Tough Times Ahead for Longmeadow- Part II

Monday, November 30 is the next Longmeadow Tri-Board (Select Board, School Committee and Finance Committee) meeting during which serious dialog about the FY11 budget process will begin. Select Board chair Bobby Barkett stated at a recent SB meeting that this next Tri-Board meeting was likely to be “very contentious” because of the difficult financial issues facing the town and the likely need to make significant cuts in both town and school services in order to balance the FY11 budget. The difficulties in setting priorities for cutting town and school services presents some major challenges for our elected leaders.

In my previous post summarizing the Tri-Board’s first meeting on October 19, I highlighted some of the major financial issues facing the town of Longmeadow including the following….

• There are continuing significant reductions in state aid for the current FY10.


• The Longmeadow Teachers, Firefighters, Police and other town employee unions have not as yet settled contract negotiations for FY10 and beyond. Each 1% annual increase in COLA would be an additional $300,000 in annual budget costs. The current FY10 budget does not include any COLA provisions.
  
  
• Longmeadow faces a projected $2.1 million budget deficit in FY11 without consideration of the financial impact of current union contract negotiations.

As labor contract negotiations continue without agreement, significant budget uncertainties are created which makes the upcoming budget process even that much more difficult. Let me explain further….

• Assume that both unions agree to a 1% COLA adjustment for the current year and for each of the next two years.


• This COLA would add an additional $900,000 in additional operational costs to the FY10 (+$300,000) and FY11 (+$600,000) budgets.


• The total budget deficit (FY10 [adjusted] + FY11) that must be dealt with by the Tri-Board would balloon to $3,000,000.

The Town currently has very little free cash (appropriated most of it at the October 27 Special Town Meeting); there are monies in special purpose reserves funds (water/ sewer, CPA, etc.) and $2.2 million in the Operational Stabilization Fund (OSF) which is considered the “rainy day” account for funding special circumstances and events. According to Mark Barowsky- Finance Committee chairman, a portion of the money from the last successful Proposition 2½ override ($2.15 million- Fall 2007) was placed in this OSF account for use to maintain services for FY08 --> FY10 and beyond so it might be considered for possible use to help balance the FY11 budget.

Recent efforts led by Town Manager Robin Crosbie and Select Board member Mark Gold to identify new revenue sources ($>10K) which might help balance the FY11 and beyond budgets have not been highly successful and do not seem likely to significantly improve the FY11 revenue situation.

To make the financial crisis facing the Town even more difficult.... it is likely that taxpayers will be asked to vote at the Annual Town Meeting next April (and Town Elections in June) in favor of a Proposition 2½ “debt exclusion” override to fund the new High School project. The Massachusetts School Building Authority has recently approved Longmeadow’s new High School project –estimated at ~ $80+ million- and allowed it to move forward to the Schematic Design phase. It has been estimated by the Longmeadow School Building Committee that approval and passage of this project by town voters will add ~ $1 to the current mil rate which translates to ~ $300/year for a house assessed at $300,000 (~6% increase in annual taxes).

The Town can certainly decide to allocate a portion of the monies in the OSF to help balance the upcoming FY11 budget but not without other implications. If the Town uses a significant portion of the OSF to avoid major services reductions for the upcoming FY11, then there could be a large impact on our bond rating (lower rating --> increased interest costs) when we go forward with the new high school project unless the Town shows how it plans to meet growing budget shortfall in future years (FY2012 --> FY2015).

If one looks at Longmeadow’s annual budget for both school and town related services, you will see that the major component is employee salaries. Any significant reduction in budget spending via reduced town/ school services means employee layoffs. A previous post on LongmeadowBuzz blog asked teachers and other unions to consider a 0% COLA for FY10 as a good faith effort to help avoid/ minimize town employee layoffs.

