O'Dekirk: Fire Dept. Had 'Obscene' OT Costs In December

JOLIET, IL - The Joliet City Council has to make some tough decisions this week regarding the fire truck fleet for the Joliet Fire Department. As most readers know, fire trucks are not cheap. One of the units Joliet wants to purchase is nearly $842,000. The council will also vote on a separate item to refurbish an existing ladder truck, that was recently damaged, into a quint. The cost to rebuild that apparatus is about $183,000.

Joliet City Manager David Hales is recommending the council approve both expenditures. On the plus side, Hales wrote in a memo, Joliet's actual costs for the 2017 Quint fire apparatus would be $133,000. One of the key factors driving the proposal is the city administration's attempt to get a handle on the Joliet Fire Department's excessive overtime costs. The issue came up for discussion at Monday night's pre-council meeting where Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk revealed that the Joliet Fire Department racked up more than $300,000 in overtime pay for city firefighters during the month of December alone.

O'Dekirk said that $300,000 in overtime for the Joliet Fire Department basically amounts to $10,000 a day. Joliet's mayor called that an "obscene" overtime expense for the city of Joliet taxpayers to pay out. During Monday's meeting, O'Dekirk mentioned an instance "a couple weekends ago" where multiple Joliet firefighters all called in sick on the same weekend. That situation prompted the Joliet Fire Department to scramble, bringing in several off-duty firefighters to fill the void, a huge overtime expense.

During Monday's meeting, a few union members of the Joliet Fire Department addressed the City Council, urging Joliet's politicians to reject the plans to purchase the 2017 Quint fire apparatus. Instead, the firefighters urged the council to address their staffing shortage by hiring several more Joliet firefighters. They contend that if Joliet hires more firefighters, the overtime costs should decrease. At the moment, Joliet has around 195 firefighters. The city had around 210 firefighters a few years ago.

The expenditures for the two fire trucks are on Tuesday's Joliet City Council 6:30 p.m. meeting agenda. The proposal to purchase the 2017 Quint has the support of Joliet Fire Chief Joe Formhals. However, the opposition from the Joliet Fire Department's union at Monday's meeting appeared to cause some members of the Joliet City Council to show reluctance toward the administration's request to purchase a new Quint and refurbish Joliet's existing damaged ladder truck into a Quint as a way to save money on personnel costs.

Hales explained in his memo to the council that utilizing more Quints in Joliet "will allow the Fire Department to save on staffing one position each day. This extra person could then be reassigned to reduce overtime costs."

According to Hales, the city's Neighborhood Services department has a Community Block Grant of nearly $459,000 that can be used to defray the new fire truck's costs. Also, Joliet found a buyer in Canada for its 2008 ladder truck now in reserve status. Joliet expects to receive $250,000 by selling off the 10-year-old ladder truck as a surplus vehicle, Hales stated.

Joliet's new fire apparatus would come from E-ONE Metro; all of Joliet's front-line fleet is from E-ONE.

DECISION LOOMS FOR TOWER 6

Separately, Joliet's council must decide whether to spend $183,000 to convert the city's existing Tower 6 fire apparatus into a Quint. On Christmas, Joliet firefighters on a call were involved in an accident that damaged Tower 6's basket, a city memo reflects.

Joliet Fire's Tower 6 was built in 2001 and has 95,000 miles on it.

"No one was physically injured," Hales wrote the council, "but the vehicle's basket sustained enough damage to require it to be taken off and fully rebuilt."

The estimated repair from the E-ONE service center in St. John, Indiana was $80,000, Hales stated. Joliet then got a second estimate. For $183,000, E-ONE would remove the entire basket and remove the last section of ladder to convert the tower ladder into a Quint at its fire truck manufacturing plant in Ocala, Florida.

"The estimate also includes upgrading the vehicle's lighting to LED, along with some much needed repairs to the vehicle's pump and other miscellaneous repairs ...." Hales advised the council.

Images via City of Joliet Fire Chief Joe Formhals