by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Add the City’s labor negotiations with its firefighters to the list of delays caused by Hurricane Frances.
One of the Fire and Rescue Department’s top negotiators said he expects a new contract as early as next week, but said the deal could be stalled by the approaching storm. The department’s old contract expired shortly after Mayor John Peyton took office last July. In the interim, the department has worked under the previous terms. Larry Osborne, business agent for the Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters, said a new deal could be signed by Tuesday.
“If we have electricity, running water and all that, we should be coming to an agreement soon,” said Osborne.
The hurricane joins a long list of high-profile developments that have diverted Peyton’s attention from negotiations, said Osborne. First there was Peyton’s inaugural budget, due just 30 days after he took office. That was followed by controversy over the construction budget for the new Duval County Courthouse, a dispute with developer TriLegacy over its use of $37 million of City money, squabbles with the City Council over other public projects and the omnipresent Super Bowl preparations.
“He’s certainly had a full schedule,” said Osborne. “You take office, you have to finish your budget in a month, and that coincides with negotiating a contract for 1,200 firefighters. I don’t envy him.”
Peyton did find time in his first year to renovate deteriorating fire stations and buy new equipment for the department. Now the hope from the department is that the mayor will be similarly aggressive in addressing a pay scale that Osborne said puts Jacksonville at a competitive disadvantage in attracting qualified firefighters.
“The mayor’s choice was to address our needs in equipment and stations first,” said Osborne. “He promised a safer city, and certainly he delivered on that.”
But starting pay in the department is stuck around $25,000 a year, about the same as when Peyton took office. That puts Jacksonville behind most large departments in the state, including Palm Beach ($37,370), Orange County ($34,572), even Gainesville ($32,937).
According to Firehouse magazine, Jacksonville’s department was Florida’s second busiest in 2003, trailing only Miami-Dade County. Jacksonville’s department responded to 112,800 calls last year compared to about 197,000 in Miami, and about 80,000 in Orange County.
Unless Jacksonville raises its starting pay it risks losing top candidates to other departments, said Osborne. The quality of hires is particularly important now as the City seeks to fill hundreds of annual job openings left by an early retirement program.
“Yes we have people applying to fill those posts, but the concern becomes if they’re going to be the same quality people,” said Osborne. “The effect of those retirements will really be felt when our younger people have to start filling leadership roles in a size we haven’t seen before. We’d like to be able to go after people with experience in other departments instead of hiring people off the street.”
Instead, Osborne said he’s seen a trickle of department veterans leaving Jacksonville for St. Johns and Nassau counties.
The salary disparity didn’t start with Peyton, nor is he likely to solve it in a couple years. Jacksonville has been falling behind since the mid-1990s. Osborne said the low-tax climate fostered by a succession of mayors has created a difficult climate in which to argue for pay raises.
“When we negotiate our contract, we always stay within the framework of the existing budget. We know better than to go to them with a package that requires them to raise taxes, because we know they are just not going to do that,” said Osborne.
Due to the department’s strong support of Peyton throughout his campaign and first year in office, people often assume the firefighters are simply given the keys to the City treasury come contract time. Osborne said the reality is starkly different.
“Just look at the numbers and you’ll see that doesn’t bear out,” he said. “Our relationship may be a little more cordial, but he’s not going to just give away the store. He’s got 19 Council members he’s got to get it through and the press as well.”
Despite some frustration within the department at the pace of negotiations, Osborne said Jacksonville firefighters still stand behind Peyton.
“If we knew the City was making an enormous amount, we probably would be a little impatient, but we know that’s not the case,” said Osborne.