Impasse Hearing Scheduled After Seminole Firefighters Left Without a Contract Following Failed Negotiations with the City

October 1st, 2018 came and went with no agreement between the City of Seminole and its firefighters, which are still left without a contract and frozen wages.

Jeremy Newton, President of the Seminole Professional Firefighters, IAFF Local 2896, along with so many others in the department are frustrated. The frustration stems from what he says was the city stalling and not negotiating in good faith during the preceding fourteen months.

The negotiations for a new three year-old contact began in January of 2018.  Newton says that on day one, the firefighters presented their entire proposal to the city.

The union contends that the City was never prepared to discuss many of the major topics dealing with wages and other significant financial issues.  The same response was given at each meeting by the city that they would have the information at the next meeting.

Newton says, those promises were never fulfilled and the firefighters reported having great difficulty getting the city to schedule dates for further negotiations.

The meeting minutes from May 2018 stated that, “at the next scheduled meeting, the City will have a proposed package regarding the wage, compensation, and progression plan.”  This was already in the 5th month of contract negotiations.

On May 30, 2018, the Seminole Professional Firefighters declared an impasse. At that time, the city offered a maximum of a 3% wage increase each year but only to those employees who receive nearly perfect scores on their annual evaluations.  The unions stated that those potential increases were met with a proposed change in how wage and overtime was calculated which the unions says would ultimately result in a pay cut for every member.

Following the declaration of an impasse, the city cancelled the June 27th negotiation session despite the union’s desire to continue working toward a resolution.

The union declared an impasse with that the realization that the city had already set the 2019 budget without securing a contract.

These promises were never fulfilled and the firefighters had great difficulty getting the City to schedule dates for further negotiations.

The contact consists of 23 articles.  Of those 23 articles, the firefighters reached a tentative agreement on many of them.  The impasse focused on six unresolved issues; sick leave, vacation leave, wages, seniority & reductions in forces, grievance procedure, and pensions.

Due to the impasse, a Special Magistrate was selected through a mutually agreed process and in accordance with Florida law. The Magistrate, Edward J Gutman, was brought in from the State of Maryland for both sides to present their case.

The cost estimates are approximately $10,000 with the burden split between the Union and the taxpayers of Seminole.

Newton says, the firefighters are still proud of the work that they do and have full faith in their peers.  There appears to be a real concern going forward looking at the departure of personnel from the department.  According to Newton in a letter to city council, “There are portions of the city proposal that show the author of the proposal has little functional knowledge of the operations of this fire department and shows no regard for the safety of its firefighters.”  He continued, “We have an undeniable retention problem and compression issues that have been acknowledged but only ignored and have only gotten worse.”

According to records from the City of Seminole Fire Rescue Department, a total of 28 people separated from the Department from August 2015 through October 2018.

Of those 28

• 17 went to work for other fire departments
• 1 took a job with the military
• 7 retired
• 3 non specific reasons for separation

Firefighters began to investigate reasons that would explain the large number of employees leaving the department. A total of 61 firefighters hired since 2010 left the department.  During exit interviews, the most common reasons for separation were pension, pay, and time off.  Those three items were all items left resolved which pushed the union toward declaring an impasse.

The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) receives and tracks active contracts for much of the fire departments in the United States.  They are able to generate comparative reports for both local and similar size departments.

One report from the IAFF compares the City of Seminole Fire Rescue to all others in Pinellas and Hillsborough County.  Their data shows that Seminole lags in base salary in the first year of employment by 3.6%.  When factoring in total compensation for firefighters, the lag is 7%.

The total compensation lag grows to 11% for the firefighter in their sixth year of service.  All this at a time when the City of Seminole has experienced substantial economic growth and the fire department has seen an 18% increase in the number of emergency responses over the last five years.  During 2018, the Department responded to 12,777 calls for service; 86% of these service requests were for medical assistance, including vehicle accidents.

The IAFF also compared the City of Seminole to Coral Springs, Palm Bay and Pompano Beach which are deemed to have comparable service and number of residents served.  At the top step of base salary here are the percentages of the Seminole’s lag.

• 18.75% – Paramedic
• 11.4% – Firefighter/Paramedic
• 22.9% – Lieutenant
• 18.5% – Lieutenant/Paramedic
• 38.5% – Inspector (Note: City’s Fire Marshal resigned in April 2019)

Another large area of contention is the employee contribution into their pension plan.  On October 1, 2018, firefighters in Seminole are paying 13.69% of gross earnings up from 12.27% in 2017 and 8.86% in 2016.  It is scheduled to increase to 14% as of October 1, 2019.  This at a time when the economy has grown considerably during the same period.

The proposal put forward by the firefighters is very ambitious having a cost of over $800,000 in the first year with subsequent additional annual expenses of about $150,000.  The union states that they at least came prepared with a starting point for negotiations.

Publicly, city manger Toney-Deal stated she was surprised that the firefighters declared an impasse and indicated that the city is always ready to negotiate.

The magistrate issued his recommendations for resolving every one of the impasse issues.  According to the Newton, the city manager rejected nearly every recommendations, which means it will require an impasse hearing with members of the city council.

Only 20.7% of the total budget for both fire and emergency medical services is paid by the City of Seminole Fire Rescue Department.  At least one other neighboring fire department funds their paramedics at over 44%.

Fire Chief Heather Burford states that she has not been part of the negotiations and is hopeful for a quick resolution.  She emphasized that citizens in the fire district will continue to receive exceptional services.

The impasse hearing is scheduled for Monday, July 15, 2019 at 5 p.m. at the City of Seminole City Hall.  City Hall is located at 9199 113th Street N.  The hearing is open to the public and public comment will be allowed.

The decision made by city council will only be in effect thru the end of September 2019 when further contract negotiations will continue.  Since wages have been frozen, the decision regarding compensation can be retroactive to October 1, 2018.

The City of Seminole Fire District covers a much larger area than the City of Seminole.  The fire district covers an area approximately 25 square miles. This includes areas of Unincorporated Pinellas County, Redington Beach, North Redington Beach, Redington Shores and the Bay Pines VA Medical Center campus.

The City’s Fire Rescue Department has earned a Public Protection Classification rating of 1 by the Insurance Services Office. The Department is responsible for responding to calls for medical emergencies, fires, hazardous materials incidents, technical rescue incidents, a variety of public assist requests and providing medical coverage for community events. The Department operates from four fire stations strategically located throughout the community covering an area of approximately 25 square miles with approximately 110,000 residents and visitors. The City employs sixty nine firefighters, many of whom are paramedics. Personnel staff four Advanced Life Support (ALS) engines, one Advanced Life Support (ALS) Squad, one Basic Life Support (BLS) 78 foot ladder truck, and one District Chief vehicle. (Source: City of Seminole Fire Rescue website)

Disclaimer: At the time of the this article, the author, Steven Hirschfield, is an active member of the City of Seminole Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).