the Budget is always being reduced and the demand remains. If you would like Google the City of Wilmington Budget, it gives you the figures for All city departments for the last three budget cycles. It brakes down staffing numbers and different line items. Just browse the site and you’ll see that the Public Works Dept. has approx 70 less personnel staffing, but their overtime budget is greater than the Fire Departments, which is a 24/7 365 operation and Public Works is not. History will prove that the Fire Department Budget gets hit pretty regularly with cuts. As I’ve stated in other post they have lost 84 staffing positions since the mid-70’s. The department is at a bare bones minimum if you expect to receive the same quality of service as is currently provided. Your appreciation and support of Firefighters is Greatly Appreciated, I just Wish we Could get more Supporters.
Not that this has anything to do with this conversation:
Along those same lines Cassandra, why do we need 13 council people representing the number of residents in the city.
but you are new here, yes? Because I wrote in support of reducing the size of Council when this issue came up in 2011. Read that carefully, because there is a trend here in who in Council is interested in some fiscal accountability.
So let’s look at Wilmington’s Budget Book. (pdf) This document shows budgets from FY 13, FY14, Budget FY15, Approved FY16.
What do we see?
The WFD has maintained an authorized strength of 177 for all of those years. Nothing reduced there. Overtime has gone from FY13 (actual) 377,605; FY14 (actual) 597,922; FY14 (budget) 297,500; FY16 (approved) 250,000.
DPW started with authorized staffing of 226 in FY13 to 223 FY 16. So they’ve lost 3 FTEs over the past few years. Overtime has gone from FY13 (actual) 245,801; FY14 (actual) 420,959; FY15 (budget) 321,800; FY16 (approved) 341,800. Public works has been hit with having to deal with more snow and ice storms than usual, and a good deal of snow removal and salting happens with OT. They are also dealing with more water line breaks than typical and that also invokes some OT. They also respond to flooding events following a major storm. So DPW is 24/7 sometimes. But like the WFD, DPW is also living with less OT than the high in FY14.
The City’s largest expenditures are in the WFD, DPW and WPD.
So DPW has 46 more authorized staff than DPW — not 70 — and its OT budget is approx 30% higher.
But if you look at the Budget Book, you can see that cuts happen pretty much everywhere (certainly after FY14), which reflects the fact that the City of Wilmington is not a river of money.
I have no knowledge of WFD but… Sometimes it is the practice of public employees to scarf up overtime as they approach retirement, because their pension is calculated based on the last few years of income. Is that what’s going on here? What percentage of firefighters are nearing retirement, and how much control do they have over overtime?
Puck, overtime is not calculated into the pension process.