Firefighters complained to the City Council on Tuesday evening about a lack of communication, flagging morale and other problems they blame on Fire Chief Don Crowson and the Arlington Fire Department leadership.
The speakers were among about 40 members of the Arlington Professional Fire Fighters Association at the meeting. A similar number turned out for the Aug. 2 council meeting to voice similar concerns and to question the delay in releasing a study aimed at improving labor relations.
That study has been released, but the frustration apparently hasn’t eased. The consensus Tuesday seemed to be that the problems are not fixable under the current leadership.
“I’m afraid people will start leaving [for other fire departments] … and afraid that people won’t want to apply here anymore because of the reputation we have,” Jonathan Miller, an eight-year Arlington firefighter and one of six speakers, told the council.
“I’ve seen the Fire Department’s shortcomings here being placed on the backs of the employees, and the blame placed there as well. It’s unfair and shameful.”
After the meeting, association President David Crow said the study by Coleman and Associates in Dallas addressed “exactly the concerns we had — a lack of communication, lack of willingness from our administration to work with labor and with the organization as a whole, and to be transparent.”
But Crow said he’s not optimistic about improvements.
“We’ve been working for five years with the current chief and leadership with no success, and we feel like we’re moving further backward,” he said.
The association counts all but about 10 of the department’s 323 firefighters as dues-paying members.
Crowson acknowledges problems in the department, which he blames mostly on his decision to drastically cut the overtime budget, an extra paycheck boost that for some firefighters reached “tens of thousands of dollars” a year.
“Overtime has been a morale impact,” Crowson said before the meeting. “Money is important to people, and I understand that. But one of my primary obligations is to make sure the organization is run efficiently.”
Crowson said he reduced overtime expenses from $3.1 million in fiscal 2015-16 fto about $1.5 million so far this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. But there are other problems, he said, adding that he hopes the study will provide “insights … that will help me do better to help us work through these difficult issues, without becoming an unnecessary distraction for the organization.”
Crowson said of his firefighters and other employees: “These are good people reacting to the overtime issue. I hold them in the highest regard and understand how they feel.”
In a four-page response to the Coleman study, Crowson vowed to take recommendations seriously and proposed hiring a “specialized consultant” to assess the department leadership, “including myself,” and develop a long-term plan addressing 10 points in the study, including the department climate, reputation, core values, mission, leadership philosophy and “complaints about toxic leadership.”
Proposed tax rate
Also Tuesday, the council conducted the first of two public hearings on the proposed property tax rate for fiscal 2017. The council proposes cutting about one-third of a penny from the current rate of 64.80 cents per $100 of assessed value, lowering the rate to 64.48 cents.
It would be the first reduction in the property tax rate in 17 years.
Many area cities are looking at tax rate cuts to offset large gains in property values over the past year. Arlington would have to lower its tax rate to 60.5738 cents, the effective tax rate, to offset all of its property tax revenue gains based on the higher property values.
Arlington officials say the added revenue is needed — $5.9 million to start a three-year program of employee pay raises, and more than $2 million for a body-worn camera program for the police department.
The only speaker at the hearing was Richard Weber, who urged the council to reduce the tax rate to the effective tax rate.
The city’s preliminary operating budget, or general fund, for fiscal year 2017 is is $234.4 million, a 5.6 increase over the $221.9 million operating budget for the current fiscal year.
The budget will be the topic of a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m.Thursday at the Arlington Municipal Airport, 5000 S. Collins St.
Robert Cadwallader: 817-390-7186, @Kaddmann_ST
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