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FDNY Cuts May Extinguish Fire Jobs

March 26, 2003

Pink slips will go out to civilian employees of the Fire Department if the Bloomberg administration accepts an FDNY plan to cut $23 million from its budget.

Source Courtesy of The New York Post

Pink slips will go out to civilian employees of the Fire Department if the Bloomberg administration accepts an FDNY plan to cut $23 million from its budget, Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said yesterday. "Our 'contingency' budget-reduction submissions includes reductions of non-civil-service personnel," Scoppetta told the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services.

Mayor Bloomberg has demanded that most uniformed agencies come up with another 2.5 percent in contingency cuts to help close the city's $3.4 billion budget gap. There are 4,343 civilians in the FDNY. Temporary workers and provisional employees without union protection would be the first to go.

"I don't think you find the unions being upset because they're not union membership," the commissioner said.

He said the civilians provide analysis and administrative support.

Some civilian staff will remain sacred cows.

"You can't start laying off the mechanics who maintain the engines and trucks. That's like taking companies out of service," the commissioner said.