ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Cost cuts are heading off feared staff reductions in the police department, but layoffs in the fire department loomed Tuesday as the firefighters' union and City Hall traded accusations over pension shortfalls.
Meanwhile, Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson provided more detail on what the cuts would mean. He said crews already are working longer hours without extra pay to fill gaps left by past years' cuts. To avoid paying future overtime and to keep each vehicle fully staffed, he said, the number of fire companies may be reduced.
The department, already down 20 from its authorized strength of 631, could lose 30 more to layoffs under the city's proposal. It takes 15 to provide around-the-clock staffing of four for each pumper or hook-and-ladder truck.
Jenkerson said the proposed cuts would take the department to a staff level it held for about 12 years, before two classes of recruits were trained in 2008 and 2009. Layoffs will be by seniority.
"Our whole class would be gone," lamented Aaron Buchanan, who said he abandoned a six-figure job and home in St. Louis County to be a city firefighter. He said three of those 23 would be spared because they previously worked other city jobs.
Chris Molitor, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 73, warned Tuesday at a news conference at union headquarters that the cuts, announced Monday by the city, "will put everyone's lives in danger."
There was better news at police headquarters.
Police Chief Dan Isom warned the Board of Police Commissioners last month that 65 officers might be lost through attrition because of $1 million in funding cuts. But Jeff Rainford, the chief of staff for Mayor Francis Slay, said that manpower is spared.
Rainford said Isom found new cuts: A health insurance change that saves about $1.4 million, a scholarship program cut that saves nearly $175,000 and deferred payouts for accrued sick leave, vacation time and other owed days that will save about $1 million.
Isom declined to comment before briefing the Police Board today.
Said Rainford: "We absolutely do not think we can get by with fewer police officers."
Jenkerson, the fire chief, said it will be "very difficult" to have fewer firefighters. But he did not take the same fiery tone as the union president.
"I see both sides," he explained. "I understand there's a budget deficit; I also understand the fire department has to provide for the city."
The department has applied for a federal grant that Jenkerson said could help avoid all the proposed cuts. "I feel more positive about it than negative," he suggested.
He said manpower has been artificially high because firefighters had already given up vacations and other time off as a way to make up for positions lost through attrition. Also, firefighters who had been working 52-hour weeks on average started working 56.
The two moves allowed the department to pay almost nothing in overtime while still manning the same amount of equipment with the nationally recommended four firefighters each.
Prior to 2009, the department had to "brown out," a term for running fewer pieces of equipment in order to keep proper staffing on each. Jenkerson said that may happen again. But he pledged, "The fire department has been here for 150 years and will continue to respond when people call."
Asked about closing some of the 30 stations, the chief said, "I will do everything I possibly can to avoid that." He had no answer yet to how changes might affect mutual aid agreements with neighboring departments.
The fire layoff announcement followed nine months of negotiations that frustrated both sides.
The Fire Retirement System took a heavy hit when the stock market fell. It lost nearly $170 million in adjusted value in 2008-09, falling to about $390 million last year, according to actuarial reports.
City payments to the fund rose from $6 million, or about one-eighth of the fire department's budget, in 2001, to $23 million next fiscal year, about one-third of the department's budget, according to city figures.
The city wants to hold the fire budget at its current $74.4 million. Officials asked the union to help find a way to keep pension costs from continuing to rise so quickly.
Rainford said Tuesday that there is not enough time to get legislative approval for any fundamental fire pension changes this year, leaving the city's financial health on the line.
The fire department is on track to overspend by more than $2 million this year, Rainford said, and the city will have to pay $4.7 million more to float pensions next year. The city only has $6 million in reserves, he said.
Molitor, the union president, accused the city of not negotiating in good faith. He said members continue to meet city requests -- taking pay freezes and benefit cuts --without recognition from Slay or his staff.
He also said firefighters have higher pension costs because they retire earlier due to the physically taxing nature of the job.
Molitor said the rift with city officials has become "personal," adding, "I don't think they truly had any interest in coming to an agreement with us."
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
