In answer to your question, here are my opinionsregarding the layoff options and cost saving measures. I am not attacking anyone by any means; I amsimply stating what I believe to be true. By the way, I am honest and I do tell the truth as I know it. No one has to agree with me, I’m just“tellin’ it like it is” and I don’t really know what your remark about “court”means, but it doesn’t really matter. Also, no, I can't find over $2 million to avert the shortfall; if I could, people would be knocking my door down. Most of what I mention was addressed at the May Board meeting and followed up by an article in the DeFuniak Herald.
To address options for the former Deputy Chief and I, followingare some options that I feel could have been considered.
To retain Sean as an employee, a “push down” could havebeen put into place. This means that youeliminate his position, you make Sean a District Chief, a District Chiefbecomes a Lieutenant, a Lieutenant becomes a Sergeant and a Sergeant becomes aFirefighter. Would everyone have beenoverjoyed, probably not; but, considering that everyone at the Fire District isupset and disgusted over his layoff, I believe his brothers and sisters at the Districtwould rather everyone have a job than no job at all.
Personally, if given the chance, I would have elected tosemi-retire (which I have now done and also have a great part-time job) andoffered to continue to work for the District and the people I love in apart-time capacity with no benefits. That would have meant that I would have been willing to work 20-30 hoursa week for a salary of $15,000 per year (there is a cap on social securityregarding what you can make without penalty). My salary was $42,734.90 before taxes. In my opinion, this would havebeen an absolute deal for the District and I could have continued to serve thecommunity in a capacity that I truly loved. My evaluations are public record. I quote from the Chief’s comments in my last evaluation: “Diane, thank you again for your dedicatedcommitment and support over the last year. Our District continues to grow professionally and your experience andteam oriented approach is a key ingredient to our success. We will continue to face the same economicchallenges in 2011 and it will require hard work, adaptability, sacrifice aswell as resourcefulness. I lookforward to your hard work contributing to our success.” I received a score of 4.48 out of a possible5. If I was the asset that my evaluationstates I was, I think I would be worth $15,000 to at least keep me workingthere and utilize my experience, knowledge and abilities. Trust me, there have been others employed bythe District in the past who received huge salaries and they were not assets byany stretch of the imagination. I willnot speak to that in this forum, but if you want to discuss waste of taxpayermoney, I can let you know.
Another option would have been for the fire commissionersto give up their $500 a month stipend, which was a suggested cost savingmeasure. As I have said before, thisalso includes two of their spouses receiving health insurance which theDistrict pays half of. With the Districtpaying $500 a month to seven commissioners, plus health insurance for twospouses, it is equal to and I believe more than my salary was. I realize this would have been a big sacrificefor them; but, I have sacrificed my job. I would think that elected officials, paid by the taxpayers, would haveat least considered that option to save an 11.5 year employee of theDistrict. It’s not a full time job forthem and if they need it to support themselves, then things are worse than Ithought. Also, when Les Hallman was theFire Chief, the commissioners were not receiving any type of stipend. This was voted on and approved shortly afterChief Hallman left and prior to the new Fire Chief coming on board. The truth is that to date, they will not evendiscuss giving up their stipends. Somecommissioners do not attend meetings for months at a time because they are onvacation in another state, another one has missed a multitude of meetings andsometimes that persons whereabouts cannot even be accounted for. They still received their stipend each month(taxpayer money). I understand they don’t want to give up their money and/ortheir health insurance, but I had to and I had served the District longer thanmost of them and I showed up for work every day for almost 12 years and waspresent and accounted for! If it wasn’tso sad, it would be laughable.
Also, both our salaries were funded through September 30,2011. At the very least, as longstanding employees we could have been given until then to re-establish ourlives and seek other employment. Everyone else is “waiting to see” what happens with negotiations, so wecould have been afforded that opportunity also. Just possibly another option.
Approximately a year and a half ago, the District hired apart-time Fire Inspector. Because thisperson was part-time, healthcare benefits became an issue for him because thisperson had none. When the Districtbecame aware of this, they opted to make this person a full time employeeworking 32 hours so that the position would be eligible for benefits. After the District paid benefits for thisperson and family for several months, the person resigned and took a jobelsewhere. While this was a nice thing forthe District to do, it was not cost saving. The point is that there was someonewho was not a long term employee, who the District helped (and they knew tougheconomic times were upon us); but no options for Sean or I, who were two longterm dedicated employees.
