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Copyright 2010 The Somerville News and Prospect Hill Publishing, Inc. The Somerville News is the only locally owned and operated community newspaper in Somerville.
By Joseph A. Curtatone
(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)
Back in the days when I was a full-time attorney – and had to handle the occasional civil suit or divorce – I used to advise my clients to ask two questions about potential settlements. The questions were “What do you want?” and “What can you live with?” The recently concluded eight-year deal between the City and its firefighters represents a compromise for both sides – and because we compromised, each side got something it could live with.
For the City, the new agreement means we don’t have to find a way to come up with a $4.3 million appropriation in the current fiscal year in order to fund retroactive wage increases for the firefighters, who had been without a contract since 2007. Instead, we’ll have to come up with a $3.3 million this year and approximately half a million next year. That’s still a major undertaking, but we won’t have to lay off workers and cut back on services in order to do it.
It also means that we get three more guaranteed years of predictable and manageable wage increases (through FY2015).
On the other side of the ledger, the firefighters get a series of annual increases that most workers in either the public or private sectors would be very happy to have – especially in an era of low inflation and economic recession.
For both sides, the settlement we reached last week means the end of a long collective bargaining struggle that has included negotiation, special arbitration and lawsuits. It’s a relief for all of us to move on.
Emotions run high in long disputes like this one, but nobody should hold it against union leadership that they pushed for the best possible deal for their members – or hold it against the City that it pursued the best possible deal for its taxpayers. In fact, once it was clear that the recent arbitration award from the state’s Joint Labor Management Committee carried a price tag that would require the city to cut staffing and services to finance the deal, it was the firefighters who stepped up, and approached the City with an offer to reopen negotiations. Since state law required that I support the JLMC award and submit an appropriation to pay for it, we should all be grateful that the union extended that offer.
By the time the general public began to understand and protest the layoffs and service cuts associated with fully funding the JLMC award, the firefighters and the City’s negotiating team were already back at the table and hard at work on a compromise settlement.
No one is happier than I am that we won’t have to shutter our two police substations, the new SFD Rescue Unit or the West Branch Library in order to pay a retroactive compensation agreement. And to be fair, no one in the firefighters union wanted to see those things happen, either.
So now we can look forward to the FY2013 budget that we will submit to the Board of Aldermen later this spring. The way ahead won’t be easy: we still have difficult choices before us. The good (or at least not-so-bad) news is that the Patrick Administration has just announced that it is level-funding non-education local aid and, by entering the state’s Group Insurance Commission health plans, we’ve been able to roll back the rate of growth in our health insurance expenditures. But many of our other costs have continued to rise, and we can’t assume the new fiscal year will be any easier than the last.
I can’t guarantee that other factors won’t force us to contemplate future service cuts or layoffs. But I can guarantee that they won’t happen as a result of this settlement.
Oh, and one more thing. I am well aware that, at several points in this opinion piece, I have violated the grammatical rule that says you’re not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition. But I also know that, in this context, I don’t care. Just think of it as another compromise – a compromise we can all live with.
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Way to stand up for your constituents, and shoot high with ‘something you can live with’
Politicians, striving for excellence :/
In short: The State of Somerville is strong! Yeah, I feel energized now.
My understanding is that Somerville has the highest ratio of public service employees (fire/police) per square mile than any other city in New England. If true – shouldn’t we look to lay some of the layabouts off and provide some much needed tax relief to residents and business owners? I say … yes we should. Enough of this patronage hiriing and backroom deals.
Harry, wouldn’t you expect many public service employees per square mile if you have many residents per square mile? And isn’t Somerville one of the densest cities in New England?
IMO, getting a deal that the constituents (both the firefighters and the other non-firefighter taxpayers) can live with was the best possible outcome unless you were just hoping that the mayor could magically lay a golden egg or wanted him to ignore the arbitration decision.
Luke, Somerville is _the_densest city in New England (punchline: as evidenced by the first two comments).
Big mouth Harry is at it again with words like “layabout.” What a pathetic being he is. So bitter, so jealous and whatever. Look to God for help and enlightenment Harry-you need it.
Do you think the cop named Mario that was shot is a layabout? How about the two firefighters that the firehouse on Broadway is named for? They were killed in the line of duty protecting the people of Somerville.