I would not like to see headlines in the local newspapers….

followed by:

Given today’s financial reality for many town residents, it will be difficult for Longmeadow voters pass two large Proposition 2½ overrides come next spring. The last successful override in the Fall 2007 passed by only a small majority (6 votes with a 41% voter turnout). We need a new high school but we also need to maintain the quality of life and town related services that make Longmeadow a great place to live.

Let’s hope that both our town leaders can successfully navigate these turbulent financial waters.

Some Good News!

Press Release from Longmeadow Select Board

The Longmeadow Select Board voted at its meeting on October 19 to not move forward with Article 13 of the Special Town Meeting, concerning limits on employee work hours. Recent developments have fostered renewed optimism that scheduling issues can be resolved through the collective bargaining process.

Is the “24 hour shift” safety issue a “red herring”?

The first indications that contract negotiations between the Town of Longmeadow and the Firefighters Union were not going very well occurred at the Select Board Meeting on September 22. During the comments period at the beginning of the meeting, Robert Taylor, president of the local Firefighters Union read a strongly worded message charging the Town Manager and the Select Board of not acting in good faith during the ongoing collective bargaining process.

Then, there was the Public Forum on October 7 at Glenbrook Middle School regarding a proposed Special Town Meeting Warrant Article. At this forum the Select Board was seeking public input on the question of public employees working scheduled shifts of greater than 14 hours per day. I attended this public forum and found the discussion to be quite concerning and contentious. The Town Manager and Select Board argued that there were safety concerns for both town residents and firefighters with the move to a longer shift schedule. Firefighter representatives and other speakers argued that the move to a 24 hour shift schedule was being successfully used by 75% of the fire departments in Massachusetts and actually resulted in less sleep deprivation and safety issues as compared to the current shorter duration 10/14 hour shift schedules. Threats of additional lawsuits and additional town charter changes for self interest were made.

A statement made by one of the firefighters’ representatives at the forum confused me.

...The Select Board has already proposed a 24 hour work shift but with a longer work week. How can the Select Board now use the safety issue to argue against 24 hour shifts?

I walked away from the town forum with considerably less conviction about my previous support for the Select Board position. From the tone of the discussion it also sounded like this disagreement was going to be settled in the courts at the expense of us taxpayers. The most surprising thing was that this controversy involved a small group of 21 firefighters whose union in the past has almost been invisible to town residents.

In an effort to better understand this controversy, I spent some time last Saturday night at the Longmeadow Fire Station talking with John Dearborn- a long time firefighter about fire/ medical emergency coverage and long shifts. John convinced me that 2- 24 hour shifts can actually result in less sleep related problems than the current 2-10 hr + 2-14 hour shifts and that the system has built-in mechanisms to monitor fatigue and to adapt to long hours.

Below is a schematic outline of the current schedule….

[click to enlarge chart]

You can see from the above chart that on day 6 of a typical 8 day schedule, a firefighter will get only 10 hours time off between 2- 14 hour night shifts and that time off comes during the day which may make it difficult to get needed rest. John explained to me that going to a 24 hour shift schedule was simply running the 10 hr + 14 hr shifts back-to-back into a 24 hour shift.

A firefighter’s schedule seems a lot more complicated than what I was exposed to during my work career. Occasionally, I did work 24 hour shifts on plant coverage and in most cases it was without “house rest”. My work experience was in large part why I originally supported the Town Manager/ Select Board to change the Town Charter and block the move to 24 hour shift schedules because of safety related concerns.

John Dearborn also shared with me that all affected department members are in favor of the change to a 24 hour schedule.

Here is the red herring question…
Are there additional reasons other than safety for the Town Manager/ Select Board to block by extraordinary means (by changing the Town Charter) the move to a 24 hour shift schedule by the Longmeadow Fire Department?

Unless the Town Manager/ Select Board can provide stronger evidence for the safety related issues regarding longer work hours or identify other reasons, I would urge town voters to attend the upcoming Special Town Meeting on October 27 and vote NO on Article 13.

