Springfield Fire Department resists cuts

Seven years ago, the city of Springfield faced a fiscal crisis so serious that then Mayor Tim Davlin formed a blue-ribbon committee to define the problem and recommend solutions.

The housing bubble had burst and the stock market had crashed. Springfield and other governments were laying off employees and instituting furloughs while the federal government propped up banks. Nearly 12 percent of the city’s corporate fund was going toward police and fire pensions, and the city was dipping into reserves, inviting cash flow problems and increased borrowing costs from lowered credit ratings.

“The financial issues facing the city are substantial and urgent,” the committee wrote in its report. “The inescapable fact is that in order to meet future mandated pension fund payments, the city must reduce expenses and raise revenues to dramatically different levels than exist today. … The city does not have sufficient revenue to meet its pension obligations and maintain city services.”

Since then, the city has raised revenue, increasing the sales tax and sewer fees to pay for infrastructure repairs while raising power rates to keep City Water, Light and Power solvent. Library branches closed to save money have not been reopened. Municipal employment has dipped from 1,706 in 2010 to 1,427 this year, according to data on the city’s website.

Cutting costs in the police and fire departments was critical, according to the blue-ribbon committee. The police department today has about 40 fewer employees than in 2007. Head count at the fire department, however, remains essentially the same, with just two fewer enrollees in the fire pension system than seven years ago, when the blue-ribbon committee warned of fiscal crisis. Unfunded liabilities in the police and fire pension systems have mushroomed in the past seven years, going from $64.3 million in the fire pension fund to more than $120 million; the shortfall in the police pension fund has more than doubled over the same time period, ballooning to almost $107 million from $50.1 million, which has forced the city to increase contributions to the funds to ensure that there will be enough to pay future pensioners.

Springfield two years ago became a poster child in a Wall Street Journal article that painted the capital city as drowning in pension obligations that consumed more than 20 percent of the city’s budget, squeezing out money for libraries, public works and other services. Mayor Jim Langfelder says that reductions in pension benefits for employees hired after 2010 will help ease future pension obligations, but costs have continued to rise, with unfunded liabilities in the police and fire funds growing by more than $1 million apiece in the year since the Wall Street Journal used Springfield to illustrate the pension crisis in municipalities across the nation.

While police have reduced head count, there have been no corresponding cuts in the fire department. Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin has long warned that the city’s pension obligations are unsustainable and will eventually force either higher taxes or reduced levels of service.

“You don’t see it happening because it’s so incremental, but the next generation will pay for it,” McMenamin says. “It deserves a lot more attention than it’s received, that’s for sure.”

Springfield, McMenamin says, needs to start living within its means when it comes to the fire department, and fixing things will require leadership both in the General Assembly, which decrees what pensions cities must pay, and the mayor’s office.

“The pay and benefits for our fire personnel are greatly out of proportion to what the city can afford, what is needed to attract quality applicants and what is enough for a quality standard of living,” McMenamin said.

But neither the mayor nor Fire Chief Barry Helmerichs sound eager to slash payroll and costs.

“The situation, overall, you get what you pay for, really,” Helmerichs says.

Chief defends staffing

Former Mayor Mike Houston, who served on the blue-ribbon committee before becoming mayor in 2011, says that his view of the fire department changed after he took office.

The committee had recommended closing or consolidating fire stations. Houston said that he considered closing stations and so hired a consultant after he took office. The consultant convinced him that the city actually needed two more fire stations, he said.

“If money was not a problem, I would have increased the number of police and firefighters,” Houston said. “But, given the economic situation we were in, that was totally unfeasible.”

Houston says that the committee that recommended slashing costs had a bias borne from firefighters refusing to be furloughed to save money when the recession hit and forced cutbacks throughout city government.

“I do remember the bias,” Houston said.

“I think that was a direct result of the fire department not going along with efforts by the city to rein in costs.”

