Firefighters Union Leave: They Use It For Campaigning and Taxpayers Get Hit Paying Lots of Overtime

What is going on with our county and the Fire Rescue union?  

Last fall the fire rescue union was pursuing a new union contract with the county. 

This agenda item appeared on the September 17, 2014 BOCC meeting agenda:

Fire Rescue Agenda BOCC agenda item

The agenda item states the reason for moving almost $2 million to Fire Rescue Personnel is "to cover unanticipated costs". It doesn't even state WHAT unanticipated costs are being covered. The private sector would never tolerate management being asked to approve any budget type request to move around monies for something as vague as "unanticipated costs". Vagueness can be a sign of attempting to hide something or wanting to not be transparent.

Before the September 17, 2014 meeting we contacted County Center asking what "unanticipated costs" is this agenda item covering. The answer was the monies were being moved to fire rescue Personnel Services to cover unanticipated pension and OVERTIME costs. The county budgets for fire rescue overtime but apparently so much overtime was used, the county needed to rob another fire rescue budget bucket to pay for all the overtime.

Interestingly, there were no questions publicly raised at the September 17 BOCC meeting. Nothing was said about what specifically the unanticipated costs were, why they happened or the impact to the funds where the money was being moved from. 

The agenda item B-5 was immediately approved by the BOCC, unanimously as usual, no questions asked. Their approval can be found at 47:11 on the September 17, 2014 HTV video and here is the transcript:

RON ROGERS: GOOD MORNING, AND THANK YOU, COMMISSIONERS.RON ROGERS, FIRE CHIEF FOR FIRE RESCUE, AND MUCH LIKE COMMISSIONER MURMAN, I'M STRUGGLE STRUGGLING WITH SOME ALLERGY ISSUES HERE, SO BEG YOUR FORGIVENESS.  I'M HERE TODAY TO PRESENT A BUDGET AMENDMENT TO REALIGN $600 BUDGET AMENDMENT TO REALIGN $600,000 FROM FIRE RESCUE'S CAPITAL FUNDS TO PERSONNEL SERVICES TO COVER UNANTICIPATED COSTS AND TO REALIGN $1.35MILLION IN OUR OPERATING FUND TO OUR PERSONNEL SERVICES FUND TO, AGAIN, COVER UNANTICIPATED COSTS IN OUR PAYROLL (emphasis mine). THE -- THIS RESULTS IN THE ACTION WILL REDUCE FIRE RESCUE'S CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT FOR EQUIPMENT REPLACEMENT FROM 2.1 MILLION TO 1.5 MILLION (emphasis mine). THIS WILL HAVE NO IMPACT ON COUNTY RESERVES. AND I'LL BE HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE  .>>SANDRA MURMAN: MOVE APPROVAL.>>LES MILLER, JR.: SECOND.  >>MARK SHARPE: OKAY.WE HAVE A MOTION OF APPROVAL FOR THE REALIGNMENT OF $600,000 FOR FIRE AND RESCUE. THAT'S FOR ITEM B-5. MOTION MADE BY COMMISSIONER MURMAN, IT WAS SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER MILLER. PLEASE RECORD YOUR VOTE  >>RECORDING SECRETARY: MOTION CARRIED 6-0.

Why would the county commissioners allow such vagueness for an agenda item concerning $2 million of our tax dollars? They have oversight responsibility of our county budget. It should be clear to the commissioners and to the public why the county is having to move these funds.

Even if the movement of these dollars did not impact the budget bottom line, it did negatively impact the fire rescue Capital budget which is for equipment, facilities, etc. and the operating fund. What if there is a systemic underlying problem that needs to be addressed? Could other problems be created regarding the funds negatively impacted?

Maybe now we know why there was a need to cover so much overtime.

Channel 10's Investigative Reporter Mike Deeson recently reported about fire rescue workers campaigning for politicians on the taxpayer dime:

While a six-page county policy says "no county employee shall take any active part in political activity while on duty," it's happening. 

And the firefighters not only spending your money to campaign, but also they're all backing candidates they believe will be generous on new contracts. 

And to cover these firefighters' shifts while they're campaigning, the fire department brings in another firefighter who then is paid time and half leading to the big overtime issue (emphasis mine).

According to Deeson's report:

County Administrator Mike Merrill contends that a firefighter is free to campaign because union leave is like personal time off, "Under the union contract it is the equivalent of a vacation day."

But Merrill should know union leave is clearly not vacation as former union president Karl Schmitt was dismissed in 2007 because he put in for union leave, when in fact his leave was for personal use, vacation.

The statement from Merrill is disturbing. From a Public Records Request we received the new and the old union contracts. Article 43 in the contract clearly states that union leave is supposed to be used for union business and to perform union duties. Union leave is not for personal time off equivalent to a vacation day and union leave certainly should not to be used for participating in campaign activity at taxpayer expense.

Union Leave from union contract

Also from a Public Records Request, we received information regarding who took union leave time off between March 15, 2014 and September 15, 2014. A total of 2,207.75 hours of union leave was taken off for 30 fire fighters over that 6 month period. Firefighter Kenneth Forward had the highest number of union leave hours of anyone - a whopping 395.75 hours. That is almost TEN forty hour work weeks. That is 38% of normal work time taken off for union leave in a 6 month period of approximately 26 weeks. Can anyone ask Mr. Forward EXACTLY what union business he was doing for those 10 weeks he was off on union leave? While all apparently legal, common sense forces the question if that is reasonable or not or absurd.

