The debate about how much overtime city firefighters receive will continue, even though the City Council voted to approve a new contract for the fire union.
City Councilor Brad Lown, who cast the lone vote against the new contract, said this week he did so because of what he believes is excessive overtime paid to city firefighters.
“A lot of people think that overtime is necessary because people are fighting fires and catching criminals and they can’t be interrupted,” Lown said. “The amount of overtime that is paid for those reasons is miniscule. Most of the overtime paid is for shift replacement.”
Lown said it is common practice for city firefighters to receive “hundreds of hours of overtime every week.”
City negotiators tried to get firefighters to make concessions on how much overtime was paid before the City Council approved their new contract, but they failed. “The firefighters want the overtime and they’re not going to give it up,” Lown said this week. “This is typical of other fire departments too. It is deeply engrained in the system and the contracts that have been approved.”