i just signed a a petition against the lay off on June 13th of the first Edwardsville Fireman. What is happening to this city? We need all our Police and Firemen!

The budget crunch and the fact that the county over valued one of the local companies by about 5 million and after the company won their appeal, the city is forced to refund over 200,000 dollars that had been budgeted.

The FD actually got a little overstaffed under the former administration that was spending money before they actually got it.

The PD isn't filling one open position.

I hate to say it, but it always bugs me when politicians say they want to hire as many police and firemen as possible. Somebody made that comment this year, but I can't recall who.

As many as possible? That doesn't make sense. Nobody runs a household budget and buys "as many as possible" of anything.

In my mind, for police and firemen, there is a right number and two wrong numbers (too few and too many).

I don't know what those numbers are supposed to be, because I don't have any resources, but it just bugs me when somebody claims they're going to hire as many as possible.

It'll be interesting to see how Bishop votes on this.

whoops. this is tnt. sorry.

The same person that said that during the campaign was one of those responsible for over hiring in the first place. Broman. He also was a party to allow part time officers to be hired at a higher pay rate than the regular officers and even pay them over time. It was their way to buy supporters.

Thankfully those 'back in the day' times are over and gone. And like the plague, won't miss them in the least it. Now the Piper has to be paid due to the Economy, It is regrettable they can't get rid of the one's that were hired during that time and not the lowest man on the hiring list.

I can understand the necessity of laying off a couple due to the City's budget needs, doesn't mean I have to like it.

You are absolutely right Harmony. As with gravity crap always seems to roll down hill.

What does the union agreement say about the minimum staffing requirements of the Fire Department? I'm not sure if this would play any part in the City's position or not.

The minimum staffing is three per shift. Currently they are running with
5 / 5 / 4.
I don't agree with the three, four is reasonable. 90% of the calls could probably be handled by two since those are medical related.

Piute is right again running the FD with 4 on each shift would be totally acceptable. I don't know if the PD even has that luxury.

I know laying off or fuloughing someone is a hard decision to make, however not even our Council can control the economic imbalance that is going on. Times are tough and tough decisions have to be made. (Only if we WANT to be able to make it as a City anyway.)

On the PD side, the FOP met and agreed to give up two or three of hteir paid holidays along with some holiday pay that they usually recieve and have made internal cutbackd to help out on their part, and they are not fully staffed and are not going to be filling any positions.

GREAT JOB PD !!

yes, i can see need for only 4 on per shift.

is the FD running 2 out on 622 for medicals and leaving 2 back at the station in case of calls other than medicals? this would allow a 621 or 623 to respond immediately calls other than medical and the 2 on 622 at the medical could always leave the medical and respond to the other type of call if ambulance personnel were at the scene.

I signed the petition that was left at the gas station...when I attended the city council meeting, May 11, the lady (I presume) that started the petition got up and spoke during the "public comments" of the meeting...she explained that she understood the financial predicament the city is in with the appraisal of Millard...she asked why, as a city, couldn't we combine our fire department with Kansas City, Kansas....I was upset with that comment, knowing that I signed the petition, and agree that noone should lose their job...but to back up a statement like that with over 600 petition signatures isn't right...it's not what the petition was about.

I am certain that a petition with that language in it ( combining fire departments ) would not have been signed by nearly as many. Sounds like a page out of the Washington DC playbook.

i will remove my sig if that is a fact also! just tell me how and when!

same here

looks like WAR!!!


http://www.bonnersprings.com/news/2009/jul/15/edwardsville-firefighter-dispute-continues/
During the Edwardsville City Council meeting Monday, City Administrator Michael Webb announced the laid off firefighter, James Befort, had procured another job with the Lenexa Police Department.

After the meeting, Mayor John “Tiny” McTaggart made his stance clear on the subject as well.

“He’s gone. That’s it,” McTaggart said.

But ask Bob Wing, president of the International Association of Firefighter, Local 64, which has been negotiating with the city since news got out of the potential layoff, and he’ll tell you a different story.

“If they think just because Befort has a job offer, and if he accepts it, this issue goes away, they’re mistaken,”

Is Befort the firefighter that was going to be layed off ? Is that senior or junior ?

The young Befort is the one that got laid off.

Did he technically get laid off, or did he leave and they didn't backfill him?

He was laid off.

Ok, now I'm confused.

I thought the city was planning to lay one off, but the union staged a protest and the city council agreed not to lay one off.

Now they're saying one was laid off. I am confused!

I'm with you TNT, confused. I have ask about 6 times for any details on the agreement that was made to end the protest, I have yet to hear anything. If Befort has indeed procured a job with Lenexa, I don't quite get the need to make a war out of it. The police department did their share by not filling an open position, now the fire department will be doing the same thing. It sounds like they had an agreement worked out on days off until the fire department decided they should be paid for those days. Huh...that doesn't save much money.

Bottom line is your own chief set the number to safely operate a rig at 4. Either he was wrong, to which I would ask why, or he was right and there is no need for the 5th person.

Now Edwardsville is going to lay off more Firemen if the Fireman don’t switch over to the Police Department and become Police Officers because the last Police Officer they just hired quit. So now there are 2-3 Police Officers short. Why can’t the police department retain officers? Why such a high turn over rate? Could it be the City and Police Management?

Uhm, doubtful it's city and police management. Neither of those have been around for long and I honestly can't remember the last time police turnover wasn't high.

Try again.