OPINION

Editorial: Fix Newark fire staffing now

Advocate Editorial Board

Enough is enough. We’re tired of watching Newark Mayor Jeff Hall’s administration and the union representing Newark’s firefighters play chicken with your safety.

In fact, we all should be outraged that Newark will now operate with as few as 14 firefighters and paramedics on duty, forcing the city to temporarily close Station 4 on the east side nearly every day.

This is no longer a question of who’s right and who’s wrong. Both sides are wrong.

There are currently 22 firefighters assigned to each of the three rotating 24-hour shifts, but many are off work every day for vacations, Kelly Days (unpaid time off for working three 24-hour shifts every three weeks), injuries and other paid days off.

A third of those assigned to each shift has been off on many days, a truly staggering fact for taxpayers and city leaders trying to keep the budget in check. No business could ever succeed with so many of its employees on time off every day.

IAFF Local 109 leaders cry foul over staffing numbers, citing safety concerns for you and their members, but they refuse to budge on reducing paid days off or other solutions, even winning the restoration of two 24-hour holidays in the last contract.

That deal, foolishly approved by the Democratic majority of the Newark City Council, also included pay raises the city simply can’t afford, especially next year when there’s a 27th biweekly payroll. (IAFF campaign donations to some of those Democrats left many scratching their heads.)

That union victory followed the city’s bigger win two contracts ago when an arbitrator ruled Newark did not have to keep 19 people on every shift. This allowed the city to drastically reduce overtime by avoiding multiple call-ins per day on pure overtime.

Not having 19 on duty was one thing. Now it’s gone too far the other way.

With overtime funds already running out this year because of a rash of on-duty and off-duty injuries, the city has decided to not call in replacements until staffing falls below 14. Nor is it hiring more firefighters.

That’s simply unacceptable.

Unfortunately this is an election year for Mayor Jeff Hall and several members of the council. Nobody appears interested in pitching or selling real solutions for our cash-strapped city right now, even though the mayor faces a vastly inferior candidate with no government experience.

What’s worse is we don’t see much hope of both sides sitting down and working out a more common sense approach to staffing a modern fire department that largely handles medic calls. Union leadership, in particular, doesn’t seem to grasp the realities of today’s needs and resources.

Both sides seem destined to battle once again when contract talks resume in 2016 for another three-year deal, perhaps forcing an outside arbitrator to again decide sometime in 2017 what’s best for Newark.

If that happens, the real losers will remain Newark’s taxpayers.

It’s time for the union and city leaders to set aside their grudges, agendas and whatever else is blocking solutions for the people paying all of their salaries.

Fix this before someone needlessly dies.