Petropoulos Accuses Town Manager of Jeopardizing Public Safety by Limiting Overtime [w/video]
In an unscheduled agenda item, Selectman Jack Petropoulos presented his colleagues with a six-page packet targeting a decision by Town Manager Mark Haddad to reduce overtime costs in the Police and Fire Departments. Petropoulos maintained that by directing a reduction on overtime, "Groton operated with unfilled shifts at a level that, in my opinion, jeopardizes public safety." He claimed that the Town Manager "instructed the Fire Chief to refuse overtime Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. unless the full-time staffing goes below two firefighters to make up for the projected budget shortfalls."
Town Manager Mark Haddad had directed Fire Chief Joe Bosselait to monitor his budget and reduce overtime expenses for the Fire Dept. as there was an average payroll of $23,600 per pay period, but there is only enough money left in the Chief's budget to average $21K per pay period creating a potential deficit of $35K. Petropoulos wanted the Board to "direct the (Fire) Chief to return to the required staffing" right away.
Town Manager Haddad advised the Board that last spring the Finance Committee was concerned with overtime spending for both the Fire Department and Police Department. Under the FinCom directive, Haddad said he gave those directives to both the Fire Department and Police Departments to handle overtime expenses. Recently both departments have had to come back to the town to ask for more funds to cover, among other things, overtime expenditures.
Haddad told the Board, "As the Chief Financial Officer for this town, I have to look at this...If the Board is concerned, before making any decision (on additional Fire Department staffing), I suggest that we set up a review committee to look at all the issues."
The Fire Department currently has five, full-time union firefighters, with the daytime shift running from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and consists of three full-time firefighters and one per diem firefighter. When a scheduled full-time firefighter is not able to fill the shift, because of medical issues, vacation, training, etc. another full-time firefighter can fill the shift - but is paid at time and a half. The most senior full-time officer has first crack at taking a shift at time and a half, followed by the next senior officer and then on down the line and this, in part, results in an increase in overtime expense. This is contained in the firefighter union contract.
According to Haddad, at the Fall Annual Town Meeting, voters approved an additional $58K for the Fire Department to pay retroactively for FY12 and FY13 including funds for a two percent Cost-of-Living and for education per the firefighter union for the remaining contract and included a small amount for overtime funding.
According to Petropoulos, the majority of daytime calls - some two-thirds - are medical calls, with a mix of patient transport from RiverCourt to medical emergencies.
One of the arguments that Petropoulos raised was that, according to his data, in one period, some 69 percent of the time, there was insufficient coverage in the Fire Department.
Petropoulos received push back from his colleagues on his request to advise the Fire Chief "return to required staffing" because they felt there was not enough information. Selectman Anna Eliot said it was a "union issue on using per diem (call) firefighters that is compounding this. I want to see an audit on who is doing what - union and per diem. These issues are coming up after the formation of the union. I don't want dedicated firefighters caught up in a money fight."
She stressed that town officials knew that there would be growing pains and stated that she would take no action at this meeting.
Selectman Stuart Schulman agreed with Eliot, adding, "I don't want a decision tonight." He referred to Petropoulos 69 percent number, and said he "wanted a more realistic number. 69 percent of the time people were not there that are supposed to be there. I find it breathtaking that 69 percent of the time we don't have four people on duty. No wonder we are running out of money paying overtime all the time. I want to get more data."
Acting Chairman Selectman Josh Degen agreed with the need to investigate the overtime expenses, but wanted to allow Chief Bosselait to make the decision for an adequate staff level for a few weeks until the committee information was in. He estimated that it might cost $7K for the few weeks until a final decision could be made. Degen asked Chief Bosselait for his comment and he replied that it was a public safety issue. "In my opinion early on this affected our response (time) for medical" and other emergencies.
In the end, Degen advised his colleagues, "We shouldn't vote on something we don't understand" and volunteered to serve on the investigating committee.
Addressing a statistic included in Petropoulos's presentation, Haddad said the "69 percent of understaffing occurred during a heavy vacation period. It is unfair to present this. We need to study this and need to meet before we make a decision."
Petropoulos later acknowledged that the 69 percent number was a result of one of the full-time officers taking four continuous weeks of vacation.
Based on this year's budget request, Groton Police Department was audited for their overtime expenditures, looking back at several years. This audit supported the overtime requests from Police Chief Donald Palma and, as a result, the full Police Department request, some $80K is included in the FY2015 budget. A comparable audit has not been conducted for the Fire Department, but Haddad said one will be started in the very near future.
