Tensions Rise in Long Beach After Fire Department Cuts

The City of Long Beach recently laid off four career firefighters and plans to hire civilian paramedics to improve the City’s public safety operation.

Not everyone is happy with the changes. Residents and firefighters have voiced their disapproval, including one firefighter who was laid off.

Dave Yolinsky, former vice president of the Long Beach Professional Firefighters Association, said he doesn’t think the City is looking out for the best interests of the community.

“We believe the Union made some big strides in negotiation in preventing these members from being laid off,” Yolinsky said. “It seems the City had no intention of ever keeping them.”

City officials say they believe the changes will be an improvement to the “outdated” public safety model of Long Beach and the paramedics will respond to emergency situations more efficiently than the fire department did before.

“The City’s concern is public safety,” said Gordon Tepper, director of communications for the City of Long Beach. “The union’s concern may be different.”

Several residents have expressed their displeasure over the layoffs.

“Our fire and police departments were all given civil service tests because there was a need for them,” Chris Olson, a Long Beach resident wrote to Patch. “How can we now, as a tight knit community, just tell these people you’re out?”

Before the layoffs in July 2014:

• There were 30 firefighters on the City’s payroll. This includes five firefighters salaried by the SAFER Grant.
• The SAFER Grant was set to expire in December 2014.
• The City budget would end on the last day of June 2015.

After the layoffs on Sunday, Feb. 15:

• The fire department was brought down to 25 firefighters on payroll. This includes 19 active firefighters.
• The ambulance will be operated with civilian paramedics at a lower cost, who will be paid about a $40,000 starting salary.

Before the layoffs, there were five firefighters in a single shift: three assigned to an engine and two assigned to an ambulance.

The problem with these cuts is that the Long Beach Fire Department cannot meet the daily company minimum of five firefighters without substantial overtime costs, Yolinsky said.

Replacing the firefighters with paramedics will save the City an average of $1.75 million to $2 million by 2016, but the City said the changes are not about money.

The City’s main concern was with enhancing public safety and considers the savings a bonus, Tepper said.

The layoffs were based on the City’s ICMA Report, which reviewed Long Beach’s emergency services to improve public safety in the community.

The report shows 75 percent of all calls to the fire department were EMS-related. Fire-related calls were at 23 percent, with 47 percent of those calls being false alarms.

It suggested the department cut down from 30 firefighters to 12 firefighters and 12 paramedics, as shown by the graphic:

The layoffs were set to take place in early December when the SAFER Grant expired. The date was extended to Jan. 1. The City then had the firefighters sign an agreement to defer one week’s payment to delay the layoffs for six weeks, until Sunday. Feb. 15.

While Yolinsky felt that he and the other firefighters were “forced” to defer their pay, Tepper said it was a concession to the firefighters so they could keep their jobs for an additional six weeks.

Yolinsky said the firefighters were not expecting the layoffs until the end of the budget in June 2015.

But Tepper said the firefighters were “well aware of the expiration of the grant” and the union president signed a document in 2012 that informed the firefighters the positions would not be funded when the grant ran out.

Yolinsky was among four firefighters who were laid off. One firefighter who was set to be laid off, Alex Sharpe, left to work for Nassau County Police Department. Yolinsky has worked as a firefighter in Long Beach for over five years. All four firefighters who were laid off grew up in Long Beach.

The City of Long Beach is already looking for paramedics. A job opening posted on the City’s website says Long Beach is hiring the “most highly skilled emergency service personnel” and applicants with paramedic certification, the highest attainable certification.

The paramedic job is a full time position and the City is still deciding when these paramedics will start and how many there will be.

Long Beach is one of two communities in Nassau County with a professional fire department. The other community is Garden City.

The Garden City Fire Department experienced firefighter layoffs in February 2013 and now has 16 paid firefighters on staff with about three to five staff members per tour. One or two firefighters man the engine and Nassau County provides GCFD with paid EMT-CC’s with no charge.

Census data reports Garden City Village is 5.33 square miles, with a population of 22,552.

The construction and setup of Garden City and Long Beach is very different and hard to compare, Garden City Fire Chief William Castoro said.

Long Beach has about 75 high rise buildings, which is substantially more than most surrounding communities. The City’s population is dense, with 33,552 residents along 2.22 square miles of land, according to 2013 Census data.

Despite the large number of high rise buildings and population density, Yolinsky said the LBFD budget is lower or in-line with neighboring fire departments that are almost all volunteer.

Teppers said it is worth mentioning that Long Beach has a volunteer fire department of about 150 firefighters who will show up in the event of a fire.

Several Long Beach residents have taken to social media to voice their disagreement with the layoffs.

“I find it hard to believe that in this day and age where businesses and educational systems want people who are multi-faceted and dual certified, they suggest hiring separate firefighters and EMS workers,” Olson wrote to Patch. “We have our own dual certified firefighters and EMS workers!”

“These men are cross trained as firefighters and paramedics and they are trying to get rid of them just to add new, unknown paramedics,” Courtney Brooke wrote to Patch.

Only one of the five firefighters who were laid off was cross trained as a paramedic, Tepper said.

The five firefighters were offered to transition to the paramedic position before the layoffs took place, which would have kept them on the payroll. Tepper said no firefighters have yet to accept the position.

The current firefighter salary is about three times more than the paramedic salary, Tepper said.

Some residents feel they were misled by their local government.

“I feel the layoffs are very short sighted. It goes against industry standards (NFPA) and is dangerous,” Christine Dorn-Moldovan wrote to Patch.

Patch asked Long Beach residents their thoughts on the firefighter layoffs and here’s what they had to say:

Residents attended the City Council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 17, to speak on the firefighter layoffs.

“We were surprised how many people spoke on our behalf without us asking,” Yolinsky said. “The citizens of Long Beach are becoming more and more educated the more facts that are coming out.”

At the same meeting, Anthony Eramo was suddenly ousted as City Council president. The council was accused of “political smoke and mirrors and fluff to avoid answering the actual question” by West End Neighbors Civic Association President John Bendo.

Read more here:

• Eramo Suddenly Ousted as City Council President

The decisions of the City “don’t make any sense” to Yolinsky. “The union is very willing to work with the City to come up with affordable solutions,” he said. “It seems to me they don’t care about negotiations.”

The fire department and the City are in ongoing negotiations that are closed to the public.

The City is applying for an additional SAFER Grant, which became available this month. Tepper is not sure if the City will be awarded the grant or how much it will cost. “It’s a matter of funding availability,” he said.

Residents can voice their opinions of the layoffs to the City Council at the next City Council meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3 at City Hall.

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