After learning the hard way that closed fire stations can slow responses to fires, city officials last month celebrated an almost $8.2 million federal grant that would pay for recalling laid-off firefighters and hiring more.
Now, they plan to reject about a third of the money.
The grant was enough to pay for calling back 29 laid-off firefighters plus one on military leave and for adding 20 new firefighters -- a total of 50 -- for two years, but Mr. Doherty decided to decline the money for the new firefighters because the city could not afford to keep paying them after the two years and because the city would have to pay unemployment benefits when they were laid off.
It is unclear whether the city will be able to afford to keep all the other 29 after two years.
"When we submitted the grant, we asked for 50 (more firefighters) because that's what we used to have, 150 (firefighters)," Mr. Doherty said. "Two years from now, you've got to lay them off, and that's at 66 percent (of their salary for unemployment). It costs money (even when firefighters are laid off)."
The city is self-insured for unemployment compensation insurance, meaning it pays all unemployment claims.
The city has 113 firefighters, Fire Chief Tom Davis said. The 29 laid-off firefighters include 12 who were recalled in March after a slow response to an East Mountain fire convinced the mayor to call them back to work. The response was slowed by the rotating closing of firehouses because of a lack of firefighters.
The grant is a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant from the Department of Homeland Security. SAFER grants help communities comply with staffing, response and operational standards established by the National Fire Protection Association and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The city applied for the $8,175,860 grant in February, and received word from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that the entire grant was approved in late May. By turning back part of the grant, the city will keep $5,068,080 to keep the recalled firefighters, Deputy Fire Chief Allen Lucas said.
The other $3,107,780 was for the 20 new firefighters, whose second-year salary would be $70,702, he said.
At that salary, if the city laid off all 20 and all 20 were unemployed for a full year, the city would pay $47,134 each for a year's worth of unemployment benefits, or about $942,680.
City firefighters union President John Judge criticized the mayor for turning back "free money" because the grant pays for all costs of the firefighters while they are working for the city.
"No cost to the city," said Mr. Judge, who works on the city Fire Department's rescue truck. "It's ridiculous."
He said the city will not necessarily be left needing to pay any more to keep any of the 48 new firefighters than it is paying now.
In two years, 42 firefighters will have reached the minimum of 25 years of service necessary for retirement, Mr. Judge said. Currently, about four firefighters a year retire, he said.
With the city's contract with its firefighters expiring in two years, most of the 42 firefighters will retire because of the uncertainty of future contracts, Mr. Judge predicted. That's what happened as the last contract expired, he said.
With the federal money, the city could have up to 50 trained firefighters ready to replace the 42, he said.
If most of the 42 retire, the cost of keeping those who don't and the unemployment costs would be sharply reduced, Mr. Judge said.
But city officials point to 19 of the 42 firefighters who are already eligible for retirement and still have not retired. Many of the 42 will be eligible for retirement, but not yet eligible to collect a pension because not all will be at least 55 years old, the other pension requirement.
"That doesn't mean they'll all go," Chief Davis said. "I don't see any of them retiring."
Mr. Doherty acknowledged he might be able to keep some of the 29 firefighters on after two years because of retirements, but said the more critical point is the 29 to keep the department properly staffed.
"The key thing with the 29 is that's pretty much the number we need for safety," he said.
Mr. Judge disputed that. Because the grant requires four firefighters on a truck, the national standard, the recalled firefighters will be used to properly staff trucks rather than reopening fire stations, he said. He predicted the rotating firehouse closings will continue and the Keyser Valley and Hill Section will eventually have a fire with a slowed response time, he said. They are the two sections most often affected by closed firehouses, he said.
"It's only a matter of time before there's a catastrophe," Mr. Judge said.
Chief Davis said that is untrue. The recalled firefighters should end the wave of firehouse rotating closings that followed the 29 layoffs, he said.
The chief said he is hoping to have the 17 remaining laid-off firefighters back to work by the end of the month.
Efforts to reach U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who helped the city obtain the grant, were unsuccessful.
Copyright 2012 - The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