Get real Harry. You know nothing except spite,envy, and so forth. I pity you. It must be awful to be filled with what’s inside of you. You poor soul.
I ask that folks pray that peace and contentment fill your heart. It must be a real drag being you.
Not only is Somerville the most densely populated city, it is made up mainly of old, wood frame buildings, that due to its’ small geographic size are located very close to one another. One large fire without enough manpower to battle it could be devastating.
The Somerville Fire Dept into the early 60′s/70′s actual fire suppression apparatus, operated.
Engines Companies 7 Ladder Trucks 4 Rescue 1 Ambulance 1.
In the 1960′s they eliminated
The Ambulance cut 8 positions.
From the 1970′s on they eliminated the
Rescue and cut 8-10 positions.
Engine 5 and cut 16 positions.
Ladder 4 and cut 16 positions.
Recently brought back the Rescue but Engine 4 eliminated and now covered by Engine 1.
The dollars saved on the total lost 58 positions;
Average Fire fighter annual salary times 58 positions totals $2,320,000.00 a year.
Actually on the low side as benefits and the salary difference for Lieutenants, Captains wages not added in.
So over a ten year period well over Twenty-three million dollars has been saved and did the administrations over the years save this money to reduce taxes? No….Instead more needless patronage positions were created.
Chelsea is a city comparable to Somerville for density of buildings. When the Chelsea conflagration happened in the 70s. The wind whipped the flames and eighteen city blocks were leveled by fire before it was controlled.
Mutual aid to that conflagration totaled well over one hundred pieces of fire apparatus responding to Chelsea.
The mutual aid assistance has been greatly reduced over the years as many cities eliminated fire apparatus and personnel with budget cuts. Cities mutual aid that once sent two or more engines and ladder trucks on mutual aid response back then, now can only supply one engine and ladder to mutual aid and some cities only send the Engine and no longer send a ladder because of apparatus reduction.
So if the same conflagration occurred today the response of mutual aid fire apparatus would be greatly reduced by probably fifty percent.
Good lord, folks, has anyone ever heard of camera systems, sprinkler systems and fire/smoke alarms??? That’s why we jhave and can continue to safely cut the force for both the fire and plice departments by more and more each year. My take would be another 50% reduction +/- 5% either way.
Most calls that the cops go on can be eliminated with a greater use of security cameras and private security firms augmenting those cameras. The city should have 20 cops at most (that’s a little heavy too) – total. 2 or 3 that utilize the new technologies to prevent crime (via surveilance and more uses of social media for tips on drugs/crime) and the rest as rapid reaction forces that get called in to quash anyone dumb enough to not realize they’re being survieled. Right now most of these cops make most of their money drinking a cup of dunkin donuts coffee and looking into holes in the ground (details).
Firefighters? With the advances in smoke/fire detection and sprinkler systems maybe it’s time to start discussing an all-volunterr force. No more partonage or other BS hires from out of the city. Each ward has able bodied men & women willing to pitch in if there is a fire. Much quicker response times. Guaranteed.
In another thread we have Rex Ryan who won’t chip-in by shoveling his sidewalk and here we have Harry guaranteeing that our able-bodied neighbors will pitch in to extinguish our fires.
It boggles the mind.
Lord have mercy…what a braintrust.
A. Surveillance – Just the other night an auto dealership called the police as someone stole the $8000 surveillance camera. If they dont steal them they spray paint them.
B. Sprinkler systems work but honestly almost all places have the path for the sprinklers blocked with something. I went to a fire with a sprinkler system. The fire was in a room that had shelving for towels. The shelves blocked off the water path from the sprinklers. Thus it got in behind the walls and we were chasing hot spots for 2 hours. Homes have shelving, furniture, etc and these things block the fire making the sprinkler unsuccessful. They may delay the fire from spreading for a time but that is all it will still be burning where the water cannot hit it. The building could be made with concrete walls/ceilings but the contents furniture, etc will still burn and the smoke still kill.
C. Smoke detectors/fire detection devices are devices to arouse the occupants, they do not put out the fire and if they are not hooked into the city fire alarm system they do alert the fire dept of the problem.
Volunteer, Harry where are you, are you going to volunteer for a 48 hour week at straight time?
