NY Firefighters Besiege City Council Meeting

July 10 -- NEWBURGH, NY – Frustrated Newburgh firefighters besieged the City Council meeting on Monday night, driven by Mayor Torrance Harvey's suggestion that the administration study having one engine "on call," a spending freeze blamed on overtime spending by the police and fire departments, and the potential layoff of nine firefighters at the end of the month.

Sign-carrying firefighters, some with family, flanked the entrance to Newburgh's Activity Center before the meeting and some lined the sidewalk along Washington Street.

This year's budget was balanced with anticipated overtime cuts of $424,000 for the police department and $322,000 for the fire department, but neither department is on pace to achieve those reductions, according to Comptroller Kathryn Mack.

The fire department, whose overtime spending last year totaled nearly $1 million, has been "portrayed as financially ruining the city," said Brendan Hogan, president of Local 589 of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

"We're OK sitting there and listening to that every week, but when we have the mayor sit there and talk about well maybe we'll shut down a company for a night or for a day to help save some money, that's unacceptable," Hogan said.

During discussions about fire department overtime and the spending freeze last Thursday, Harvey raised the idea of studying overnight fire-call data and the impact of keeping one of two engine trucks offline from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. unless there was a call.

Acting Chief Terry Ahlers said during the work session that the idea was tried in the 1980s and "we burned half the city down."

On Monday, Harvey said that public safety is the city's top priority and that there were no plans to eliminate any trucks.

"They were just questions that were brought up in the work session, which is what we're supposed to do," he said. "Unfortunately, our acting chief went to social media and made statements that were not true."

Another emotional issue is the looming layoffs of nine firefighters who were hired using a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response program.

An initial grant awarded in 2014 enabled Newburgh to hire 15 additional firefighters, and FEMA approved a second award in 2016 as money from the first grant ran out and city faced laying off firefighters holding 12 of the new positions.

In April, again facing the layoff of a dozen firefighters, Newburgh's City Council voted to apply for a third grant from the SAFER program. This time Newburgh's Council approved adding three of the firefighters to the city's budget and asking FEMA to cover the other nine positions.

Disappointed fire officials and U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney had been urging Newburgh to take on the cost of half those scheduled for layoffs, a step they said would increase the likelihood of another FEMA grant.

A decision by FEMA is expected soon.

"While I'm glad the city council has opted to save three jobs, I remain concerned that this will be viewed as a half-measure by FEMA and make securing these federal investments less likely," Maloney said on Monday.

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