Fire chief: Staff shortage causing overtime spike
Murray says premium pay costs would only go down if he is able to fill large vacancies within the department
WAILUKU — Maui Fire Chief Jeff Murray told Maui County Council Budget and Finance Committee members Tuesday that firefighter shortages and a tight collective-bargaining agreement are preventing him from limiting a recent spike in premium and overtime pay.
Last month, the Office of the County Auditor found that the Fire Department saw a 60 percent, or $1.4 million increase, in overtime pay from fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2015. The audit reported that the main culprit for increased overtime was a labor provision that calls for absences to be filled only by equally ranked firefighters.
The provision called “Rank-for-Rank Recall” is a condition in the union agreement with the Hawaii Fire Fighters Association — IAFF Local 1463 that took effect July 1, 2014, the first day of the 2015 fiscal year.
Murray told council members that pay raises were frozen for several years prior to 2015 due to negotiations over a new contract. He said that the union had agreed to forego Rank-for-Rank Recall from 2011 to 2014 to assist the county after the recession.
Murray said he believed expenses would level off in the coming years, but overtime costs would only go down if he were able to fill large vacancies within the department. He reiterated that he could not get around the recall program.
“We’ve explored all kinds of ways, but . . . we have to play within those rules, agree or disagree,” Murray told the committee. “We’ve looked at every possibility to work within our rules, and basically we’re at where we’re at. If there was another way, we would’ve done it already and so would all the departments around the country. I don’t have a choice.”
Murray pointed to policy changes implemented by the Department of Personnel Services, which have slowed recruitment and new hires, compounding the need for overtime. He said that the department already is short 22 people, and he anticipates 10 retirements by the end of the year.
“We’ll be up to 32 openings, which is huge for our size of department,” he said, adding that a new class of recruits would not graduate until Jan. 12. “For those 12 days, we’ll be 32 people short.”
Committee Chairman Riki Hokama deferred action Tuesday to have further discussion on the audit, but he said he plans to bring in officials with Personnel Services at the committee’s January meeting.
Department officials could not be reached after business hours Tuesday.
County Auditor Lance Taguchi provided a brief presentation to the committee and answered questions. In his report, Taguchi recommended that the department avoid triggering the recall program by establishing a “relief pool” of workers that could save the county $1.9 million to $3.2 million per year in premium pay and overtime.
Taguchi said every department needs to take better control of overtime costs, noting that countywide premium pay, which includes overtime, increased by $2.86 million from fiscal 2014 to 2015. He said uncontrolled overtime impacts taxpayers twice — now and when employees retire.
“We present a solution,” he said. “Yes there’s some good points and bad points, but when you look at the total picture — the county faces major liabilities. That liability for unfunded pensions and unfunded health benefits is massive. It’s over a half a billion dollars. Every department has to control overtime costs . . . every department needs to take a hard look at how they can control costs.”
The audit recommends the Fire Department staff companies with four firefighters instead of five, with the fifth member a part of the relief pool. The pool firefighter would fill gaps within companies countywide. The report noted that companies operated with four firefighters 91 percent of the time in fiscal 2015 and 86 percent of the time in fiscal 2016.
Taguchi said that he understands the department cannot implement the pool in every situation due to specialized companies, but he has not been given a better solution by the department.
With overtime’s impact on the cost of pensions, the situation has wide-reaching costs, he said.
“Somehow the county in general has to address the overtime cost because, if we don’t, we’re just going to pass it on to our children,” he told the committee. “It’s already a situation where we’re so far behind in . . . and this audit doesn’t resolve that, but its a step in the right direction.”
Murray said that, even if he were fully staffed, the relief pool would not help the department. The pool becomes unfair and inequitable for firefighters if they’re moved between districts, and that violates the intent of the rank-for-rank system, he said.
The latest union agreement ended in June 30. Officials are working on a new one, Murray said, but it’s unlikely that the rank-to-rank provision would be removed.
“I don’t see any arbitrator taking it right now,” he said. “Not unless we have statewide drastic issues with pay. It’s super hard to get stuff out of here. I’ve been through like four of these processes and I’ve never seen anything taken out unless the union takes it out.”
The Maui County Council has launched a separate audit of the Fire Department. It is expected to be completed by February. Hokama advised committee members to review the county auditor report “for what it is.”
“It’s a snapshot in time,” he said.
* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.