Come on down and sign up TED....big money.
More than half of county's fire-rescue employees earn more than $90,000
palmbeachpost.com
More than half of Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue's employees were paid over $90,000 in the 2010 budget year, according to a Palm Beach Post analysis of the department's payroll.
Twenty-eight of the county's 50 highest-paid employees worked for the department, the analysis showed.
Six fire-rescue employees, including three special operation captains, were paid more in gross pay, which includes overtime and various allowances, than was Fire-Rescue Chief Steve Jerauld, whose gross pay totaled $180,724, The Post found.
One of those employees made more than $60,000 in overtime, and three made at least $30,000 through extra shifts.
The county's top paid fire-rescue employee, Michael Southard, a former deputy chief of fleet maintenance, brought in $212,188 last budget year, but that was boosted by big payouts for unused vacation and sick time that he received because he was retiring after 30 years with the department.
Without payouts for the unused time, Southard said there was "no way I would have beat out the chief."
Taxpayer watchdogs say the department's salaries and benefits have ballooned out of control and want Palm Beach County administrators to cut them in upcoming contract negotiations.
"People have told us after 9/11, firefighters and police were the heroes and they kind of got pretty much anything they wanted," said Fred Scheibl of the county's Taxpayer Action Board. "But it kind of got ahead of itself."
Jerauld said the department's pay is in line with other, similar-size counties.
The county fire-rescue department's average base salary was $90,776 in 2010, and the average gross pay was $93,144. Those are averages for all of the department's roughly 1,450 employees, from secretaries to the chief.
In comparison, the average salary for a firefighter in Florida is $50,010, according to the national Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's less than the post-probation entry-level pay of $52,119 for a Palm Beach County firefighter.
Nine-tenths of the state's firefighters make less than $78,470, the bureau's records show.
In West Palm Beach, the highest paid fire department employees earned nearly as much as those who worked for the county. City payroll records show the department's 200 employees were paid an average of $86,900 in gross pay for the 2010 budget year. Sixty-one employees, or about 31 percent, earned more than $100,000, records show.
Jerauld defended his department's payroll, saying firefighters and paramedics require a "high-level, specialized training" that "oftentimes provides for some sort of salary incentives."
"Do I feel that the compensation our people receive is appropriate?" Jerauld said. "Absolutely. And the reason being: There is not an emergency situation that could occur in this county that we wouldn't be expected to respond and to mitigate. Oftentimes that means putting our people at risk, and for that, that's part of the reason the receive the compensation that they do."
Still, Jerauld says the department is taking steps to cut the salaries of newly-hired firefighters and paramedics.
The county's three-year contract with the firefighter's union expires this year. Under the current deal, firefighters have received 3 percent raises each of the past two years, but agreed to hold salaries flat in the first year.
Jerauld said that first year's concession was the first time the union agreed not to seek raises.
"I believe it reflected the union leadership's acknowledgement of the difficulty economically the county was facing," he said.
In the negotiations for the new contract, county administrators are seeking a 22 percent cut in the department's pay ranges, although that would apply only to new employees.
The next negotiating session will be held at 9 a.m. July 19 at the Trauma Hawk building, 4255 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach. The meeting is open to the public, but those in the crowd will not be allowed to speak.
The Taxpayer Action Board has called on its supporters to attend.
"Several folks told us it will probably tone down the discussion," said Scheibl, who attended the last negotiating session. It marked one of the first times a resident showed up at fire-rescue union bargaining session, county officials said.
The Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller's Office estimates that each property owner covered by county Fire-Rescue pays about $580 for the service each year, making it one of the most expensive county agencies. |
