Published: November 29, 2008 07:42 pm      

New Albany fire chief wonders what no overtime in 2009 will bring

A realistic plan?

The City Council passed it, now New Albany Fire Department Chief Matt Juliot has to live with it.

No money is appropriated for overtime pay in the department beginning Jan. 1, the result of budget cuts approved by the council.

“They really have tied my hands,” Juliot said. “This isn’t a Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. kind of job.”

The fire budget stands at just more than $6.5 million for next year, down more than $400,000 from 2009. Each city department saw its budget cut by approximately 5 percent in order to make numbers match.

The police and fire departments saw the greatest cut in terms of total money, as combined they take up approximately 84 percent of the city’s general fund.

Juliot said losing the option of overtime may mean cutting service.

“At this point in time, I don’t know what else to do,” he said.

Police overtime pay for 2008 is more than $300,000, down from $748,000 in 2007 and $771,000 in 2006.

Juliot said having 21 new employees this year helped cut the overtime costs in half, but he still feels the contract between the fire union and the city could be hard to comply with if there isn’t an overtime allotment.

Assigning minimal staffing levels is Juliot’s main concern, with firefighters already swapping shifts to cover for sick, personal and vacation days.

“We have a contract with the union and the city, and I have to follow that contract,” Juliot said.

Fire personnel received a 3 percent raise for 2008 through a new contract negotiated between their union and Mayor Doug England. Councilmen Steve Price and Kevin Zurschmiede voted against including that raise for 2009 when the council set salaries for the fire and police departments.

Price said he wants the city to re-negotiate terms of its contract with the police and fire unions and is in favor of reverting pay back to 2007 levels. Zurschmiede said the city can’t continue to spend and grant raises without consequences, though the council did not pass raises for 2009 for city employees.

“There’s going to be people working for the city wanting their pay check and we’re not going to be able to pay them,” Zurschmiede said, painting a scary financial picture of what he believes could happen to New Albany without better fiscal discipline.

Several firefighters have been among the city’s top paid employees in recent years, with many making near or better than $100,000 annually.

Juliot said the numbers are misleading, in that firefighters who made close to six figures accumulated hundreds of hours of overtime pay, some to the equivalent of nearly three full-time jobs.

He said the hours had to be worked and overtime was the only choice.

But Juliot believes overtime pay can be cheaper for the city as opposed to funding new positions. A firefighter with just two years of experience costs nearly $100,000 when calculating pay, pension and insurance paid by the city.

The elimination of overtime pay was the result of a council resolution asking the fire and police departments and the Board of Public Works and Safety to meet the full 5 percent reduction, as they had fallen short of the mark even with previous 2009 budget cuts.

Juliot doesn’t know how realistic the goal of not having overtime is, neither does City Attorney Shane Gibson. Along with City Controller Kay Garry, Gibson presented the council with the budget reductions and warned department heads could likely need more money to make it through the year, including the fire department for overtime.

“There’s no way we’re going to go through a whole year with no overtime,” Gibson said.

Garry said the fire budget, like the general fund, will have to be reviewed on basically a day-to-day basis.

“I think it’s going to have to be very closely watched and there’s nothing off the table right now,” she said.

Garry told the council all the budget cuts could result in her having trouble finding money to pay the rent bill for the city’s portion of the City-County Building.

Police officials continue to look for ways to tighten the department’s belt. Garry said the department would be meeting with local school leaders, asking the education sector to flip the bill for assigned officers.

NAPD School Resource Officer Steve Harris said the discussions revolve around crossing guards, not SROs.

“Both the New Albany-Floyd County School Corp. and the New Albany Police Department remain committed to continuing the SRO program,” Harris said.