By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Chiefland City Commissioners Monday were hit with a big request from their fire chief for additional pay to keep firefighters from leaving for better-paying jobs in other counties, but Mayor Chris Jones asked for time to study the situation before making a final decision in the middle of the budget year.
“It would be absurd for this commission to do something reckless and Mr. Witt gets a chance to write an article how we messed up our budget. That’s my concern,” Jones said.
The fire department is asking to raise the base pay of firefighter/emergency medical technicians from $32,120 to $43,000 and the salaries of their three captains to $37,778, $36,850, and $39,064. The pay hike would increase the city’s fire department payroll costs by $44,420 for the remaining six months of this fiscal year and twice that much next year.
Most of the city commission meeting room was filled with firefighters and their supporters, and families, an indication of the importance of the issue. Harris said the large turnout of firefighters, their supporters, and family wasn’t to pressure the board. He said the big turnout shows the importance of the issue to his department and the firefighters.
Harris said his small department is down one firefighter since November and hasn’t been able to fill the position, and last week one of his captains gave his two-week notice to go to work for another fire rescue department that pays more money, leaving him shorthanded. He has been unable to attract applicants. He said if the department doesn’t have enough firefighters to respond to calls, the city will lose its ISO fire rating. The ISO is an indication of firefighting readiness and influences how much residents pay to insure their homes and businesses.
“What are we going to do when we can’t run the calls. The county’s paying us, Otter Creek’s paying us, we’re under contract to provide automatic aid to all the departments around us. I don’t have a clue about what we’re going to do. I don’t have any answers. I’m sorry to say that,” Harris said.
Firefighters at the meeting said higher pay is a statewide issue, which is true, but the pay issue grew politically hotter in this region when Citrus County switched from a private pay ambulance service to a public ambulance service in 2022 and immediately offered salaries that attracted a couple of experienced Levy County EMS paramedics to work in Citrus County.
Levy County was in negotiations with its EMS labor union at the time Citrus County began offering higher wages. The International Association of Firefighters Local 4069 represents Levy County paramedics and EMT. The Levy County commission saw the statewide trend of EMS employees and firefighters getting much higher wages and knew they were having trouble attracting workers. They were also concerned that one of its seven ambulances had been shut down due to a shortage of Levy County paramedics. The ambulance isn’t back in operation yet but County Coordinator Wilbur Dean said Tuesday the county has plenty of applications. He said it takes a while for background checks to go through.
During tough union negotiations, the commission offered the IAFF a $4 per hour raise this year and a $1 per hour raise on Oct. 1, 2023. The union accepted the offer, with some senior union leaders grumbling about benefits they wanted to keep but couldn’t, but the contract was signed by both sides. The first paychecks from the raise will be given in April. That contract has triggered a similar pay raise in Dixie County EMS and it is undoubtedly influencing what is happening in Chiefland.
Chiefland is less than a month away from starting its annual budget process, which ends on Sept. 30. The new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. The city implemented its first fire special assessment last year. Every residence pays the $129 fire tax, just like rural residents in the county. The question for the city is whether it should raise the salaries of its firefighters and captains before the city loses any more personnel or wait until the fire assessment can be raised during the budget process if it is raised. The city runs the risk of losing more firefighters and weakening its firefighting capabilities if it waits too long.
Jones said he is aware that Dixie County dipped into his federal stimulus funding to pay for the increase in firefighter/EMTs, but he said it was for a one-year term, not for the long haul. Dixie County recently published an advertisement offering a starting salary for firefighter/EMTs of $43,086 to $49,766 and paramedics a starting salary of $48,096 to $54,776.
Levy County is offering a starting salary of $46,592 for an EMT, with a raise to $47,989 after 1 year and a raise to $52,317 in 2023. A firefighter/EMTs would start at $48,528 and would see their pay increase to $49,983 after the first year and to $53,016 in 2023.
A Levy County paramedic starts at $53,248 and gets a raise to $54,845 after the first year and to $58,173 in the third year. Firefighter/paramedics get a starting salary of $54,593, a raise to $56,231 the second year, and to $59,264 the third year.
Chiefland receives funding from the county commission to run fire calls outside the city limits in a specific district and also must respond to mutual aid calls, but Harris noted that the city doesn’t get any money from the county for responding to EMS calls which make up the bulk of its call load.
Jones plans to meet privately with Harris to discuss the situation with firefighter pay. It’s unclear at this point what the board will do. Jones said he would prefer not to dip into stimulus money just to get through the current year. If the city were to raise the fire assessment, it wouldn’t see the increased dollars until after the first of the year in 2023.
“This is a bad deal. I hate to say it. I don’t really agree with raising it up this much. I don’t agree with it. People can’t afford it. When you look at how much inflation has gone up – I think the number is 7.9 percent, and you have gas,” he said.
Harris said this is a commission decision, not his decision.
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City of Chiefland Regular Meeting March 28, 2022; Posted March 29, 2022