In addition, I would encourage both the Town Manager/ Select Board and Firefighters Union to return to the collective bargaining process where this type of issue should be resolved and not allow it to move to the courtroom wherein our taxpayer money would be spent in a less than desirable manner.

Longmeadow Fire Department- 24 hour shifts

There were indications at this week’s Select Board meeting that contract negotiations between the Town of Longmeadow and the Firefighters Union are not going very well. During the comments period at the beginning of the meeting, Robert Taylor, president of the local firefighters union read a strongly worded message charging the Town Manager and the Select Board of not acting in good faith during the ongoing collective bargaining process. In support of these comments, there were at least six firefighters and a few members of the Longmeadow Police Dept in attendance.

For those of us who were unaware of some of the issues currently being discussed (collective bargaining meetings are not open to the public), the harsh comments were completely unexpected.

While I am not privy to any confidential collective bargaining information, here is some background information leading up to this public criticism….

• The Longmeadow firefighters are interested in changing their normal hours of employment from 8 hour shifts to 24 hour shifts. Rather than work 8 hour shifts, they are lobbying to consider working 2- 24 hour shifts/ week. The firefighters union will argue that they are entitled to choose their own shift schedule. According to the International Association of Fire Fighters website (http://www.iaff.org/) one possible shift rotation is as follows: (24 hours on/ 48-72 hours off/ 24 hours on).
  
  Correction: According to the recent comments, the Longmeadow Fire Department works two consecutive 10 hour day shifts followed by 2 consecutive 14 hour night shifts. They do not work "8 hour shifts" and the normal work schedule is 48 hours/week.
  
• The Select Board just announced the following public hearing:
  
  There will be a public forum on October 7 at 7 PM at the Glenbrook Middle School auditorium, regarding a Special Town Meeting Warrant Article. At this forum the Select Board will be seeking public input on the question of public employees working scheduled shifts of greater than 14 hours per day. All employees of the Town of Longmeadow would fall under the auspices of this proposal: DPW Employees, Park Department Employees, Firefighters, EMT/Ambulance Service, Clerical Employees, Police and Teachers.
  
  The proposed STM warrant article reads as follows:
  
  Article ___: To see if the Town will vote to insert the following new provision in the Town Charter:
  
  Section 7-10: Limitation of Hours of Work
  
  No employee of the Town shall be regularly scheduled to work for the Town more than 14 continuous hours in any midnight to midnight 24 hour period.
  
  
• There have been arbitration rulings upholding the right of firefighters to select their own shift schedule. It would appear that the Select Board is trying to block the ability of the firefighters union to change to the 24 hour shift schedule by changing the town charter. It is interesting to note that the town charter can be changed with a simple 2/3 vote at the upcoming fall special town meeting.

Why should the Select Board oppose the 24 hour shift change?

1. Would you want to have a medical emergency and have the paramedic(s) who responds be in the 23rd hour of a 24 hour shift?
   
2. There are also concerns about the personal safety and health of our firefighters. Medical studies have shown that sleep deprivation can have significant adverse effects on physical health and well-being. In addition, there are job performance issues as well including poorer judgement and reaction times.
   
3. In many cases the reasons for this shift change is a desire to work a second full time job for increased income. It is possible that the responding firefighter or paramedic will have worked many more hours in a week than the current shift schedule allows.
   
4. How do you cover sick leave/ vacation time? Are additional personnel or reduced staffing likely to be needed? What is the impact on the fire department budget

The above are only a couple of reasons why the Select Board should consider a change in the Town Charter to block this change to a 24 hour shift schedule.

For additional information and commentary read The Slow Death of the 24-Hour Tour that was posted on Mu+ual Aid- a fire chief blog.

I would encourage everyone to consider attending the Public Forum on October 7 to provide feedback to the Select Board and to attend the Special Town Meeting on October 27 to pass the warrant article changing the town charter.