On Your Dime: Lateral transfers trigger firefighter shortages for smaller departments

A trend that’s driving overtime costs down and personnel up for large fire departments in Rhode Island may be having a detrimental effect on smaller departments that are struggling to retain staff.

Tiverton Fire Chief William Bailey took over the position four months ago. Instead of focusing on fire department operations, he’s losing sleep over head count.

“I didn’t think hiring was going to be one of my biggest problems,” he said. “We lost five firefighters to larger municipalities the first of March.”

With a staff of 32 firefighters, a shortage of five can have drastic impacts on the budget and the quality of life for firefighters.

Tiverton Fire Fighter’s IAFF Local 1703 posted about the issues on Facebook in recent weeks.

“Tiverton Fire Department is hiring once again. 5 immediate openings with the potential of 2 more soon. Unfortunately, this is business as usual here in the Tiverton Fire Department. 56 people, not counting the 5 current openings, have been hired since 2010. Which is significant for a department of 33.”

The post goes on to say only 17 of those people are still employed, a 30% retention rate.

Bailey said when firefighters leave, the shortages are felt department wide.

"The stress on the overtime budget, the stress on forced overtime as we move closer to summer. If we are not able to backfill these positions, vacation start to kick in, there’s more and more forced overtime, that becomes a work life issue, that becomes a stress issue on the department," Bailey said.

According to data the NBC 10 I-Team obtained from the town, overtime costs for Tiverton fire has jumped in the past few years from $137,418 in 2020 to $370,634 in 2022.

LATERAL TRANSFERS

Bailey says retaining firefighters is harder now than ever before.

“A lot of these firefighters are leaving for larger municipalities that offer aspects of the job that we can't ever offer,” he said.

Larger municipalities have several perks for firefighters, including more money, less forced overtime, and higher chances for promotion.

Years ago, firefighters would rarely jump to different departments as doing so would require them to retake tests and potentially lose their pensions, but that’s no longer the case.

“The ability to lateral transfer or lateral hire has really change the landscape,” Bailey said. “Years ago, you had to test individually for each fire department and then get on a list. Well now with the Fire Chief’s Physical Fitness Assessment Test, the Fire Chiefs Exam, it has made it easier, almost like one stop shopping to transfer from one department to another.”

Firefighters can also easily transfer their benefits as long as the pension plans are the same, something that may be an issue in a larger state.

FINANCIAL FALLOUT

Losing firefighters to larger departments doesn’t just cause quality of life issues, it’s also a huge financial hardship.

“We will hire somebody, put them through all of the preemployment background checks, physical and psychological tests, and then, if we have to send somebody to the Rhode Island Fire Academy there’s a significant cost of tuition,” Bailey said.

Firefighters in training also get wages and benefits, money that doesn’t end up benefiting a municipality if a firefighter trains in one department, then quickly transfers to a larger one.

IMPROVEMENTS IN WARWICK

Warwick is one of the larger municipalities that is seeing overtime costs drop and personnel numbers rise, a big change from last year when the I-Team uncovered overtime costs for Warwick fire had ballooned to over $7 million.

The city has since hired more than 34 firefighters, which in turn has lowered overtime costs to $4.8 million in 2022.

“We are in a much better position, absolutely,” Warwick Fire Chief Peter McMichaels said. “We don’t have the excessive overtime we had. We have a certain number of vacancies but it’s manageable.”

While Warwick is in a better spot than they’ve been in years, McMichaels says they’re not out of the woods yet.

“Applicants today are shopping around and looking at pay scales, benefits, things of that nature to help them make their decision,” he said. “We are constantly trying to catch up.”

The Warwick Fire Department has seven firefighters in training and is getting ready to start a new training academy with 23 people, but with a high rate of retirements and transfers, even larger fire departments are feeling the pinch.

“We are overall finding challenges in the hiring process,” McMichaels said. “Things are not what they once were, and we see people moving around to different departments much more than we used to many years ago.”

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Municipal budget cuts or budgets not keeping pace with inflation can reduce the salaries of firefighters, making matters worse.

Some cities and towns will try to reduce costs by extending the years it takes to climb the ranks, which McMichaels says only hurts retention. “That has an effect. A community that keeps that person at the lower pay grade for a longer period of time, that person may start shopping around when another department starts hiring,” he said.

Pay disparities between departments may be wider than you’d think.

Data obtained by the I-Team show Tiverton starts new firefighters at about $40,000, while Providence has a starting rate of $46,000 and Warwick offers about $53,000.

The fire department budget is set by the city or town.

A low budget and high turnover rate doesn’t necessarily mean the city is saving money, instead, they typically end up spending just as much on overtime costs.

“You have people working more hours than they want to work, which can lead to a burnout factor,” McMichaels said. “People being ordered to work when they don’t necessarily want to stay. They might be getting out of work on a Saturday morning and have weekend plans with her family and they end up having to stay. That’s the place that no organization wants to be in, right? We don’t want to be in that position. We want to have a regular influx of new people coming in to fill vacancies.”

Warwick isn’t just doing better on personnel, the fire union also recently reached a new contract with the city that provides a 10% raise over three years.

Although some argued that was too much money for taxpayers, McMichaels says it’s necessary to keep up with inflation and the cost of living.

“That was not an uncommon pay raise that we’ve seen across the board in fire departments throughout the region,” he said. “The cost-of-living as we all know has gone up significantly. I think it’s important for a department our size to be more competitive as far as pay and benefits, and we are, but you constantly have to maintain that.”

RESOLVING RETENTION ISSUES

While Bailey believes Tiverton fire will be hiring at least two candidates very soon, he worries that lateral transfers will continue to have a drastic impact on the department.

“I think generally, nowadays, just recruiting and retention should be a big issue for all fire departments because of what you’re investing in these firefighters, you really don’t want to lose your investment,” he said. “Keeping us fully staffed is a huge concern and it’s something that keeps me awake at night.”

Some fire departments have found other ways to increase the incentive for new firefighters, including lowering requirements.

In Warwick, for example, people can now apply to be a firefighter without being a registered EMT as long as they meet the requirement by the time they’re hired. The goal is to prevent potential candidates from spending time and money on a job they’ve haven’t gotten yet.

Warwick also awards extra points to veterans and active servicemembers, who can now take the exam remotely where they’re stationed, instead of waiting to come back to Rhode Island.

Here’s a look at overtime costs for fire departments in Rhode Island:

PROVIDENCE

2020: $4,072,117

2021: $7,168,426

2022: $9,745,374

2023: $8,100,705 (To date)

CRANSTON

2020: $6,130,711

2021: $6,241,640

2022: $6,698,849

2023: $4,124,887 (To date)

WARWICK

2019: $3,802,366

2020: $4,907,539

2021: $7,000,124

2022: $4,889,524

2023: $362,964 (To date)

EAST PROVIDENCE

2020: $4,131,425

2021: $3,916,426

2022: $4,235,445

2023: $1,020,210 (To Date)