After Houston took office in 2011, the city hired 20 firefighters, with salaries for the first two years coming from a federal grant. Houston says that he did it to reduce overtime costs. Under the city’s contract with the firefighters’ union, there must be a minimum of 49 firefighters on duty 24/7, and so anyone who misses a shift for any reason must be replaced.

The contract is filled with clauses that dictate how the department must be managed. In addition to establishing how many firefighters must be on duty in the operations division that responds to emergencies, the contract also specifies how many employees must work in the department’s fire safety division, which is responsible for fire investigations, building inspections, building plan review and public education. The mayor cannot go outside the fire department when hiring a chief – that’s either in the contract or in city code, Helmerichs says.

“The contract, from a management perspective, really had almost no management power rights within the department,” Houston recalls. “It is a very difficult situation to work with.”

The blue-ribbon report found that the department was overstaffed and recommended that it be streamlined and reorganized. The city should consider privatizing emergency medical services, the committee recommended, and the fire department should shed a dozen employees.

The committee found that Springfield has 1.9 firefighters per 1,000 city residents. Comparable cities such as Decatur, Bloomington, Normal, Champaign and Urbana have 1.5 or fewer firefighters per 1,000 residents, the committee found. The staffing ratio in Peoria was identical to Springfield’s ratio, according to the committee, and Rockford, with 1.8 firefighters per 1,000 residents, was slightly lower.

Helmerichs, however, says that the city’s ratio is 1.55 firefighters per 1,000 residents if the calculation includes populations of areas outside the city such as Curran and Southlawn that receive fire protection services from Springfield. He also says that Bloomington, Champaign, Normal and Urbana are all close to other cities that can help out in emergencies and so can operate with smaller departments. The Springfield Fire Department also covers more square miles than departments in other central Illinois cities, he says.

Helmerichs says that the staffing level in his department is “absolutely” appropriate.

“We cover a large area, 115 square miles,” Helmerichs says. “It’s hard to compare us with Decatur and Bloomington and Normal and Champaign and Urbana and some of those. They don’t cover the square miles. With Bloomington-Normal, Champaign- Urbana, you’ve got two fire departments that can help each other. We don’t have that situation here.”

Inspections, education

According to the contract between the city and the firefighters union, there must be at least a half-dozen captains employed as building inspectors and fire investigators in the department’s fire safety division, which investigates fires, inspects buildings, reviews building plans and performs public education. The inspectors must all be hired from within the ranks.

The public education officer must be either a captain or battalion chief, and the senior arson investigator must also be either a captain or battalion chief. The city in 2014 paid nearly $1 million in salaries to the dozen sworn employees in the division, including nearly $104,000 to the public education officer tasked with fire prevention programs typically aimed at schoolchildren.

Helmerichs defends six figures for a public education officer, whom he says must have a rapport with schools.

“He’s a specialized person who’s interviewed for that job who has the skills that pertain to that job – it’s not just a guy who passed a test,” the chief says.

Langfelder says he’s not sure whether it would be practical to have the city’s building department review plans and inspect buildings for fire-safety issues. Helmerichs says that captains who get paid more than $91,000 per year are doing a good job.

“I understand they are expensive,” Helmerichs says. “But their knowledge of fire, fire-related things, is immense. … We’d hate to lose the fire knowledge those guys have. The (city) building inspector, he’s never been a fireman.”

Letting go of building inspections and plan reviews is rare enough in fire departments that the Scarborough Fire Department in Maine this year won a state best-practices award from a state fire-protection commission after the town of nearly 20,000 combined the positions of fire inspector and code enforcer into a single job, with the building department picking up salary costs. The person reports to the fire chief on fire-safety issues and the zoning code administrator on other matters. According to the state commission in Maine that included the state fire marshal, legislators, fire chiefs, firefighters and gubernatorial appointees, the arrangement in Scarborough could serve as a model for other communities.

Scarborough Fire Chief B. Michael Thurlow says that the goal was to improve efficiency and cut costs.

