Jan. 17--The city's firefighters are pushing for the City Council to put civil service rules -- which establish the hiring, firing, and promotion criteria for fire and police departments in cities where the voters have approved them -- on May's ballot.
It's a move City Manager Kent Cagle has opposed vocally, arguing civil service is "an expensive, bureaucratic mess that does not improve public safety."
The City Council will discuss the proposal Thursday night but is not yet set to take any action, which it will need to do to put the issue on the ballot.
The Leander Professional Firefighters Association said the civil service rules will become necessary as the city continues to grow. Most cities in Williamson County eligible to adopt the rules -- restricted to those with populations of 10,000 or more -- have done so, including Cedar Park, Round Rock and Georgetown.
Austin's police and fire departments have had civil service for decades.
"The system we have is great for a small town, but as the city continues to grow -- and is expected to boom -- we think now is the right time," Kirke Phillips, the association president, said. "We need some assurances. It's just the next normal step when cities go from 7,000 people to 30,000 people in a decade."
Phillips said all 27 firefighters in the association support the move. All but one Leander firefighter are members of the association, Phillips said.
But Cagle, who gave a presentation opposing civil service at a City Council meeting earlier this month, said civil service relies too heavily on exams for promotion, which can often lead to lengthy legal battles. He also feared the loss of the city's volunteer firefighters.
"You promote the people that are the best test takers. That does not mean they'll be the best leader, the best boss," Cagle, who has worked in cities with civil service, said.
Cagle projected that it could cost more than $1 million annually to implement civil service, because of the way the rules affect vacation and sick leave, because the rules would require the city designate a civil service director and because of potential legal fees. Cagle's projection also includes the cost of replacing volunteer firefighters with paid firefighters.
Texas State Association of Fire Fighters spokesman Joe Singer said none of Texas' 76 cities with civil service had to raise taxes after adopting the rules.
Phillips argued Cagle's projection is a worst-case scenario and said the Leander firefighter association would want to work with the city to keep volunteers working.
"We're not doing this because there's any belief there's enough money to hire 20 firefighters," Phillips said.
The city's fire department started as an all-volunteer force in 1965, Phillips said. Fire fighters weren't paid for their work in Leander until 2001, he said. The city's many volunteers work similar shifts to paid firefighters, rather than being on-call.
"Leander is very different than other cities. You can't tell who the volunteer firefighter or who the paid firefighter is," Phillips said. "We see a positive financial impact to them staying."
Phillips said that if civil service is approved by voters, the association would request that the City Council grant them "meet and confer" rights so the association could negotiate contracts to keep volunteers on board.
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