Elyria Firefighters Get Whatever They Want
Everything else is sacrificed
Excessive spending in the Fire Department has historically been the biggest impediment to Elyria being a thriving city
Firefighters, like all other City of Elyria employees, provide valued services to our community. They deserve our appreciation but they do not justify the sacrifice of having all other City services and community amenities being inadequate to provide for a thriving community.
Why Doesn’t the City Have Enough Money?
I am occasionally asked, why do you give so much attention to the Fire Department? I wrote this position paper to answer that question. The short answer is the City of Elyria spends millions of dollars per year on the Fire Department beyond what is appropriate. Millions of dollars, for decades, that could have been used to make Elyria a much more desirable place for families and companies. Millions of dollars per year that is still being squandered.
Every annual budget revolves around the demands of the firefighters. Not enough money to go around is made to look like something else, streets, parks, and police, but at its core, it’s all about the Fire Department. Because ‘lives are in jeopardy, burning buildings, dead bodies,’ etc., the firefighters get what they want and everything else is sacrificed.
If Elyria is to reestablish itself as a thriving city, it must make massive improvements. There are only two ways to acquire the funds to do so. One is to raise the income tax rate and the other is to make the Fire Department much more efficient.
Why Don’t We Try to Reason with Them?
Early in my first term as Mayor, it became clear there was significant excessive spending in the Fire Department, compared to other City services and community improvement needs. For several years, I privately talked with Fire Department leadership to find cost-effective savings.
I vividly remember a budget meeting that included the president of the firefighters’ union. In it, he calmly said ‘Sure, you can make cuts to the Fire Department, but not until you’ve made major cuts in every other department to the extent that the grass in the parks is two feet tall.’
It could not have been made clearer to me that to align City spending in a way that could make Elyria more desirable, I had to take a confrontational posture with the firefighters. This meant taking my case to City Council and to the public.
Elyria firefighters publicly objected in very confrontational ways to all cost-cutting changes. These changes made funds available to complete community projects and maintain services in the years leading up to and during the financial calamity of The Great Recession.
On March 15, 2015, long-time Chronicle Telegram Editor, Andy Young wrote about me: “He took on a bloated, overpaid and underworked Fire Department, at great cost to his popularity.”
How Did the Fire Department Funding Get So Out of Control?
In the early decades of Elyria’s full-time fire service, industrial revenue was strong and fire service cost was modest. In 1909, fire service was provided out of three fire stations until the fourth opened in 1967.
By the time Elyria experienced its industrial decline of the late 1970s, fire service got much more expensive. Wages increased substantially, and their workweek kept getting shorter requiring more firefighters to provide the same level of service.
As revenues were unable to keep up with expenses cuts were made across City departments. If at all, the Fire Department was last because when their cuts were announced firefighters whipped the public into a frenzy. They painted ugly pictures, ‘lives are in jeopardy, burning buildings, dead bodies,’ etc. Against little or no public opposition the residents bought into the firefighter propaganda, and the cuts were cancelled.
When proposed cuts result in the need to close a fire station, firefighter projections of neighborhood calamity go into overtime. All other City services and community improvements then suffer decades of deep cuts all to preserve an excessively funded fire service.
The Fire Chief Is Not to be Questioned
At Mayor Whitfield’s request Elyria City Council, this year, authorized him to purchase a ladder fire truck that doesn’t carry water and costs 1.8 million dollars. Against conclusive evidence that this is a foolish purchase, Mayor Whitfield carelessly does what the Fire Chief tells him to do.
In 2009, the City of Elyria hired a nationally recognized consulting firm to study the Fire Department. They concluded that Elyria’s new ladder truck, with only 284 miles, was such an inappropriate style for Elyria, due to its inability to carry water, that the City should sell it. This is the same mistake that Mayor Whitfield has made.
The appropriate style of ladder truck is one that carries water along with the more maneuverable rescue vehicle comparable to what the Fire Department successfully ran with for decades. This option is less expensive, provides more versatility, and requires fewer firefighters to perform its most basic and most ordinary of functions, that of promptly putting water on a fire.
