A city ordinance that mandates minimum fire staffing will remain on the books for now, but Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray says the debate is far from over.
“I’m going to bring it up every year that I’m on the council,” Gray said after the council’s 4-3 vote Tuesday against repealing the ordinance. “What this amounts to is having hands around the throat of the taxpayer.”
Gray said revoking the ordinance would have given the city more leverage in contract negotiations with the Omaha firefighters union.
He encountered fierce opposition from both the union and the Fire Department. Union President Steve Le Clair said he was relieved that the council voted down the proposal.
The ordinance, passed in 2000, requires minimum staffing levels in each of the Fire Department’s bureaus as well as four firefighters per truck. The provisions mirror language in the union contract.
Gray said the ordinance is “patently unfair.”
Councilman Chris Jerram, who voted against repeal, said the issue is not about leverage in contract talks.
“It’s about when an alarm goes off and a family is counting on our services (that) there are four firefighters on a truck,’’ Jerram said. “As a matter of policy, I want an ordinance that upholds that principle.”
If the ordinance were repealed and fire staffing reduced in contract negotiations, the city could save as much as $7 million, some council members have said.
But that money would have no effect on the 2009 or 2010 budgets, both of which face major revenue shortfalls due in part to the recession.
Councilwoman Jean Stothert, who voted in favor of repeal, said it was a good time to look at such measures because “they are relevant and timely due to the city’s growing financial problems.”
Plus, she added, the current ordinance “doesn’t leave anybody any wiggle room to do anything. We’re absolutely bound to that because it is the law.”
Franklin Thompson joined Gray and Stothert in voting for the repeal ordinance, while Jerram, Garry Gernandt, Pete Festersen and Chuck Sigerson voted against.
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