Jackson's under-staffed fire department could stay that way if the city and firefighter's union don't reach an agreement on their contract.
On Tuesday, Jackson City Council voted to accept the $1.67 million Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant that would staff nine firefighters for 2 years, but it will only go forward if the union negotiates certain contract terms.
“We think it’s reasonable to find out the costs associated with a proposal before we accept it,” Public Information Officer Will Forgrave said. “Now, we’ll see if the firefighters’ union feels the same way.”
The Summit-Jackson Firefighter's union says that isn't the case. President Scott Stoker says the grant has provisions that would cover any wage increases. Stoker says the city is being misleading and is trying to get the union to agree on a contact, even though it isn't needed for the grant.
"The concessions they're asking us, they're really detrimental to our membership," Stoker said. "They are looking to reduce our pension benefit, they're looking to reduce some things with our health care benefits and minimal wage increases."
In 2012 Jackson accepted a similar grant with the condition that it would terminate the new positions when the grant money was up. Forgrave says it will be the same thing this time around, with the firefighters being terminated after two years. Stoker says that's another reason why the union shouldn't have to negotiate, because last time they did and none of the firefighters kept their jobs.
"We made concessions in hopes to keep firefighters on staff after the SAFER grant ran out but unfortunately the city did not do that," Stoker added.
Forgrave said as many as three firefighters might retire in the two years of the grant, so the new staff could fill those spots. Stoker says he only knows of one firefighter who's retiring.
Forgrave said the city will have to add money from the general fund to supplement the grant, at least paying for training, equipment and overtime. He said in the 2012 grant those costs were about $110,000.
"We don't want to spend an exorbitant amount of general funds to staff a fire department for the sake of staffing the fire department," Forgrave said. "The fire department does a great job with what they have. We want to focus on quality over quantity."
But Stoker says it's all a political ploy.
"When you have politicians that want to continually say that they don't have the money or they can't find the money, but yet here they have an opportunity to get some guaranteed money from the federal government at no cost to them and they're unwilling to do it," he noted.
City officials hope to settle firefighter wages, pensions and health insurance details before the deadline Oct. 18.
Stoker says the union got a new draft of the contract on Monday, they're looking over those terms but says he's not sure if they'll find that middle ground before time is up.