“I think it’s been successful on both fronts,” Thurlow says. “It’s a one-stop shop, instead of applicants having to go to two offices. … Finally, at the end of the day, we’re also saving a little bit of money.”

There hasn’t been any tension between firefighters and the inspector, in part because the inspector hired by the town two years ago is also a trained firefighter, Thurlow says. He’s not sure whether the arrangement would work elsewhere, given that the position requires knowledge of fire codes and a range of other building codes not related to fire safety.

“I think it is relatively unusual, primarily because it’s tough to find someone with that skill set,” Thurlow says.

Medical response

Three years ago, Eastside Fire and Rescue, a fire protection district east of Seattle in Washington state, tried something unthinkable in Springfield.

Instead of sending fire engines or even fullfledged medical crews to medical aid calls, the department started sending one person in an SUV to calls deemed not sufficiently serious to merit a full-blown response.

“They were the types of calls that fit between the category of probably-shouldn’tbe-a-call to isn’t-an-emergency,” says Lee Soptich, chief of Eastside Fire and Rescue. “They were frequent callers. Oftentimes, these might be people who had issues with anxiety.”

The goal was to get an emergency medical technician on scene within 20 minutes, a time frame that Soptich allows raised eyebrows, given that response times of less than five minutes are typically the goal for medical emergency response times.

“They (EMT’s) would get on their cellphone and talk to the person as they were driving there, which is a little different model than you’d see in the fire service,” Soptich recalls. “Oftentimes, it would be ‘I’m just not feeling that well.’” The rig, which ran 10 hours each day, responded to about 400 calls in one year, Soptich said. On 10 occasions, the first responder had to summon additional help, often because someone had fallen out of bed, Soptich said. Just once was a paramedic, the most highly trained medical responder in the department, called in, he said.

The experiment, designed to save money and wear on equipment, ended after a year under pressure from unions, Soptich says, and the department no longer has a one-person medical rig.

“I think labor was concerned that this could be a slippery slope,” Soptich says.

Soptich acknowledges that there’s no way to know for certain whether a caller needs a paramedic or someone to hold a hand and suggest aspirin, but he says that experienced and well-trained dispatchers coupled with caution can reduce the need for full-blown medical responses while keeping crews available for more serious calls.

Bob Gray, a former member of the Sangamon County Citizens Efficiency Commission who says that the fire department should be streamlined, says that too many people respond to medical calls. The blue-ribbon committee recommended that the city consider privatizing emergency medical care, and Gray says that the idea has merit.

“It’s almost a laughingstock in Springfield, how many fire rigs show up and policemen show up and eventually you’ve still got to call the ambulance company with paramedics if there’s serious injuries and you’ve got to take them to the hospital,” Gray says. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

The idea of a one-man medical response doesn’t get far with Helmerichs, who is a fan of three-person crews. The city already has three medical squad vehicles and if any more are acquired, they should be in addition to, not in replacement of, fire engines, he said.

“Those little squad cars, they can’t do everything that we need to do on every call,” Helmerichs said. “You’ll take some wear and tear off of big rigs, but financially, I don’t know – I don’t think they’re a very good idea. … You’ve got to remember, the people who handle our calls are sitting out on Shale (Avenue), sitting in a dark room with six-inch windows that can be 10 miles from the call. Now, we’re relying on someone, whatever they might say on the telephone, to be true and accurate. Three on an engine is a good number. You can do anything with three.”

Helmerichs also rejects the idea of privatizing emergency medical care. The chief says that he plans to increase medical training for firefighters, not cut back.

“I’d like to change some things, but we want to do things that work,” Helmerichs says.

Soptich faces different challenges in Washington state than Helmerichs does in Illinois. For one thing, Soptich’s fire department protects 120,000 people in an area that is experiencing population growth. After three decades as a fire chief, Soptich says that he’s learned that spending more money isn’t always the best answer.