Additionally, the manufacturer of the 1.8 million dollar ladder truck could only offer Davenport, Iowa, a city 471 miles away, and nearly twice the population of Elyria, as a fire department comparable to Elyria that has such a limited-function fire truck.
Said another way, there isn’t a peer fire department within 471 miles of Elyria with a ladder truck that does not carry water. It’s hard to imagine a clearer example of Mayor Whitfield defying all rational logic simply to pacify the firefighters.
The Chief says that ‘Unless you’ve put on a mask, put out a fire, and pulled a dead body out of a building, you have no say in how I provide fire service.’ Mayor Whitfield has publicly said ‘The Fire Chief is his expert and it’s not his place to question him.’
The Elyria Fire Department is consuming $12,000,000 per year of City funds and Mayor Whitfield accepts that it’s not his place to question the Fire Chief. What a reckless way to run City government.
Corrupt Behavior vs. Firefighter Greed
This issue is much worse than acquiescence to firefighters and their greed. It’s about corrupt behavior by Elyria Mayor Whitfield and Mayoral candidate Brubaker, last year’s Safety Service Director. These two people were most responsible to protect Elyria taxpayers from abuse. To the contrary, they used hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to curry favor with firefighters to win an election.
Firefighters have long argued that to substantively reduce overtime the City needed to provide full staffing. Current contractual full staffing calls for 68 fire personnel of which there are 71. As a result, Fire Department overtime should be minimal. This makes last year’s lavish payments to firefighters, under the authority of Whitfield and Brubaker, evidence that demands public scrutiny.
Last year, the following 16 firefighters were paid more than Mayor Whitfield’s $112,375.00: Knowlton $115,713.07, Arcaba $119,782.30, Smalley $120,154.94, Farley $121,447.38, Sukey $123,796.23, Budzar $125,605.58, Dorsey $127,920.21, Pronesti $129,880.22, Bevan $131,848.33, Gall $135,381.49, Norris $144,732.22, Slack $147,766.78, Lieux $153,047.48, Fuehrer $165,064.43, Marks $176,417.20, and Szabo $188,214.72.
To gain accountability for these obscene payments, I’m calling on City Council to conduct an independent audit of 2022 firefighter payments and other years as appropriate. The taxpayers of Elyria have a right to understand the scope of this apparent abuse and hold accountable those responsible.
What Does Elyria’s Future Look Like?
The Fire Chief has made clear his intent to get Elyria up from three fire stations to five. Mayor Whitfield and his former Safety Service Director and current candidate for mayor Kevin Brubaker have both publicly stated that they plan to build an additional fire station.
Next year will be the pursuit of additional fire station(s) and additional fire truck(s). When the station(s) open, and the fire truck(s) arrive in 2026, the City will hire 14 to 27 additional firefighters to staff the station(s). The additional firefighter payroll alone will be $1.5 to $3 million per year.
During the public sales pitch, if one additional station is initially pursued, the Chief may state that additional firefighters and equipment will not be necessary. He may even be able to open the first new station with existing firefighters and equipment. But at this point Elyria will be locked into the inevitable millions of dollars of additional annual expenses that the Chief will soon thereafter demand is necessary to “safely” staff and operate the new station.
At a minimum, additional fire stations mean firefighter job security because it will be much more difficult to enact efficiency measures in the future.
The City will then restart the cycle that led to Issue 6 and the need to raise the income tax .5%, in 2016. Issue 6 was sold primarily to fund streets, police, and parks. Needs created by Mayor Brinda when she siphoned funds away from streets, police, and parks to pay for more firefighters.
Worse still, the Fire Department has been given millions of dollars of the “once in a lifetime” $18.8 million federal COVID-related funds. Funds that should be used to make lasting improvements that attract families.
Leading up to 2026, when the new fire station(s) open, the City will continue to drain Issue 6 funds on the Fire Department, and it will become the primary user of Issue 6 funds. Streets, Police, and Parks will be reduced to token funding.
Shortly after the 2027 Elyria Mayor’s race, Mayor Whitfield or Mayor Brubaker will be leading calls for another .5% tax increase to “Save our Police, Streets, and Parks.” Again, in reality, the money will all be going to the Fire Department.
