Firefighter Vacation Days Contentious Issue in Tenn. City

June 03--SPRING HILL -- An ordinance that would readjust firefighter vacation and holiday time was considered during Monday's meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

The ordinance was first presented last month, where it was determined that firefighters were receiving twice as much vacation time as the average 40-hour-a-week employee. This came to the city's attention when $50,000 of firefighter overtime pay had to be cut in January, City Administrator Victor Lay said.

Lay presented a thorough spreadsheet, which covered the current averages of manpower efficiency and losses caused by sick days, workman's comp, vacation, holiday pay and Kelly Days, which are accrued after a 28 day shift cycle. The presentation also included options on how to readjust the way the city administers vacation days to its fire personnel, and how much more efficient the department can be on a daily basis if implemented.

"What started this whole discussion was, back in January we talked about how the amount of lost time that had occurred inside the fire department was creating difficulty for us to maintain staff levels," Lay said. "So, we had a need of bringing in folks either part-time or bringing in folks in overtime situations."

There are 45 fire personnel in the department, 42 minus Chief Terry Hood, 911 Center Director Tracy Hodge, and a training officer. The maximum amount of firefighters who can work a shift caps out at 14, Lay said. With an understaffed department, Hood tries to maintain 11 staff members at all times. The only option the city could look at to change was the department's holiday and vacation time.

"Looking at the vacation time, when we were examining our policies we realized how the way we were rewarding vacation and requiring its use for a firefighter is different than any other employee as far as how much time they can take off. It actually ends up being about twice as much," Lay said. "So, we went over and looked at if we changed it, what would that look like?"

By factoring how many shifts a 14-man team needs using 42 staff members, the numbers add up to far more than what an average employee works with the current vacation day standards, he said, about 40 percent more to be exact.

"If you took that number and multiplied by 365 days times 24 hours a day, that represents 5,110 man-shifts," Lay said. "We look at how much of that comes off due to lost time. We start with our max amount, 5,110, and under our existing vacation policy ... you have a loss time of 575 shifts due to all of that vacation being taken off."

With 42 staffers, it brings the average to 9.82 employees per shift, which is below the Municipal Technical Advisory Service standards. When a shift is understaffed, it means less equipment can be used when a unit responds to a call, Lay said.

If passed, the proposed ordinance would allow five annual vacation days to firefighters who have served one-to-four years, eight for those serving five-to-ten years and 10 to those of more than 10 years. This would cut shift losses in half and provide enough in the budget for additional firemen, Lay said.

Holiday pay was the second part of the ordinance, with those who work holidays receiving time and a half of 18 hours paid, while others receive the normal 12-hour pay. With added staff members, these two adjustments could bring the average per-day staff up to 12, meeting the minimum MTAS staffing standards, he said.

"Those changes don't necessarily come without a cost. For instance, the holidays, if we were to pay those holidays, it depends on how you classify what you're paying and what you pay those that actually work the shift versus who has a day off anyway, what those differences are," Lay said. "If you looked at that scenario, based on an average wage, that's probably going to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $110,000."

Alderman Kayce Williams pointed out how this was an unusual year as far as costs due to Hood's hiring and the re-adjustments within the department such as new training requirements and personnel loss and the likelihood of a situation like this ever happening again.

"One of the questions I had asked of staff in the fire department is what happened and what were the anomalies that occured this year that created this scenario," Williams said. "One of the answers were this training we needed to implement to get people in the right place. So, from July to December, there was $50,000 overage in overtime while all those people were training and people were covering for them, and also four people on extended sick leave with three of them being on the same shift. How often does that happen?"

Lay responded saying although the additional training did bring the annual cost up more than average, bringing more bodies to the department is the main issue and will have its own set of costs to maintain as the staff continues to grow.

The BOMA will vote on the ordinance's first reading at its regular meeting June 15. It will not become an official ordinance until passing its second reading in July.

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