After nearly four years and more than $1.5 million in revenue, Marietta's firefighters union and fire chief say it's time to use third-party billing money as originally intended - to hire more firefighters.
"In 2006, when we first initiated third-party billing, City Council didn't want to begin hiring right away because they wanted to see how much money the billing would bring in," said Eric Moore, president of International Association of Firefighters Local 442.
"The union has been patient, and during the Nov. 5 labor and management meeting with the city administration, we requested using the third-party funds to hire firefighters," he said. "The ball's in the administration's court, and we want an answer."
Third-party billing allows the department to bill patients' insurance companies for ambulance runs. If a patient has no insurance he or she does not have to pay.
Use of the funding, which has totaled from $350,000 to $400,000 annually, has been a bone of contention between the fire department and City Council since third-party billing was initiated by then-Chief Ted Baker, who died in March 2006.
"Chief Baker had been told by council if he could find a way to fund more firefighters they would be willing to hire them, but another source of income was needed," Moore said, adding that current Mayor Michael Mullen as well as former Mayor Joe Matthews had said the same thing.
Moore said third-party billing was Baker's' answer to council's request for an alternate source of income to fund the hiring of more firefighters. But once the money started coming in, council placed it in the city's general fund without earmarking any for hiring more fire personnel.
"And union members agreed to take on the extra paperwork that would be required for third-party billing," Moore added. "Now we're generating money but not getting additional firefighters."
Fire Chief Tom Dempsey agrees.
"The union has jumped through every hoop the city has asked them to, but we're still sitting here with no new firefighters," he said. "Citizens are appalled when they hear we haven't been hiring with the third-party billing money."
Dempsey noted that he has attempted to help council ease the strain on the general fund by recommending that the city apply for a three-year federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (S.A.F.E.R.) grant that would pay 100 percent of newly hired firefighters' salaries for the first two years, with the city picking up the total salaries for the third year of the grant.
"But that grant was shot down because of the price tag in the third year," Dempsey said.
The chief said he would like to hire seven new firefighters which would provide enough coverage so that current employees would not have to work swing shifts at each of the department's three fire stations.
The additional workers would also provide needed manpower to beef up skeleton fire crews.
Dempsey said he based the need for seven firefighters on standards recommended by the National Fire Protection Association.
"NFIP actually recommends the hiring of 15 more firefighters, but I think that's a little overboard, and I knew the city could not afford to hire that many," he said.
This year, City Council agreed to use a portion of the third-party billing to help shore up a shortage in fire levy funding for the city's two outlying fire stations on Harmar Hill and on Glendale Road. Approximately 60 percent of each month's third-party billing collections go to those stations, based on the number of runs each makes monthly.
Mullen said the administration would consider the S.A.F.E.R. grant if the firefighters could provide a viable plan to cover salaries over the long haul - beyond the first two years of the grant.
"The grant funding is finite, so we have to see a plan that shows sustainability," he said. "Every one of our departments would like to and could use additional personnel, but when we have a flat economy, we have to be prudent as city government officials. And if we don't have the money, we can't spend it."
Mullen said before the administration could present anything to council about using third party billing funds to hire more firefighters, "we would need to have a very thorough review that shows how those positions could be sustained."
He noted that the city of Mansfield recently had to lay off more than 20 firefighters.
"That's not a situation we want to be in," Mullen said. "We don't want to lay people off, we have to look at the whole city budget. But if the firefighters union puts a plan on the administration's desk that makes sense and is viable, we would present it to council.
"In an economy that's growing it would be perfectly logical to use third party monies for more hiring, but our funds have not been in a growth mode, so we have to make our budget decisions based on all of our needs," he said.
