After an emotional, divisive campaign over staffing levels, relieved and happy firefighters will be joined by at least five new colleagues. Royal Oak residents voted Nov. 2 to amend the city charter to require at least 1.17 firefighters for every 1,000 residents. The proposal was approved 18,244 to 15,088 according to unofficial vote tallies, and would bring the department's total number of firefighters to at least 70.
City officials, on the other hand, are beginning discussions on how they will handle the added cost and what impact that might have on city services.
Royal Oak Mayor Jim Ellison said last week he expected City Manager Tom Hoover would present a framework for hiring the additional firefighters at Monday's City Commission meeting. Ellison said money spent on new hires could adversely affect some of the city's other departments.
The total cost of hiring new firefighters would amount to between $400,000 and $500,000 a year, according to Finance Director Rick Eva.
"We can't add five firefighters without cutting somewhere, so this is going to hurt," Ellison said. "We're going to try to spread the hurt around. It's not going to be pretty."
Layoffs, said Ellison, were not certain but something the commission would likely discuss, especially as planning for the 2005-06 general fund budget nears in the spring.
Ben Upton, president of the Royal Oak Firefighters Union, said some of the money spent on new firefighters could be made up through a reduction in overtime.
Last year, the city spent about $385,000 in overtime for the fire department, said Eva. Fire Chief Richard Strehlke had said he wanted more firefighters when the city budget allowed for it and not through the proposal. But he also said the extra firefighters hired as a result of the ballot measure should help reduce the amount spent on overtime.
He said the additional firefighters may allow the minimum number of firefighters per day to increase from 16 to 18, which had been the norm before the department lost firefighters through unfilled vacancies last year.
Hoover said the city had already expected a deficit of $5.5 million for the coming 2005-06 fiscal year and predicted it would approach $6 million with the addition of the new firefighters.
Royal Oak currently operates on a budget of roughly $30 million, with about $6 million of that allocated to the fire department, according to Strehlke.
Strehlke also said there is a possibility of reinstating the city's fourth fire engine, which has not been running for the past year because of staffing issues. That, said Strehlke, would likely reduce the response time when there are simultaneous calls for help.
Last year, the fire department made a total of 5,002 runs, according to Strehlke. He estimated response times range between four and six minutes.
The vacancy in jobs has been citywide in Royal Oak. Eva said the city had 283 employees funded by the general budget on Aug. 31, down from 318 workers in June 2002.
The Department of Public Services, for instance, has lost 11 positions in the past couple of years, said Chuck Bonar, president of the local branch of the Service Employees International Union, which is composed of city employees from the DPS.
He said that his union members opposed the proposal on firefighter staffing because they fretted that its passage would take money away from the DPS and jeopardize their jobs.
There is no national guideline for firefighter staffing in a city, but the median number of firefighters for cities the size of Royal Oak is 1.4 firefighters for every 1,000 residents according to Margie Coloian, spokeswoman for the National Fire Protection Association.
This is still higher than the 1.17 firefighters per 1,000 residents Royal Oak will receive after the proposal's passage.
Still, on Election Day good feelings coursed through the Royal Oak Elks Lodge on Fourth, where roughly 40 off-duty firefighters and their families learned of their victory.
"This will let us get back to the business of taking care of the people of Royal Oak," Upton said of the win.
