Clock Ticking on NY Firefighter Staffing Decision

With a March 6 filing by state Supreme Court Justice Frank Caruso, the clock is now ticking as the City of Lockport decides whether to appeal or implement an arbitrator's decision that says the city must raise minimum shift staffing at Lockport Fire Department to nine firefighters from six.

On Feb. 6, Caruso had ruled against the city's appeal of the arbitrator's decision without offering any reasoning. Caruso's filing late last week doesn't offer any reasoning for his decision either, but it formally set the clock at 30 days for the city to react.

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City Attorney David Haylett said the city now has until April 6 to decide whether to appeal to the appellate division in Rochester or implement the arbitrator's ruling.

Haylett said he has had informal discussions with individual council members and Mayor Michelle Roman, and expects conversations will take place during future meetings on what to do.

Haylett noted that if the city decides to appeal the arbitrator's decision again, it doesn't need to have its arguments ready within 30 days, but rather have a notice of appeal filed.

The 2020 city budget does not contain funding for 12 additional firefighter posts, but there are some contingency plans that can be explored, 1st Ward Alderman Joseph Oates, finance committee chair, said previously.

In the city's appeal, filed in December, outside counsel Bryan Goldberger called arbitrator Michael Lewandowski's opinion and award "totally irrational," offering several reasons why the city should not be forced to increase LFD's minimum staffing level.

He argued that the city did not violate its contract with Lockport Professional Firefighters Association because its elimination of one ambulance and then elimination of the city fire department's ambulance service in 2014 constituted a change in "apparatus or other relevant circumstance."

In addition, Goldberger argued that the remedy imposed by Lewandowski is "violative of strong public policy" and the city's reason for reducing staffing in 2014 — fiscal stress — should be taken into consideration.

In 2014, mayor Anne McCaffrey's administration ordered LFD's ambulance service shut down amid the city's fiscal crisis and cut the department's minimum staffing level from nine to six firefighters per shift. The firefighters union sued to restore the staffing level to nine per shift and, after an administrative law judge ruled against the city, it was determined that the city and the union had to negotiate the staffing issue — which they did by seeking arbitration.

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