Jamestown City Council voting session (May 22, 2023)
Jamestown City Council has unanimously voted to lift a hiring freeze to hire eight new firefighters.
The decision after two months of discussions drew applause from an audience mostly made up of members of the Jamestown Fire Department at Monday’s meeting.
The hiring is contingent on the Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association Local 137 agreeing to stipulations outlined in the resolution presented by Council Member Marie Carrubba.
Council President Tony Dolce said council members wanted some protections, including the union agreeing not to go back to impact in the event the city has to lay-off firefighters in three years, “Would they go back to impact, open an impact arbitration and go back to get more money? And that would be catastrophic for the city. So, we put in there.. and it was discussed back and forth about the fact on how they won’t seek to reopen the arbitration case for impact payments. It would just revert back to what it originally was under the 2002 Foster agreement. So that was one thing that we put in there. We also wanted some outside counsel to review the resolution.”
The resolution also states the union will waive its right to pursue litigation against the city should the city not be able to secure new funding for retention of the eight firefighters. Conversely, the resolution states the city will make a good faith effort to secure new funding to retain and continue the new positions.
The union will be required to ratify the tentative agreement, which will come back again to City Council for approval.
Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist said “it’s much easier to say no, much harder to get to yes,” “And so I very much appreciate the city council, the fire union, our police and fire chiefs that have been working diligently to try to get to that end result. At the end of the day, what matters most is that we have a safer Jamestown. We’re going to be able to add eight new firefighters with no cost to our taxpayers and that’s truly an incredible thing.”
The City of Jamestown was awarded in February a three-year $1.8 million Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to do the hiring.
Based on financial projections provided by former City Comptroller Joe Bellitto, the total cost to the city is between $2.2 and $2.6 million, leaving at least $400,000 that the city has to make up.
Council member at large Jeff Russell pointed out that this figure does not include any overtime costs, “Now, we know that’s not realistic. So those numbers are actually going to be larger cause you know they’re going to be called in on off shifts and callbacks and everything else, so that’s been the question all along. How do we pay for this? Numbers are unknown.”
Council members have requested that any revenue received from the two ambulances that are being staffed by firefighters be dedicated to funding the Jamestown Fire Department. Mayor Sundquist has said the city received $300,000 in revenue through billing in 2022 for use of the first ambulance.
Deputy Fire Chief Matt Coon said the hiring process will now begin immediately, with new recruits going through training at the Fire Academy in Montour Falls. He said he expects that the new hires should be on staff by Thanksgiving.
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