Guest MINDSETTER ™ Tom Kenney: Show Me the Money! Show Me the Savings!
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
Mayor Elorza, no doubt pushed by his COO Brett Smiley, began what Providence firefighters consider a personal attack – a restructuring of the Providence Fire Department to eliminate overtime.
We consider it a personal attack because the numbers don’t even come close to saving any money, much less $5-6 million per year. First of all, the overtime problem within the PFD is a City choice – always has been. The past mayors have chosen to pay overtime because they believe that this is cheaper than fully staffing the department. I don’t know at which point in paying overtime that it becomes more costly than new hires, but it is always the choice of the City, not the Providence firefighters’ union.
As for the actual #’s supporting or disproving the savings, I submit the following in very rough (but real) numbers.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST400 FF’s x 30%+ raise ($300+) x 52 = $6,240,000 per year…..where's the savings?
Truly Befuddling
It befuddles me as to why the Mayor claims that he will save $5-6 million a year. It seems to me that it would be a wash at best for the City.
On the other hand there is a lot at risk for the City if they continue down this path. I believe that the providence firefighters will never stop fighting this change, no matter what the monetary offer on the table. This change forces enormous life style changes and family changes on our members. If the City loses this battle in court or arbitration the retroactive payment due to the firefighters will be around $12 million per year this schedule remains in effect – plus interest.
The City’s latest strategy asks the court to call the present union contract as null and void. If this happens, the pension concessions Local799 has given to the City as part of these contracts would also be null and void. The result of this would add $200 million dollars the pension system’s unfunded liability.
On top of this there were concessions in each of the last 5 yearly contracts that could also be considered null and void forcing the City to repay Providence firefighters $5-6 million p/year affected.
These possible costs to the City could very well plunge the City into financial chaos. Is it worth the gamble? I would say that, especially because any savings at all are suspect, it is an extremely irresponsible gamble with taxpayers’ money!
I understand that on the surface taxpayers may want to support the efforts of the new mayor to attempt to control costs, but it needs to be actual savings…and not at such an ill advised gamble.
Tom Kenney is the Captain of the Providence Fire Department
Related Slideshow: Reactions to Mayor Elorza’s Inauguration Speech
Providence residents, community leaders, and elected officials turned out in the face of cold temperatures to hear Providence's newest Mayor, Jorge Elorza, give is inauguration speech at Providene City Hall on Monday, January 5.
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