Editor’s Note: The following article was prepared by Terry Dettmar of the IAFF Local 1826 (A Shift) and John R. Wayne, IAFF Local 1826 (B Shift) of local firefighters and presented to members of the Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue District Board of Commissioners on Jan. 20. It was not taken up on the agenda at the meeting, but was also given to The Citizen, which is publishing it. It is addressed to the commissioners and is in reference to union concessions in this economic downturn in the economy. The article follows:

This correspondence will serve as an official notification to you regarding the history of our Union Employee Concessions, WE felt that it is important to bring the newly elected commissioners up to date regarding this matter as there have been many rumors lately of what the “union” has or has not done when it comes to Employee Concessions.

Knowing that decreases in property taxes were inevitable, the union started to work closely with Chief Don Adams as far back as January 2008. We held numerous meetings with the chief as he worked very hard to keep the union informed of this budget projections, projected revenue shortfalls, potential layoff scenarios, possible station closings and manning reductions.

That being said, the first thing that was addressed was the large amount of employee overtime that was occurring on a regular basis. The union and management agreed to adjust the minimum requirement for “move-up” employees or the ability of employees to work out of classification.

This allowed the District to qualify additional employees in an effort to help reduce the overtime line item. Instead of paying 24 hours of overtime at time and one-half, the District would be able to move up employees to work in higher ranking positions at a much reduced rate of pay.

The pay differential that was agreed upon was $1 an hour ($24/shift) for an engineer, $2 an hour ($48/shift) for a lieutenant and $3 an hour ($72/shift) for a battalion chief.

Previous to this change, there were four senior lieutenants that were averaging $22,500 in overtime and move-up battalion chief. This change was implemented in June 2008.

Following this same overtime reduction issue, it was also agreed upon by union and management to drastically decrease minimum staffing levels and “brown-out” units/stations when necessary to help eliminate all overtime whenever possible.

These changes began to be implemented in July 2009. The District decreased overtime expenditures upwards of $23,000 per day period to less than $1,000 per day period on a more regular basis.

During this time period, it was becoming even more evident that employee layoffs were imminent. Union employees continued to “brainstorm” and work closely with the chief to try and come up with additional ways to attempt to reduce budgetary line items.

With this correspondence you will see the list of 2009-2010 budget suggestions that were submitted to the chief by the union employees. Many have been implemented at this time.

Continuing on with the history of the Union Employee Concessions, there were many other items that the union and management agreed upon to help reduce the budget as follows:

1. Uniforms are not issued on a yearly basis any longer; they are replaced on an “as needed” basis.

2. Employee physicals are now given biannually, not annually any longer.

3. Employees have been replacing pots, pans, cups, utensils as necessary.

4. Lawn maintenance has been taken over by the employees (previously contracted at $13,400 a year.)

5. Paramedic credentialing was suspended resulting in a savings of $40,000 at the time.

6. Move-up freeze for FY 2010-2011 and FY2011-2012.

7. Education pay freeze for FY 2010-2011 and FY 2011-2012

Unfortunately, the ultimate concession happened – approximately one-third of the District’s employees were eventually laid off.

At this point, the union and management continued to work together in an effort to try and close the gap in the budget shortfall.

The union requested that the District make a commitment to spend some of the budget reserves in an effort to make up the budget shortfall and union would continue to help close the gap as well through continued employee concessions. The chief requested that the union come up with $1.5 million in additional concessions.

At this time, the DVPs met with the union’s principal officers and their labor attorney and proposed a concessions package that amounted to $1,527,229.99. This exceeded the $1.5 million requested by the chief. The Board of Commissioners approved our proposal shortly thereafter.

In addition, we feel that it is important that you all know how we came to our proposal of $1,527,229.99 and what the union employees sacrificed to make it happen. The individual concessions are as follows:

1. Wage freeze with 0 percent increase for the FY 2009-2010

2. Wage freeze/decrease of 5 percent for the FY 2010-2011 equals $491,344.63.

3. Wage freeze with 0 percent for the FY 2011-2012.

4. Step-pay freeze for FY 2010-2011 and FY 2011-2012 equals $146,450.11.

5. Holiday pay freeze for FY 2010-2011 and FY 2011-2012 equals $421,862.57.

6. Dependant insurance (new hires and laid off employees) equals $467,572.68 with a total of $1,527,229.99.

A discrepancy in collective bargaining agreement language on behalf of District 6 resulted in an additional $29,209.34 in longevity pay being taken from the employees as well. Therefore, the total amount of union employee concessions (in reference to the request $1.5 million) actually amounts to $1,556,439.33.

We hope that this informational correspondence clarifies any questions, rumors, or concerns that you may have had with the concessions that have been provided to the District by the union employees at this time. The union has been and will continue to be committed to working with the chief and the District when it comes to labor and budgetary issues.

During this extended economic downturn, it is important that we continue to be fiscally responsible as we continue to provide the highest level of fire/rescue services possible to the residents, taxpayers, and visitors of Lehigh Acres.