“We’ve got to get out of this mindset:

The only answer is to hire more people,” says Soptich, who is retiring this year. “I’ve watched fire chiefs come in and their only solution is ‘We’ve got to hire more people.’ Most fire chiefs default to that position way too quickly.”

Student firefighters

Pat Coughlin acknowledges that he doesn’t get invited to firefighter union picnics.

“It’s been a challenge to explain it to the fire types,” says Coughlin, a retired fire chief who says that departments should hire college students to work as firefighters. “It’s just human nature to react negatively to something new. … The firefighters will say, ‘Wait a minute, this is anti-union, union busting. You’re going to replace us all with college students.’” Helmerichs doesn’t embrace the idea. “I’d have to look into that, really, in depth,” the chief says. “You know, we’re professionals. People want professionals showing up to take care of their loved ones and their homes. I’d have to really look at that hard.”

Coughlin, who retired in 1993 after working as a fire chief in Richfield, Minnesota (population 36,175), and Olathe, Kansas (population 131,185), points out that departments around the nation are already using college students as firefighters and says that the idea should be expanded. All told, about 300 departments around the country rely on college students to work as firefighters in exchange for tuition assistance and free places to live, Coughlin says.

“My experience has shown that these people who sign up and perform this public service for a free college education are highly motivated,” Coughlin said. “There are ways to become more efficient. This is a very good way.”

Cities as large as Auburn, Alabama, population 58,600, use college students as firefighters. Coughlin says that students shouldn’t replace career firefighters for some specialized assignments such as responding to hazardous material spills or rescuing people from cliffs and tall buildings. But they can provide much-needed manpower and improve safety, he says, with the number of students in departments varying with the needs of communities. It is better, he says, to have a college student as the fourth person on a fire engine than to operate the engine with three people, one fewer than recommended by the National Fire Protection Association and the manning level used in the Springfield Fire Department.

Departments that use college students often provide modest hourly wages in addition to tuition assistance and housing, Coughlin said. The cost is much lower than paying full-time firefighters who get pensions upon retirement, he said. Beyond costs, departments can find full-time firefighters from the ranks of college students who decide on firefighting as a career, he said, and that can increase diversity in a workforce that tends to be white and male.

“We’ve had tremendous success across the board with the program,” says Thomas Falcone, president of the Hyattsville Fire Department in Maryland, which has been using college students since the 1970s.

College students working as firefighters are fairly common in Prince George’s County, where Hyattsville, population 18,065, is located. Falcone says at least 18 departments in the county use them. In Hyattsville, career firefighters work day shifts, then volunteers and college students take over after 5 p.m. and on weekends and holidays. Falcone says that college firefighters have come from as far away as Japan.

“We’ve had them from all over,” Falcone says. “It’s benefited us in so many ways, not just being able to staff fire trucks. … We have a great relationship in the firehouse with the career personnel assigned here. Everybody works together quite well.”

Helmerichs, however, questions whether career professionals can work together with volunteers or college students. Such an arrangement might work if fire protection districts adjoin each other, he says, but Springfield is akin to an island that can’t rely on outside departments to help in event of emergency.

“We have to do what’s best for our community – we don’t have the other suburbs around us,” the chief says. “The Midwest, it does not work so well. I think it’s the culture.”

Culture? “They’re used to doing it out East,” the chief explains. “They’ve always had volunteers and combination (volunteer and professional) departments.”

Coughlin, who was once a rank-and-file union officer, says that his views on running a fire department changed after he became a chief.

“I looked at it entirely differently,” Coughlin recalls. “Now, I’ve got to figure out how to pay for all these things I won.”

Gray says that the city should convene a task force to study the fire department and recommend changes.

“If they pull together some really good, fair-minded people and they come to the conclusion that it costs this kind of money to have the kind of fire department that the people of Springfield want, fine,” Gray says. “But I’m of the opinion that we can’t afford the kind of money we’re spending.”

Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].