Union Leave hours between 3/15/2014-9/15/2014

We received the actual dates that the union workers took off for union leave during that six month period also via a Public Records Request. That information can be found here. Nine of the thirty took union leave on Primary Election Day August 26, 2014. After Deeson's report, was that a coincidence?

We too discovered that when a union worker takes union leave, the county must pay their replacement time and a half. The taxpayer is paying regular time for the union worker taking union leave and overtime for their replacement. This is not fair to taxpayers but most taxpayers do not know this. Why doesn't the time and a half come out of the union bank?

The fire rescue union was pursuing their new contract during our last election cycle. 

Candidates do not control who donates to them or endorses them. An online search finds who the fire rescue union endorsed in the county commission races last year: Rich Cochran, Victor Crist, Al Higginbothan. Commissioner Ken Hagan did not have a challenger. Donations from the fire rescue union PAC to all of these candidates can be found at the SOE website.

We encourage everyone to get out and vote but we are also mindful that the new fire rescue contract was being negotiated during last year's election cycle. An online search found this newsletter from firefighter Ken Forward, the union worker who took the whopping 10 weeks of union leave time off during a six month period. He is Vice-President of the union. 

Fire Rescue Union Campaign Assistance letter

The fire rescue union must have felt they had so much to gain or lose with their new contract. Now there's evidence that some fire rescue union members used their taxpayer funded union leave to campaign for the candidates the union endorsed.

Voila! The new fire rescue contract was approved, again unanimously with no questions asked, at the October 15, 2014 BOCC meeting. This is a very complex contract and the County Administrator stated it was posted on the website with the agenda last week and there was transparency to the process.

However, there was no indication from any county commissioners that they had read the complex contract, understood what they were approving or whether it was a good contract.  How will this new contract impact future budgets and pensions after these commissioners are gone? Did the commissioners read the contract or simply rely on county staff to tell them everything is A-OK and that the increased costs were already conveniently accommodated for in the FY2015 budget? 

If this was a negotiation, what did the county get? Did the county get anything or did the union get everything they asked for? Did the county give up anything? Was this contract negotiated in good faith for both county taxpayers and fire rescue union workers? Is it a good contract for both?

We don't know because not one county commissioner publicly asked a question or said a word except to make an immediate motion to approve. Due to our Sunshine laws, the county commission meetings are the only place the commissioners can collectively and publicly discuss the contract and there was not a word spoken.

The BOCC unanimous approval of the new fire rescue contract can be found at 1:48 on the HTV video of the October 15, 2014 meeting. The transcript of the vote is below:

LORI KRIECK, HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT.  ITEM B-11.THIS CONTRACT CONTAINS A NEW PAY PLAN STRUCTURE THAT IS IN PARITY PLAN STRUCTURE THAT IS IN PARITY WITH SIMILAR JURISDICTIONS SIMILAR IN SIZE,STRUCTURE, OR GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION.STAFF RECOMMENDS THAT THE BOARD RATIFY AND APPROVE THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AND THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS LOCAL 2294, SUPPRESSION AND SUPERVISORY UNITS, EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 1st, 2014, TO SEPTEMBER30th, 2017.  THE ESTIMATED FISCAL IMPACT ASSOCIATED WITH THE CONTRACT IS INCORPORATED AND ACCOMMODATED IN THE FY 15 BUDGET AND WILL BE SIMILARLY ADDRESSED IN FUTURE BUDGETS.  >>MARK SHARPE: THANK YOU.BOARD MEMBERS  .>>KEN HAGAN: MOVE APPROVAL.>>MARK SHARPE: OKAY. >> SECOND  .>>MARK SHARPE: NO COMMENT FROM BOARD (emphasis mine)?  IS WE HAVE A MOTION OF APPROVAL.THAT WAS MADE BY -- WAS IT MADE BY COMMISSIONER HAGAN? OUR SECOND WAS COMMISSIONER MILLER.  B-11. PLEASE RECORD YOUR VOTE.>>RECORDING SECRETARY: MOTION CARRIED 7-0 (emphasis mine).

Public comments were made on this agenda item at the beginning of the October 15, 2014 meeting. The comments raised questions about the contract and requested the county commissioners step back to revisit the contract to ensure they understand it. Still, there were no questions asked by any commissioner. Of course, this was right before the November election.

From fire rescue union workers campaigning on the taxpayer dime to the amount of union leave hours racked up by some union workers to forcing taxpayers to pay overtime and 2.5 times to cover union leave, something is not right.

Deeson also reported this from County Administrator Mike Merrill:

While Merrill contends the union leave for campaigning is not unusual, "That is a pretty common occurrence for union contracts. It's not illegal, I wouldn't even say its unethical." (emphasis mine)

Not unethical? Is this more tone deafness at County Center? A statement like that creates more distrust and more reasons why taxpayers are skeptical whether our county is wisely and prudently spending our current tax dollars. Using union leave to go campaign for candidates the union endorses at taxpayer expense that costs taxpayers 2.5 times is outrageous. It is not fair to taxpayers footing the bill.  

If taxpayers and voters knew this was going on, we bet they would disagree with Merrill. Most probably they would be outraged and think using union leave on taxpayer dime to go campaign should be illegal.

As Deeson's article stated:

...when firefighters in Orlando were doing the exact same thing, not only did the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigate, but also a grand jury determined, "The union activities to be a violation of the public trust, poor stewardship of public money and should be prohibited."

We respect the firefighters and the duties they perform but something must be done about this issue. The fire rescue union workers contract should be amended to clearly state union leave paid for by taxpayers cannot be used for ANY political activity and include real consequences if found in violation.

In addition, the county needs to STOP forcing taxpayers to pay Overtime to pay for replacements of those taking union leave!