People using grills (in violation of regulations) on their porches and people who smoke on the porch and do not dispose of the cigarette properly, along with open flame candles have caused an increase in these types of fire. Follow the rules, use caution and be aware = being safe.
Ward7, what does one guy not shoveling his walk have to do with anything. This guy is probably a progressive anyway.
j. connelly, this isn’t 1950′s cameras, sprinklers and smoke alarms. They have technology now (security) that can snap a shot before someone paints over them and I’m talking about eye-in-the-sky stuff. Literally. Drone technology should be used by local law enforcement and fire departments. The drones fly overhead constantly monitoring everything. If it detects speeders or some potential lawbreaker (set thresholds/programming) then they call in the rapid reaction force.
Augment that with private security, technology and volunteers and we can pretty much get rid of the public union laybouts who get their jobs via nepotism.
We paid for all this technology with our tax dollars, so let’s get some use out of it and reduce taxes. If you’re NOT doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about. If you are then you have a much better chance of being punished with my ideas than the status quo.
Harry, you’re expecting a level of civic involvement well beyond what most people are willing to give (and Rex Ryan is, IMO, the very bottom of the barrel with regard to such a level).
I’m glad my house didn’t catch fire today – about 90% of the cars that were parked on my street last night were gone by 8:30 this morning. But, I suppose the pregnant woman, her ~4yo daughter and the elderly couple that were out walking would have pitched in to pull me from the flames and douse them before the fire spread to any other houses.
Harry can’t be serious. I don’t think anyone can be that “naive” (for lack of a better polite word). Drone technology?! Sure because it is soo cheap and so accurate.
I am as serious as a heart attack. Drone technology will become more and more affordable – a lot more affordable than all the excessive pay/benefits we hand to the public union layabouts now. Plus, economy of scale — once more and more cities buy drones the price will drop like a rock. Give it 10 years. It’s coming along with cameras at every intersection/corner. I say if it will save us money then bring it on.
Lastly, 20 years ago did you dream that the Internet would be so ubiquitous? Cell phones would replace landlines? VHS gone? Drone and better security/fire detection is coming. We don’t need as many people to do what cops/firefighters are supposed to do now. Do more with less. Better.
Geez Harry please dont have a heart attack because with your plan
[ which is similar to the infamous "Crittendon Plan" on Hogan's Heroes ] to eliminate public safety jobs. There will be no one to respond to help you.
Yeh Harry, “Modern Technology” some students came up with the idea of throwing a device similar to a grenade which would snuff out fires…unfortunately after further testing they found out it would also snuff out lives of unconscious victims in a fire building. They also came out with a computer controlled fire hose nozzle, unfortunately it kept going 200 lbs more pressure than needed and threw the firefighters in the air injuring them.
Both those “Modern Technology” ideas got thrown in the garbage.
Nothing will replace firefighters going inside the buildings to rescue victims and pull walls & ceilings to find the hot spots..See Harry in this world of Star Wars Technology…you still need certain numbers of humans to do some jobs and it will never change. Fire Trucks are more expensive today and the quality is lower than the fire trucks made in the 50′s, 60′s & 70′s. Once they put computers on the apparatus they have had more breakdowns and the equipment does not last thirty years as it did in the past…now today you end up replacing $250.000 fire trucks every ten years…Modern Technology equals quantity not quality.
Yeh, modern technology like Facebook, an identity theft thief’s dream.
FIFF – Facebook Is For Fools.
“Dwizzle Dwazzle Dwizzle Drone…Time for Harry’s ideas to go to a faraway home”. LOL
j.connelly seems like an interesting character. I’d like to meet the guy behind the name.
This dude harry is starting to scare me. I hope we can meet him before he is extinct-like the dodo bird. What a beaut.
“LikeToMeetConnelly” Well that may be awhile as I am not planning on having a “book sigining” till after Jimmy Delponte comes out with his book
based on the articles he has done in the News. It will be a great book and I think the sales of it will do very well.
Just hope I don’t get called again to serve on a Federal Grand Jury…Last time it lasted for 18 months.
Besides I am still deciding on what stuff to put in the book…There was the time a Boston News station had a unmarked van watching city officials
and three other people knew what was happening….One is a big wheel in the current city hierarchy and is a good guy….film at 11:00….LOL