Lorain firefighters in line for raise

LORAIN — Lorain firefighters will be getting a pay bump, if approved Monday by City Council. The Lorain Professional Firefighters Local No. 267 reached a memorandum of understanding with the city to restructure its pay — rolling in incentives the "vast majority" of firefighters qualify for anyway into the base salary, Union President Jon Stephanchick said. "The MOU on the table is part of our physical fitness testing bonus, this is one of the same things the cops gave up as well," he said. The restructuring will take a standard firefighter's base salary from $55,562 to $58,340. It impacts everyone in the department except Chief Chris Radman, whose salary is set by a separate ordinance. The change is retroactive to Jan. 1. The change is similar to that made to Lorain police salaries in May 2019, when several incentives were rolled into the base salary, and several pay grades were eliminated. When Lorain Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3 negotiated its pay changes more than a year ago, the percentage of its salaries changed triggered a 5 percent pay raise for nonunion employees throughout the city. FOP members received a rate increase of 3 percent in April 2019 after its agreement was reopened, and another roughly 12 percent bump from the May 2019 MOU to bring officers up to a "competitive wage" compared to neighboring departments. Nonbargaining members' annual raises are based on the average negotiated raises for the city's fire, police and United Steelworkers unions. The fire department's MOU would keep all of its pay grades, including the three-step probationary grades. Stephanchick stressed it was a pay restructuring, not an outright increase. Mayor Jack Bradley said the restructure was fair, given the arrangement worked out with the FOP last year, and he felt the change would help the city to retain firefighters and attract others to work in Lorain. He estimated the change would cost the city about $250,000 this year. While the city's budget is still uncertain due to COVID-19 and a subsequent drop in income tax revenue, Bradley said they will be able to use CARES Act funds to reimburse the General Fund for the portion of police and fire salaries paid out of it this year — roughly 10 percent of those department's salaries. "A good thing is that we received some new treasury guidelines this month that said that salaries for fire and police, in other words safety forces, can be 100 percent paid out of CARES Act money," he said. The ruling from the U.S. Department of the Treasury came out initially Sept. 2, with additional guidance Sept. 22, Bradley said. He plans to use roughly $1.3 million to pay for the portion of safety forces' base salaries, and overtime costs as allowed by the CARES Act. "That will help us with any shortfall in the general fund," he said. The city's general fund accounts for roughly $31.9 million. For Stephanchick and members of his union, the restructuring makes their pay more comparable with surrounding cities, but a full time firefighter in Lorain still makes almost $10,000 less than the average of comparable municipalities, according to data shared with The Chronicle-Telegram. The new base firefighter rate of $58,340 is about $1,900 more than LFD's counterparts in Elyria make, but is less than the full salaries for Euclid, Lakewood, Hamilton and Parma fire departments. Those city's firefighters' salaries range from around $64,900 to just over $77,000. "We're more than willing to work with (the city) within the constraints of the budget," Stephanchick said. "But we do expect to be treated fairly." City Council will meet 6 p.m. Monday Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.