Lorain firefighters receive pay restructuring

LORAIN — Lorain firefighters will see a boost in pay after City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with the union Monday evening. The Lorain Professional Firefighters Local No. 267 came to an agreement with the city to roll its physical fitness testing bonus into firefighters' base pay, similar to what the city's Fraternal Order of Police did in May 2019. Lorain firefighters union President Jon Stephanchick noted the point of the agreement is to help keep firefighters in the city, as the average starting salaries are well below similar cities with smaller populations and fewer fire calls. "We are drastically underpaid compared to surrounding cities and these cities are more realistic than Avon, Bay Village or Rocky River …" he said, using cities like Parma, Euclid and Lakewood for relative comparisons. "In the time I've been on the department we've had at least nine members leave for higher paying departments." The department's staffing stands at 65 firefighters split between the city's four stations. While they have not shuttered a station due to short staffing in the past couple of years, the department's manpower shortage has caused overtime to keep things like its tower truck running, he explained after the meeting. 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 and is pensionable. Union members are "giving back" the last quarter incentive for this year, worth around $55,000, Stephanchick said. Former union President Bret Brown said every time a firefighter goes out on a call, they are being exposed to cancer, shortening their average lifespan to about 67 years old and raising their risk for heart attacks and cancer by 20 percent. The concern for some was the fiscal fallout caused not by the firefighters' restructuring, but from a "me too" ordinance tying raises for nonbargaining employees to the average of the negotiated increases for the city's fire, police and United Steelworkers Local 6621 members. When Lorain FOP reached its agreement with the city last year — giving them an effective 12 percent bump by rolling in incentive pay, on top of a previously negotiated 3 percent increase — it triggered an unintended 5 percent raise for nonunion staff throughout the city. Auditor Karen Shawver said Monday evening the increase the firefighters negotiated was around 5 percent. Payments to firefighters will cost about $321,625, she noted in a fiscal impact statement, and another $110,000 to nonbargaining employees — costing around $431,625 this year. For the 2021 budget, the change is expected to cost about $429,436, including both fire and nonbargaining employees. The city now has an estimated year-end carryover of $569,574, not including refunds to the general fund from CARES Act funds used to offset police and fire salaries. Shawver said she doesn't want to "be gloom and doom" but there are shortfalls in the city's budget that can't be planned for — like the COVID-19 pandemic, the steel mills closing or a property tax exemption recently granted to a Cleveland Clinic building on Leavitt Road. "Unless you have a stable revenue surplus every year you can't plan for those types of things," she said. "… This year before COVID we'd planned on having about 1.8 million surplus at the end of the year. Of course nobody planned for COVID and luckily this year we've limped along, we've made it. … We have to plan for the future and that's what I'm trying to tell (Council). I'm not trying to say 'No, don't do this.' I'm not trying to rain on anybody's parade or be the party pooper. I am the finance officer of the city of Lorain and I need to make you aware of all the facts before you make your decision." Mayor Jack Bradley disagreed the raise is around 5 percent, stating it is closer to 3.6 percent after deducting the firefighters' last-quarter give back. CARES money will also refund about 10 percent of safety forces' salaries to the general fund meaning just under $2 million in revenue. Brown and Stephanchick argued the issue is not what the raise means for nonbargaining members in the city — but what is the right thing for their department's employees. "With that ordinance we go with the saying 'Two wrongs don't make a right,'" Brown said. "It was wrong for this city to not pay their leadership, their managers a competitive wage for many years. … But what was wrong was when we saw that issue, instead of paying them correctly we compared them to fire and police. He added, "We knew this day was coming, we knew the financial impact was coming and it's not our fault that an ordinance was passed that compared our salaries to someone else. … The fact of the matter is fire deserves a competitive salary." Council members sided with the union, many stating they deserve to be paid a competitive wage. Josh Thornsberry, D-8th Ward, said the raise is long overdue and Council needs to deal with the "me too" ordinance as its own issue, something several others agreed. Council voted unanimously for the agreement during a Special Call session following the discussion during the Police, Fire and Legislative Committee. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.