Erie PA Fire Chief Objects Budget Cuts Firefighters

The proposed 2019 budget for the Erie Bureau of Police is $31 million.

The Erie Bureau of Fire's budget for that year is a proposed $23.7 million.

On Monday night, both Police Chief Dan Spizarny and Fire Chief Guy Santone cautioned Erie City Council members about cutting expenses within their bureaus and voiced opposition to any pay freezes for nonunion city workers.

"There is no way we can cut this budget," Santone told council members during budget deliberations at Erie City Hall. The fire bureau's budget includes $1 million in overtime, a 14 percent increase over the $870,000 budgeted for 2018.

Council is deliberating Mayor Joe Schember's proposed $81.9 million 2019 budget, which suggests increasing the city's earned income tax from 1.18 percent of a worker's gross salary to 1.75 percent, a move that would generate $6.78 million in revenue and cost a worker earning $26,922, or the average income of city wage earners, an additional $153 annually.

The budget also proposes raising residents' sewer and garbage fees and refinancing millions of dollars in long-term city debt.

Santone said that the 137-member fire bureau's budget is "lean" and that wage increases for nearly all firefighters are mandated by union contracts. Deeper cuts to the bureau, Santone said, could put public safety at risk.

"We are already at the brink. We can't cut any more," Santone said.

However, Santone said he wants to help City Council explore additional revenue that could be generated by city firefighters. Councilman Cas Kwitowski suggested the city explore charging residents and businesses for excessive false alarms, which firefighters respond to.

Millcreek Township is among the local municipalities that charge such a fee. "There's money to be made there," Santone said.

Council and Santone are expected to talk with City Solicitor Ed Betza soon about enacting new revenue-generating ordinances, such as a possible false alarms fee.

Spizarny, addressing a question from Councilman Jim Winarski, said the 173-member police bureau would be affected severely if council significantly cut the nearly $1.3 million in overtime budgeted for 2019.

That budget was roughly $1.2 million in 2018. City and police officials have long said that paying overtime is a less costly alternative to adding new officers.

"For a city that operates a police department 24/7, those are costs that are comparable to other cities our size," Spizarny said. "It's the cost of what we do."

Spizarny also told council members he's willing to be part of revenue-generating conversations, including those about how to recoup outstanding parking fines of more than $3.2 million dating to 2003.

Before the session ended, both Spizarny and Santone addressed a suggestion by Councilwoman Liz Allen to freeze the 2019 pay of about 78 city employees at 2018 levels. Council discussed that possibility last week.

Both said the move would unfairly penalize nonunion workers and keep some union employees from accepting promotions, because in many cases within city government rank-and-file employees make more money than their supervisors.

Schember's budget proposes 3 percent pay increases for nonunion city employees in 2019, the same percentage the city's unionized workers get. City Council has final say over the budget, but cannot change union workers' 2019 raises because they are mandated by binding union contracts.

However, council has the power to institute a nonunion pay freeze, which Finance Director Paul Lichtenwalter said would save the city about $140,000.

Both Spizarny and Santone would be affected by that proposal. The police chief's yearly salary would remain at $99,809 if frozen; the fire chief's yearly salary would stay at $97,892.

City Council's next scheduled budget session is Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 626 State St., with officials from the city's Bureau of Public Works, Property and Parks.

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