There was a multitude of cost saving measures given tothe Fire Commissioners and then given to staff at the February 2011 Board andstaff meetings. Unfortunately, I do nothave my copy; however, I distinctly remember that staff was informed that inorder to save jobs we should expect 5% to 15% pay cuts. At 15%, I believe the savings would have beenwell over $100,000 and at 10% pretty close to $100,000. We were also informed that there would be achange in health insurance benefits and I know that several meetings werescheduled with our insurance broker to look into cost saving plans. Someone mentioned to me that one plan wouldsave the District approximately $200,000 (I cannot confirm this); but let’sface it, if staff had to pay a portion of their health insurance on a lessexpensive plan, there is going to be a substantial savings. To this day, this has not happened. No one thought that layoffs in administrativepersonnel would occur, since reduction in pay and benefits were offered as analternative to people losing their jobs. I believe (and again I could be wrong, but this is my perception) thatpay reductions have not taken place because leadership is waiting to see whathappens with the new pension plan. If itis approved, I have “heard” that the contribution percentage for allindividuals in the plan will increase. Someone actually mentioned to me that this would be a payreduction. No it isn’t. If I decided to contribute more to myDeferred Compensation plan (which I did), yes, I have less money in my paycheckbecause I am contributing to something that will benefit my future. This doesn’t make sense to me and I will admitit could be totally a rumor, which I hope it is. It does seem strange to me that payreductions and change in health plan benefits have not occurred and theDistrict is over $2 million “in the hole”.
The other cost saving measures were to research the saleof SWFD owned property (I know that’s a tough one in this economy, but at leastresearch it), use more of the $6 million in the reserve fund and increase themillage rate to 1.0. Also included werethe items I have already mentioned (salary reductions and change in healthinsurance plan and commissioners stipends).
At a Board meeting more than several months ago, theBoard Chairman advised the Board and staff that he was placing immediaterestrictions on several items due to the economic crisis the District wasfacing. I recall that he placed a freezeon hiring and also placed a freeze on District travel (cost saving measures). To me, no traveling means just that; however,to this day, traveling out of town and around town is still occurring. Where are the cost savings here and what exactlywas meant by no traveling? I guess it’spossible that I could have misunderstood this directive. I believe it would have been recorded in theminutes.
At the May Board meeting I distributed an excerpt from“Weathering the Economic Storm-Fiscal Challenges in Fire and EMS Services”,developed by a task force for the International Association of Fire Chiefs(IAFC). All staff members were required (directivefrom the Chief) to read this in preparation for our Strategic Focus meetingsthat were supposed to take place in December and were again reminded to readthis prior to strategic focus meeting which finally happened in March. The FireChief told staff it was an excellent guide to the economic times we were facingand felt it contained excellent information. In part, it provided pitfalls forfire chiefs to avoid during difficult economic times. PRIMARILY NOTED IN THIS GUIDE AS A PITFALL TOBE AVOIDED DURING TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES IS THE FIRING OF SUPPORT OR OFFICE STAFFAS AN IMMEDIATE REACTION TO PROPOSED STAFF REDUCTIONS. Well, I read it, for all thegood it did. I guess the IAFC doesn’t knowwhat they are talking about.
At this same meeting I also asked what cost savingmeasures were put in place since the layoffs. That question was not answered. The only thing I heard at the meeting regarding cost savings was thatthe fire commissioners meeting packets were now going to be sent to themelectronically in order to save postage. Wow, that would be approximately $10-$14 a month. I was the one who organized the packets andplaced the postage on them and it was rarely ever more than $2.00 a packet inpostage. You might as well throw that cost saving measure in with the savingson plastic utensils that were discontinued; on the other hand, it is a savings.
There are also other cost saving measures that could beaddressed by the District, but they are continually referred to as “pastpractices”. This means that althoughthey are not stipulated in the Union contract, they have been going on for aconsiderable length of time and cannot be changed. I always thought that wasridiculous. Leadership is afraid thatthe Union will file a grievance. Forheaven’s sake, get tough, the District is in financial trouble, and weren’t ourjobs past practices?
I truly wish I could recall some of the other cost savingmeasures, but these are the ones that stand out in my recollection. I’m sure a copy would be available for youfrom the District through a public records request. I hope this answers some of your questionsand if you have any further questions, please let me now.
Another day at the beach and another great day in SouthWalton!