CEDAR FALLS, IA—With the elimination of their positions finalized earlier this week, firefighters are asking the city to negotiate on the change to public safety officers.
Scott Dix, president of Cedar Falls Firefighters Local 1366, made the request to begin formal union negotiations in a letter sent to the city Wednesday. He is seeking a response by 5 p.m. Friday.
In the meantime, a firefighter transition task force is scheduled to begin meeting Friday to determine other career paths the city can offer the eight affected employees. The task force is set to meet for the first time at 7 a.m. in City Hall and will make its recommendations by April 1.
The firefighters have been on paid administrative leave since the City Council’s Monday night decision affirming its earlier vote to reorganize the public safety department. Council members overrode Mayor Rob Green’s veto of that earlier decision with a 5-2 super majority. That is resulting in immediate implementation of the full public safety officer model in Cedar Falls’ fire division, including elimination of traditional firefighter positions.
PSOs are police officers and firefighters cross-trained to perform duties in either division of Cedar Falls’ public safety department.
City Administrator Ron Gaines said the department is “in the process” of transferring PSOs to the fire division, so they can fill the jobs formerly held by the firefighters.
Dix argued in his letter that the personnel change requires city officials to bargain with the union under state law.
“The PSOs who are assigned to the fire station are assigned there full time,” he said in an interview. “They’re just changing out the people, not the job.”
Dix added that the firefighters are being laid off because they haven’t been certified as police officers, as the PSOs are.
“In-service training is a mandatory subject of bargaining,” he noted. “Up until now, they said you aren’t required to be a PSO.”
Dix pointed out that the Cedar Falls police officers’ contract through Teamsters Local 238 accounts for public safety officer positions, unlike the firefighters contract.
“They have only offered to discuss (such changes) through the labor management committee,” Dix said, calling that “meaningless” if it doesn’t result in a binding agreement. “They never offered to sit down and negotiate, and that’s the key word.”
Public Safety Director Jeff Olson said the firefighters union hasn’t offered to negotiate on the issue, either. He noted it was the police union that took the first step toward negotiations for their contract.
“Some time ago, when there were discussions about cross-training, the Teamsters actually approached the city and said we would be interested in negotiating for that public safety officer position,” he said. Later, the union negotiated the use of 24-hour shifts for PSOs in the fire division, allowing them to be there full time.
He acknowledged, though, that the department has sought labor-management discussions with the firefighters, which have been done “for years” with the police.
“We’ve asked many times to have a labor-management group where we can talk about all kinds of issues,” said Olson. “Frequently, what you can do in that is fix the molehills before they become mountains.”
Olson and Gaines said Wednesday they hadn’t seen the union’s request to negotiate and so couldn’t comment directly on it.
Dix said the union plans further steps if the city denies or ignores its request. “We will be taking some legal action immediately next week if the city chooses not to bargain,” he said.
PSO coverage
The sidelining of the firefighters won’t cause problems with covering station shifts, according to a public safety department statement issued late in the day Tuesday
“The status of 8 career firefighters will not affect the service or fire staffing levels in the days, weeks, or months to come,” it said. “Our fire stations continue to be staffed with highly-trained career firefighter supervisors, Public Safety Supervisors, and Public Safety Officers — all assigned to 24-hour shifts working exclusively at the fire stations.
“The team of professional police and firefighters employed by the city of Cedar Falls are committed to the safety of our community and stand ready to respond to emergencies.”
Gaines said PSOs who “have completed both police and fire training” and are currently working in the police division will move to the fire station.
The department is “going to fill the shifts so that they’ll have the adequate number on each shift,” he noted. “The City Council has authorized us to hire ahead, so we have the public safety officers ready to transfer over from police to fire.”
Under that authorization, “we hired to keep our staffing levels a little higher,” said Olson, to fill positions as employees become eligible for retirement. The department averages about four vacancies per year “from people retiring or leaving for other reasons,” he explained.
One of the potential ways firefighters could transition out of their current jobs and continue working for the city is to become PSOs. That is expected to be part of the recommendation made by the task force. Green released a memorandum after the council overrode his veto Monday detailing the group’s makeup and charge.
Members include nonvoting presiding officer Frank Darrah, Ward 5 council member and mayor pro-tempore; Simon Harding, Ward 4 council member; Kevin Rogers, city attorney; Jennifer Rodenbeck, director of finance and business operations; Craig Berte, acting police chief; and Brian Heath, operations and maintenance division manager.
The task force plans three public two-hour meetings in the Duke Young Conference Room at City Hall. There are two other tentative meetings planned if needed. Green and/or Gaines are expected to be in attendance at each meeting.
In the memorandum, Green said the group will recommend “a plan of equitable outcomes” for the displaced firefighters. “These outcomes shall include a proposed plan for transitioning former firefighters to other career paths within the city of Cedar Falls, if desired by the employee.” If any leave city employment, they will be offered a separation package of six months pay and six months of health insurance.
To become a PSO, the firefighters “would actually have to go through the same process that a new applicant would go through,” said Gaines, as required under state law for police recruits. That would include a physical fitness test, a written exam, an initial interview, a criminal history check and a background check before going through the formal interview process. After making it through those steps, they would be eligible to enroll in the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy, which provides required training for police.
It’s not clear how many of the firefighters would be interested in going through those steps to serve as a PSO.
“I actually don’t know how many are interested but, yeah, I certainly think there are some that would be a good fit,” said Olson.
Dix couldn’t answer that question, either. “We haven’t surveyed our membership on it yet,” he said.
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