Meanwhile, Elyria will continue to decline. The income tax rate will increase to 2.75% providing nothing more than what was provided with 1.75% when I restrained the Fire Department. The population will continue to get older and poorer as it watches families and companies continue to leave because the City still has not made the improvements that attract families.
What Should be Elyria’s Biggest Priority?
If Elyria invested in a strategy to provide one thing that could be considered the best in Ohio and if we built our future success around it, what might that be?
If Elyria was known to have the best community park system in Ohio, would that attract families to the extent that it would lift the entire city? Probably.
If Elyria was known to have the best school system in Ohio, would that attract families to the extent that it would lift the entire city? Absolutely!
If Elyria was known to have the best fire service in Ohio, would that attract families to the extent that it would lift the entire city? Not a chance!
Families and companies don’t move into or out of cities because of the quality of the fire department. They move because of the quality of everything else; schools, parks, streets, commerce, and safety, as it relates to crime, not fire service.
Can a Smaller Fire Department Work?
Fire-related technology continually improves. Dispatch times get shorter. Fire equipment performs more efficiently. Traffic signal technology helps fire trucks travel through the city more quickly.
Building codes make structures safer. Sprinklers, fire retardant materials, and construction methods make structures less likely to catch fire, spread slower when they do, and are easier to extinguish.
All these advancements result in fire departments needing fewer fire stations and fewer firefighters than in bygone eras.
Cities like Avon have benefitted by learning from our legacy problems. Elyria and Avon are each approximately 21 square miles. Elyria operates with three fire stations and Avon operates with one fire station and is one of the fastest growing cities in Ohio. Families and companies, including those from Elyria, can’t build there fast enough. Avon provides a perfectly appropriate fire service out of one fire station.
One Centrally Located Fire Station is Best
Shifting operations from three fire stations to one central station will provide a more efficient and safer service. Millions of dollars per year can then be reallocated to improve Elyria streets, parks, and other neglected community needs.
- First response can have the most appropriate personnel and equipment.
- Traffic accidents is the number one cause of firefighter fatalities. Having all fire apparatus respond from the same location led by an SUV command vehicle will improve firefighter safety and provide a quicker full response.
- Resources will be concentrated in the center of the city where the most unsafe structures exist placing resources where they’re most needed.
- Training and management will be more efficient by having all firefighters working from one location.
- One station will require fewer higher-paid promoted officers.
Going Forward, What SHOULD Elyria Do?
Make the Fire Department more efficient. Stop purchasing 1.8 million dollar fire trucks against all rational evidence that says it’s foolish to do and stop planning for additional fire stations.
Houses are being built at the edges of Elyria, off Chestnut Ridge Road, Middle Avenue, and Murray Ridge Road. The Fire Chief says because of the new houses we need more fire stations. To the contrary, new houses being built by national home builders on the perimeter of town without a nearby fire station is clear evidence that closer fire stations are not important.
Reform measures that I enacted as Mayor must be reinstituted. Reduce the number of firefighters and fire trucks and consolidate all operations into the Downtown Central Fire Station.
When efficiency discussions begin the community must be prepared to dismiss the firefighter propaganda machine that will invariably kick in. ‘Lives in jeopardy, burning buildings, dead bodies,’ etc. Understand that no matter how large the Fire Department is there will always be fires and there will always be tragic deaths
And finally, the concept must be established that the firefighters no longer dictate the level of Elyria’s fire service. Just like every other City of Elyria department, and nearly all thriving cities, they will need to learn how to do more with less. They will need to use their skills and learn new skills to be creative and take pride and satisfaction in delivering an exemplary service with less.
It’s this Simple…
Cities with large fire departments like Elyria are in decline. Cities with smaller fire departments like Avon are thriving. Imagine what Elyria could be like if it invested a couple million dollars every year on things that attracted families. Imagine how much better our park system and our streets could be. Imagine having an affordable 5G high-speed fiberoptic municipal Internet utility. So many possibilities to consider.
It’s this simple, do we want Elyria to be a thriving city, or do we want Elyria to have an oversized Fire Department? A choice must be made. We cannot have both.
