Covington firefighters fear staff cuts

The head of Covington's firefighters' union has called for the public to urge city leaders not to cut firefighters.

Rumors have swirled that the city will cut fire department staff as the city staff prepares to present proposals for the city budget for the next fiscal year beginning July 1.

Covington Firefighters Union Local 38 president Jimmy Adams posted Tuesday morning on the union's Facebook page that they will have to fight a reduction in staffing.

This "will of course reduce safety for citizens and firefighters alike," Adams wrote in the post.

"My view as the head of the Local 38 is to get the citizens involved and make them understand firefighters and citizens alike share the safety problem, " Adams told The Enquirer on Tuesday. "I want them to get involved and tell city officials to find the money somewhere else."

While the city doesn't plan on laying off any police officers or firefighters, that doesn't mean there couldn't be staff reductions on the fire department through not filling vacated positions, said City Manager Larry Klein. The city commission and staff over the next two months will work on balancing the $47 million budget. The city is also in the midst of renegotiating the police and fire department union contracts that will expire in December.

The city needs to afford the 9 percent raise police and firefighters received over the past four years, Klein said. The raises city union members received cost the city $1.8 million over that time, including $600,000 after a recent pay bump Jan. 1, Klein said.

The city can't use the recent 2 percent hike in the city's insurance premium tax premium passed in March by the Covington City Commission to cover these costs. The city commission limited the proceeds of the insurance premium tax hike to capital improvements, such as firefighter equipment, not on personnel and salaries.

"The city, just like any household, has a budget to balance," Klein said. "We are more than fair to our union employees in wages and benefits."

While the city hasn't laid off firefighters in recent years, Covington in 2011 reduced the fire department staff by not filling positions vacated through retirements and resignations. The average daily staffing of the fire department went from 30 firefighters each day to 27. That meant the department lost the use of one pumper that covered the city's east side, Adams said.

"Some days we're really busy," Adams said. "There are times right now we don't have companies available."

A recent meeting between staff in Taylor Mill and Covington has also caused concern among Covington firefighters. Adams said he's been told the city wants Taylor Mill to use an ambulance service to respond to Covington in anticipation of the city losing an additional firefighters.

Klein and Taylor Mill City Administrator Jill Bailey said both cities already make ambulance runs to each city per a mutual aid agreement. They said the meeting didn't have anything to do with staff reductions, but was simply to review the two city's mutual aid agreement. Both Klein and Bailey said there are no plans to change the agreement, or to have Taylor Mill make more ambulance runs in anticipation of staff cuts.

"We met with the city of Covington to discuss the mutual aid process," Bailey said. "We didn't talk about additional runs."

Whatever the city proposes will become more apparent May 18 when city staff will present its budget proposal before the city commission, Klein said.

"Budget time is always tough," Klein said. "There's going to be no layoffs of fire and police. We've not laid off fire and police people since I've worked for the city – seven years. We've laid off other employees."