Add staff instead of paying OT
Clark County firefighters are about solutions. Firefighters are in the solution business. When someone is seriously injured and trapped in a crushed car, a hotel fire with hundreds of lives at stake, we come with immediate solutions. We develop solutions in real time.
Firefighting, public safety, emergency services cost too much? We need to come together with elected officials in a mature fashion to help taxpayers and get past the blame game. We can work together to fix this. We are willing to help. We are firefighters and taxpayers too, you can count on us to help.
We know the economy is in trouble. We know people are hurting and tax burdens are heavy. We know cuts must be made. Next question, can you cut lifesaving services? Are you willing to cut life safety services? Not without jeopardizing lives.
In this age of medical advances and rapid response, even one minute of delay is life and death. Fire science shows us a fire doubles in size every minute. After four minutes, a drowning child's chances of recovery are cut in half. Fast response saves lives. That is not an opinion, it's a fact.
In order to maintain our current services levels for public safety, the only place to save taxpayer dollars is by cutting deeply into overtime. Cut our overtime and we will willingly take the hit. Any businessman or woman will tell you that too much overtime will run your costs through the roof. The average Clark County firefighter makes $22.87 an hour. It's not wages, it is overtime that is crippling taxpayers.
Late last year, Clark County officials, to their credit, opened two new desperately needed fire stations and two new rescue units to cover the explosive growth in population. To our dismay, Clark County officials didn't hire a single new firefighter to staff these positions. What do you think happened to overtime at that point? Overtime hours skyrocketed.
Clark County firefighters have tried to reduce overtime before; they warned Clark County officials that the number of firefighter overtime hours was going to increase dramatically and that the policy of using overtime for regular staffing was going to result in an overworked firefighter being injured or worse. We also warned of the effect on the budget.
Clark County firefighters tried to limit overtime hours. Let me repeat that, Clark County firefighters, not Clark County elected officials, made a written demand to limit overtime hours. The response from Clark County officials? Clark County firefighters were threatened with termination if they didn't work the extra hours. Termination.
Now, in one of the most unmitigated, indefensible examples of political posturing we have ever witnessed, a county commissioner has actually tried to dupe members of the media by blaming firefighters for excessive overtime. This is grandstanding at its worst. We need to get past the political gamesmanship. This isn't about hustling votes. This is about public safety. The taxpayers of Clark County deserve better.
Let's talk about solutions. Let's talk round numbers. Let's say taxpayers got a bill for $15 million in overtime last year. It is an overwhelming number. We warned county officials. Now hopefully we have their undivided attention. Overtime is paid at time and a half. In round numbers, if we had the extra firefighters, we wouldn't need all the overtime. Those hours would be paid at the regular, average hourly rate of $22.87. Taxpayers, in round numbers, could expect to save roughly $5 million. As your local politician has said, "The problem isn't the base salary it's the overtime."
Those are round numbers. Make that offer to save taxpayers $5 million by hiring the appropriate number of firefighters and we will support it. We are firefighters. We are in the solution business.
Ryan Beaman is president of Clark County Fire Fighters IAFF Local 1908.
