By Teresa McMinn
Cumberland Times-News, Md.
CUMBERLAND, Md. — Plans to address a $2 million budget deficit at the Department of Emergency Services will probably include employee layoffs and reduced coverage of some areas, Allegany County Administrator Jason Bennett said.
The financial problem is part of the county’s $13.1 million shortfall for fiscal 2025.
To solve the problem, in May, the Allegany County International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1715, which represents 46 full-time DES employees, proposed a public safety tax that would cost the average homeowner $6 per month and generate roughly $2.4 million in revenue.
But county commissioners refused that idea, and will now “put pens to paper” and cut costs, Bennett said.
He read a prepared statement about the issue at a county commissioners meeting Thursday.
Late last week, DES union members rejected a county proposal to switch to 12-hour rather than 24-hour work shifts for up to a dozen employees, and removal of a uniform and apparel benefit, Bennett said.
“We estimated these changes would allow us to save as much as $625,000 per fiscal year,” he said. “They voted to deny both changes.”
Emergency Management Services received a higher budget cut than other departments, Bennett said.
“This is because their expenditures have increased at an astronomical rate over the last few years that we simply cannot keep up with,” he said. “Additionally, there are categories within their expenditures increases that we believe can be managed better. At the top of that list, is overtime.”
The annual base salary for a seasoned, full-time clinician is roughly $60,000, Bennett said.
“The total amount spent on overtime in FY 24 was $1.1 million,” he said. “And it’s been close to or significantly over $1 million every year for four years in a row.”
Much of the overtime pay is caused when a worker must cover a shift for a clinician that calls off, Bennett said.
“Those mandated shifts are paid at double time, as opposed to the regular overtime rate of time and a half,” he said. “So each time a clinician calls off and someone is mandated to stay, they are getting double time for a full 24-hour shift.”
The county does not “want our employees to lose their jobs and we do not want our residents to receive decreased coverage in their communities,” Bennett said. “We are at a point now, without the flexibility to schedule and staff in 12-hour increments, where we will have to start making those hard decisions.”
Over the next few weeks, county leadership will draft plans for commissioners to review, he said.
“They will likely involve layoffs, and decreased coverage times at certain stations,” Bennett said. “We will be leaning on the remaining volunteer community to fill in those gaps.”
‘We should have more staff’
Steve Corioni, president of Allegany County IAFF Local 1715, responded to the county’s statement on Friday.
“On day one of the conversations concerning the budget crisis we outlined how management could help control overtime costs by minimizing mandates, with no changes to our contract, yet they continue to mandate people for coverage, while still complaining about overtime costs,” he said.
“The fact that a few employees are earning excess amounts of overtime shows that obviously we should have more staff, not less, to cover vacant shifts,” Corioni said.
“Our cadre of part-time employees needs rebuilding,” he said. “We’ve lost several full-time employees over the recent threats of layoffs and scheduling changes, thus creating even more vacant shifts.”
Now, with a hiring freeze in place, “we have no way to fill those vacancies,” Corioni said. “Management continues to create overtime vacancies, while simultaneously complaining about the costs of overtime.”
The union members “are disappointed that they have disengaged from conversations and are troubled that they are still considering layoffs and cuts in service to the citizens despite the public opposition that was voiced at previous commissioners meetings,” he said.
“We think that there has to be a way to fund the system without cuts to public safety, and urge the commissioners to take action to protect the lives of our citizens by funding the EMS system at its current level of service,” Corioni said.
“There are currently 18 open shifts on our schedule between now and the end of July,” he said. “These shifts will have to be filled with overtime. This does not include any shifts for the takeover of George’s Creek Ambulance, which has still yet to be finalized to our knowledge.”
Teresa McMinn is a reporter for the Cumberland Times-News . She can be reached at 304-639-2371 or tmcminn@times-news.com.
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