Bronson Chief Withdrawing $10,400 Back Pay Request ..for Now

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

Bronson Fire Chief Dennis Russell said Saturday he is planning to withdraw a request he made to the Town Council on March 7 to be reimbursed for $10,400 of back pay he says was wrongfully taken from him by a previous mayor but will add it to next year’s budget.

“I have talked to my attorney and I could sue but that would hurt the city and everyone,” he said. “I’m going to let it ride until next year and put it in that budget. If they don’t give me the money, I’ll see where it goes from there,” Russell said in an interview.

Russell, a volunteer fire chief who holds a full-time job as maintenance director for the Levy County Department of Public Safety, said former Mayor Bruce Greenlee took away part of his pay in 2006. Russell asked two previous town clerks to take the issue of back pay to the council for action but they never brought it forward.

Deputy Clerk Wendy Maragh told council members the town hasn’t budgeted for the $10,400 and it can’t afford to take the money out of its general operating budget to reimburse the fire chief. Town Manager Susan Beaudet said that’s why the town paid for a study to determine if a special assessment on property could help fund the fire department.

“Remember this is the whole reason we’re doing the fire assessment because we don’t have anything to support this fire department right now,” Beaudet said.

The town contributes money from property taxes to the Bronson Volunteer Fire Department and the Levy County Commission provides money from its fire tax to assist in funding the fire department budget.

When Russell took over as chief in 2012, he said he was earning a $30 stipend for working a 12-hour shift plus $12 per call. The stipend has risen to $50 per 12-hour shift over the years and the per call payment to $14. He said Greenlee took the stipend away from him.

“The only explanation I got is, that he did it to pay the guy’s more money,” Russell said, referring to rank and file volunteer firefighters. “I’m not going to worry about it. I’m going to let it ride and put it in next year’s budget.”

The fiscal year for cities and the Levy County Commission starts on Oct. 1 every year and ends the following Sept. 30. Preparations for department budgets and the overall 2021-22 town budget should begin relatively soon.

Russell said when Beaudet took over as town manager in February of last year he brought the issue to her. She is the only administrator who has examined the backpay issue and started discussions with the council.

“I’m asking for it to be corrected, to go back to the way it originally was and reinstate the stipend in my contract,” he said. “I feel money’s not everything; I’ve done a lot for the city. I got us that $2 million firehouse, and a $230,000 fire truck for $14,000. I’ve done a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with me as a volunteer,” he said.

Russell is asking to be reimbursed for the stipend going back to the start of the 2020 fiscal year. He said he runs four shifts every week for which he isn’t receiving the stipend.

He is currently confined to desk duty due to a spider bite that led to surgery on one of his feet. Beaudet and the town council have ordered him to stay away from active firefighting until he can get a doctor’s note saying he can fight fires.

Maragh said the town currently spends about $900 to $1,200 monthly on volunteer firefighter pay and she said it can barely afford those salaries, much less the back pay Russell wants.

“It pushes the budget,” she said. “The issue is that the fire department doesn’t have any income, so when you have the firefighters making between $900 and $1,200 a month (total for all firefighters), there’s no income to cover that reimbursement on top of your supplies.”

Partin told Russell they need to sit down and talk.

“We need to look at some real numbers in the budget because we don’t have anything in the budget for it. This is not Washington, D.C.” Partin said.