ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Some regional fire districts are providing six-figure pay for firefighters, perks to part-time board members and questionable equipment spending, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday.
A salary survey by the newspaper found total wages have jumped in some districts by 30, 50 and even 100 percent in just five years. It examined 68 area departments and districts.
Fire districts operate differently from municipal fire departments, and many residents aren't even aware which group provides them with services.
While municipal departments compete for dollars from a city's budget, district boards deal only with fire and emergency medical services.
An elected council or board of aldermen and a mayor oversee municipal fire department spending. But fire district boards in Missouri are much smaller and self-contained, with three or five elected members.
In the St. Louis area, where almost all boards have three members, firefighters need only two directors to get the majority vote needed for better pay and benefits.
The average salary last year for firefighters and other front-line emergency medical workers was $38,280 nationally and $43,880 in Missouri, according to U.S. Department of Labor figures.
But the average base salary of firefighters in the St. Louis area's 10 top-paying districts was $70,029, nearly $32,000 more than the national average.
In addition to base salaries, overtime pay is guaranteed in almost every district. Additional compensation is often provided for food, clothing, holidays and years of service in written agreements the firefighters have with their employers.
``It disturbs me to see the things I worked hard and strived to build up being torn down and destroyed by greed -- and the board members allowed it to happen,'' said former Manchester Chief Larry House, who retired in 1999.
The 15 top-paying organizations surveyed are all fire protection districts. Salaries were averaged for front-line personnel, including firefighters, engineers, captains and emergency medical workers.
Not all fire districts are run this way, but the newspaper found enormous disparities between districts, and municipal fire departments like the one that serves the city of St. Louis.
The newspaper found:
- Fire board members in the Pattonville-Bridgeton Terrace district accepted thousands in cash gifts from firefighters whose salaries they set. One Creve Coeur battalion chief, a middle manager for the district, made nearly $166,000 last year. That's more in salary and pay benefits than the chief of the Fire Department of New York.
- Board members in more than a dozen area districts pay themselves twice to attend one gathering for district business. The boards claim that open and closed sessions held back-to-back on the same day are two separate meetings with two separate paychecks.
- There were 182 employees, not including chiefs, in 12 districts who earned more than $90,000 in pay, overtime and pay-related benefits last year.
A strong union, Local 2665, represents more than 1,700 members in 31 fire protection districts, 16 municipal departments, 13 ambulance districts and four dispatch centers in St. Louis County and the counties of St. Charles, Jefferson, Lincoln, Warren, Franklin, Ste. Genevieve and Crawford.
Local 2665 represents all 10 districts that make up the fire agencies in the region with the highest pay last year.
Terry Loehrer, business manager for Local 2665 and a firefighter captain with the Pattonville-Bridgeton Terrace district, said he and many other area firefighters are now ``adequately paid.''
``I can send my kids to college now. I couldn't, the people who came before me couldn't,'' said Loehrer, whose co-workers at Pattonville averaged $83,364 with overtime and other pay allowances last year, the fourth-highest pay in the area. ``I can buy a nice house, just like any other worker.
``We've got a dangerous job, we've got a technical job, we're very proud of what we do,'' he said. ``What we do, most people wouldn't do.''
