The cost of paramedic training got special attention in the recently approved Sanford firefighters’ contract. Photo: Bobbsled via Creative Commons
By Lee Burnett
The new labor contracts that Sanford City Council approved separately for firefighters and police personnel last week call for significant wage increases, above a 3% cost-of-living increase.
City Manager Steve Buck said the extra pay is warranted to keep pace with the “highly competitive” regional labor market and “extraordinary pressure” on wages.
Buck said all communities in the region are struggling to attract and retain employees. “They’re hunting for all the same people and throwing money at the situation on a regular basis,” he said.
Firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics and captains will see increases of between 6.5% and 9.6%, depending on seniority and certifications, according to Buck’s presentation to the council. The wage increases put Sanford in the “middle of the pack” in the region, following the development of a market analysis comparing pay in 12-18 comparable communities, he said.
The contract costs $231,000 more than had been originally budgeted and will need to be addressed at future council meetings, according to Buck. Ratification by the Sanford Firefighters Association Local 1624 was pending.
The expense of paramedic training gets special attention in the contract. The Fire Department maintains certification for advanced life support, an elevated level of medical care, including dealing with life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks. Sanford expects to pay for training eight new paramedics in the coming years. The contract includes a clawback provision, requiring paramedics to reimburse the city for the cost of their training if they leave city employment within five years.
The contract also allows the city to reduce the occasions for sending large trucks on medical calls by sending a paramedic in a “fly car” to accompany ambulance calls, he said.
Firefighters will get credentialing credit for any education received through military service.
In the Police Department, officers opted to maintain a wage system based on educational level and rank rather than stipends for various training levels and credentials. After a comparative wage analysis, “they recognized the value of that,” Buck said. Military service can be counted toward educational attainment, as in the Fire Department.
Mental health first responders and the animal control officer that had been a non-union position will be included in the contract.
Wage rates were linked to cost of living plus a competitiveness adjustment, based on a market analysis similar to the firefighters.
The new contract will cost $249,000 more than budgeted, which will also need to be addressed in future council meetings, Buck said.
Buck also provided an overview of the contract bargaining environment, which he said has improved dramatically since the city abandoned adversarial bargaining and moved to a problem-solving approach, called “interspaced” bargaining.
In adversarial bargaining, parties approach each other with unachievable demands on each and every contract point. “It’s such a waste of time,” he said.
Under interspaced bargaining, the administration meets with rank-and-file staffers on a regular basis throughout the year to solve work challenges as they develop. It provides staff with “ownership” of the department and “how it’s going to move forward to achieve the overall position.”
The formal negotiations grow out of “what you’ve been talking about month after month after month” and become a more dispassionate process of discussing what needs to be done to maintain competitiveness and address changing work conditions. “Other than that, it’s just not rocket science anymore,” he said. “… you’re not asking for something you’re not going to get.”
He credited the firefighters’ union for initiating the process about 15 years ago by paying for a consultant to provide education.
The post City OKs Raises for Many in Police, Fire Departments appeared first on Sanford Springvale News.
