By Jim Balow
The Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The city of Charleston, which merged its ambulance and fire departments 16 years ago, might split the services once again to save money and recruit paramedics, city leaders say.
“That has come up,” Fire Chief Chuck Overstreet said Wednesday. “One thing that was discussed was [paramedics] being a civilian employee of the fire department ... or totally separating them as before.”
Former Mayor Kemp Melton merged the old emergency services department with fire in 1995. Mayor Danny Jones, who was then the emergency services director, took credit.
“I’m the one who put them together,” Jones said Wednesday. As to splitting them again, “I don’t have an opinion.”
Overstreet met with City Manager David Molgaard on Monday to discuss overtime and other issues raised by a recent consultant’s report on the fire department. He’s scheduled to meet tonight with City Council’s public safety committee.
Relations between firefighters and Jones’ administration have been strained since July, when a long-awaited report by the consultant, TriData, alleged numerous problems — too many stations, slow response times, overworked paramedics, bad recordkeeping and excessive overtime compared with similar-sized cities.
To trim overtime, which has averaged $1.4 million a year recently, the consultants suggested cutting out “Kelley Days” — the extra days off firefighters earn to comply with state and federal wage-hour rules while working 24-hour shifts.
Overstreet told council members last month that firefighters value their Kelley Days as relief from their high-stress job. His comments followed a lengthy presentation by Molgaard on how the complicated Kelley Day system works.
Kelley Days will likely be main topic at the public safety meeting tonight, committee chairman Bob White said.
Overstreet said when he started in 1991, firefighters worked 52.7-hour weeks and earned a Kelley Day after 12 shifts. Now, they get a Kelley Day after eight shifts, with 49-hour workweeks.
Kelley Days aren’t necessarily on the chopping block, the chief said. “I’ve talked to Mr. Molgaard. He said if we can come up with ways to save money, Kelley Days may not be on the table.”
Cuts in overtime pay are likely, however. City analysts recently found they’d been using a faulty formula for years to pay an inflated overtime rate to firefighters. Molgaard said he’s asked the city attorney to see if the formula can be fixed.
“I’ve already told the guys, ‘If it’s wrong, it needs to be fixed,’ ” Overstreet said.
“Believe me, it’s not popular. Some guys just won’t take as much overtime.”
Paramedics, especially newly hired ones, may not qualify for Kelley Days if the services split, he said.
The city might transfer its four ambulance units one at a time to a civilian division, he said, “and hire people to work on the civilian side so you don’t need Kelley Days. They would likely work 12-hour shifts.” Paramedics now work 24-hour shifts, alternating between ambulance runs and regular firefighting shifts, he said.
Overstreet said he’s resigned to cost-saving changes in his department.
“It just makes my job harder. Morale is already low,” he said. “We’ll do what we have to do.”
Copyright 2011 Charleston Newspapers