N.Y. Dept. Paying 'Record Breaking' Firefighter Overtime

Firefighters in the City of Lackawanna are earning overtime at a "record-breaking pace" that could end up costing the city 75 percent more taxpayer dollars than officials had budgeted in 2011-12, Mayor Geoffrey M. Szymanski said in his State of the City address Monday.

"There will always be overtime," Szymanski said. "But in the Fire Department, it's becoming a major problem, and it has to be adjusted."

The city's 45 firefighters are on pace to earn $550,000 in overtime -- an average of $12,222 per firefighter and a quarter of a million dollars more than the 2011-12 budget allows.

The Fire Department in previous years has exceed its budget for overtime, Szymanski said.

"This is not new, but the size [of the overtime] is unnatural and alarming," he said.

Szymanski said staffing problems were partly to blame, but he also cited "systematic problems" in the department that he planned to address with Fire Chief Ralph J. Galanti.

Szymanski, a former 2nd Ward Council member who was elected last fall to succeed Norman L. Polanski as mayor, gave his first State of the City address late Monday in City Council chambers with about 45 people in attendance.

Afterward, Galanti said in an interview that the department needs more staff and that things have gotten worse due to several injuries on the force.

"We're undermanned. We were undermanned last year, and we did have several injuries on duty in which there was lost time. So we're even more undermanned when they're not there," Galanti said.

Two firefighters are out of work due to on-the-job injuries, he said.

The city's contract with the Lackawanna Professional Firefighters Union calls for a minimum of nine firefighters on duty at all times.

So anytime two firefighters in a 10-man platoon call in sick, another firefighter must be called in on overtime pay, Galanti said.

The mayor recently filled an open firefighting post. Following 10 weeks of training, the new recruit should be ready to join the force in mid-May, and his presence will cut down on overtime.

Despite the explosion in overtime, Szymanski said, the city should be left with a "healthy fund balance" of about $4 million at the close of the budget year at the end of June.

The city is seeing massive savings in its Public Works Department due to the unseasonably mild weather, Szymanski said.

However, the state's recent yellow flagging of a bridge on Ridge Road, near Rosary Street, will require a deck replacement and is estimated to cost $1.5 million, he said.

The mayor also reported that he plans to limit the amount of spending on outside legal counsel. The city spent about $250,000 in legal fees in 2011, he said.

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