Jan. 18--The city said Friday it was reversing its plan to reassign firefighters in the Tulsa Fire Department's Public Education Unit, saying it wants to avoid a costly legal battle.
The city's announcement came after the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 176 rejected a city offer regarding the planned job changes. The union sought a restraining order in Tulsa County District Court to prevent the city from enacting its job-reassignment plan.
"City management has decided to avoid costly litigation and reinstate four firefighters to special assignments within the public education unit of the TFD Administrative Division," said Kim MacLeod, a city spokeswoman, in a written statement.
As part of a larger city plan to cut up to $7 million from the city budget, Fire Chief Ray Driskell had proposed shifting the four full-time employees in those positions back to the field as firefighters.
"By moving the public education officers to the field and shifting personnel in other areas, the Fire Department expected to save $327,000, primarily in overtime cost recovery," the statement says. "The positions were not to be abolished, but would have been filled by light-duty firefighters."
The city's statement concludes by saying: "Potential savings will be identified and proposed at a later date."
Chad Miller, president of the firefighters union, has said the city's proposed job changes were negotiable items under the city contract. Miller said changing the unit from its present full-time status would affect public safety.
"The city can afford to protect its citizens and firefighters at the levels we all deserve, and our members will not agree to proposals that sell our safety short," Miller said.
City officials said the job shifts would not affect public safety.
The Public Education Unit makes safety presentations to schools and other groups, as well as distributes smoke detectors after fatal fires. It includes Tom Hufford, who created a fire safety character known as Huffy the Clown.
Miller called the city's decision to reverse its job reassignments "definitely a win -- there's no doubt about that -- for the firefighters and the public." He said the union would wait to receive official notice from the city before taking further legal steps.
Miller said the city did not discuss its budget-cutting plan with the union before issuing it recently.
"We have always been willing to sit down and have those types of discussions. We've never refused to sit down at the table to talk," he said.
However, he said the city's budget cuts "are a result of City Finance failing to properly estimate revenues and expenses for the year."
"Our city is not in the midst of a recession as it was in 2009 and 2010. In fact, the economy has seen steady growth along with sales-tax revenues over last year's collections," Miller said.
Other job changes planned by the city included reassigning two Fire Department units that supply extra equipment such as oxygen tanks and breathing equipment at fires.
Miller noted that the city's news release made no mention of those job shifts.
The city had already shelved its plan to shift the firefighters union president's position back to the field as a firefighter. An agreement between the city and police and fire unions specifies that those jobs are full-time positions.
The union had offered a proposal to save money by delaying a firefighter training academy planned for February. Mayor Dewey Bartlett rejected that option, the city's statement says.
"The class of 12 has already been recruited, and they are needed in the field to ensure firefighter and citizen safety," Bartlett said in the statement. "Delaying the academy will not be included in proposed reductions going forward. Potential savings will be identified and proposed at a later date."
Miller had questioned the timing of the city's decision to shift Fire Department personnel, which followed his public statements about the city's malfunctioning dispatch system. As the Tulsa World has reported, city records show that the new $2 million system has delayed and dropped some fire and medical calls due to technical issues.
City officials have said they have the technical problems with the TriTech computer-aided dispatch system largely fixed. They said human error caused a crash Monday night that forced dispatchers to rely on a paper backup system.
Ziva Branstetter 918-581-8306
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