PA City Studying FD's Management

Oct. 09 -- Amid ongoing contract negotiations, Easton officials plan to launch a study of the city’s fire department and its management practices, Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said.

City officials have put out a request for proposal to attract management consulting firms interested in conducting the study, he said Tuesday. Panto said it’s still too early to say how much the study might cost.

“We want to look at the overall management of the department, amount of overtime and the overtime process,” Panto said, adding that he hopes to begin the study within the next 30 days.

Interim Fire Chief Kevin Arnold said until all the empty positions in the department are filled, he’s concerned about how accurate the study will be.

“Before they do a study, they need to get the management of the fire department to where it needs to be,” said Arnold, who is deputy chief but stepped in as interim chief when former Chief John Bast suddenly retired last month.

Arnold said he’s been performing the duties of both positions since then. Arnold hopes he is promoted to the chief’s role full-time. If that’s the case, the department will need a deputy chief, and there’s still an open lieutenant’s position, which Panto said is going to be filled.

It’s up to Panto to appoint a new chief, a decision he said he hopes to make by the end of the year.

As for the study, city officials spend between $7 million to $8 million a year on the fire department, plus pension legacy costs, he said.

“We really need to look at that for a city of our size,” Panto said.

“The collective bargaining agreement is way too restrictive and it takes away a lot of management rights from the city,” Panto said.

But it’s not clear what changes city officials can make, particularly with a contract in place.

The fire department is still acting under a contract that expired in 2016. An arbitrator took over contract negotiations last year, but a new agreement has yet to be settled.

The study could also help the city plan for some of the “physical costs” the department will eventually require, like a new South Side fire station and the expansion of the central fire station on Northampton Street to include quarters for female firefighters, Panto said.

City officials expressed concerns about costs in July, when they said it was only halfway through the year, but the department already went through its $450,000 overtime budget.

The department was projected to reach $900,000 in overtime by the end of the year.

City officials blamed a clause in the firefighter contract that requires a crew of at least 10 for each shift, but firefighters say overtime is higher because they are short staffed and must fill shifts left open because of vacant positions.

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