Last Thursday representatives of the Martin County Taxpayers Association again attended the negotiations between Martin County and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) where the County responded to the union proposal we wrote about in our last article titled "Martin firefighters aren't underpaid". The IAFF was seeking an increase in base pay of 13% per year for each of the next three years (a compounded 42.3% increase) plus numerous other costly pay add-ons and additional fringe benefits. The average firefighter/medic now earns well in excess of $70,000 per year, which is more than competitive with surrounding counties and municipalities. But surveys indicate that Martin County pay levels may not quite be sufficient to attract entry level firefighter/medics.
We are happy to report that the County staff and the Commissioners did their homework very well and correctly concluded that, given the condition of the economy and the facts about minimal firefighter/medic attrition, the IAFF proposal was not relevant or warranted. Instead, the County proposed a more reasonable and responsible package of wage increases that is weighted toward newer firefighters while rejecting all of the other capricious proposals put forth by the IAFF. Another expensive issue regarding the Firefighters/Paramedics is the excessive amount of expensive overtime worked by the department. We are happy to report that at last Thursday's meeting both the County staff and the IAFF pledged to find ways to reduce the overtime. If both parties truly mean what they say then it would be easy for them to change some minor language in the contract that would remove the ambiguity regarding the use of volunteers to temporarily fill in where necessary. Not only would that save the taxpayers money but would also serve to provide further "on-the-job" training for potential new recruits. It's a win-win situation.
The Martin County Taxpayers Association lauds the Commissioners and the staff for making these tough decisions to safeguard the taxpayers' money and help hold the line on additional costs that would most likely have led to a need for new taxes. While we have no bias towards the firefighter/medics and the fine job they are doing, we urge the Commissioners to stand by the facts and yield no ground as the negotiations continue to conclusion. The firefighter/medics were treated quite generously in the last negotiations but now it is time to get realistic.
This year, two members of county management are "barn storming" local governments and organizations to secure tax-money support for their organization, Community Coach. They are addressing these groups using the premise that they are messengers of the County Commission, whose instructions are to retain their present level of service while finding ways to finance their organization. This organization faces a budget shortfall of about $500,000. In actuality, the County Commission is opposed to raising any taxes to pay for the Community Coach. More than one year ago, MCTA wrote a column on the operations of Community Coach asking the question of whether or not this function could be performed more efficiently. Since then, the budget has increased approximately 30%, as has the number of buses. Responses to our article focused on taking away this service, which was never our aim. We only wanted assurance that everything was being done to run this service in the most efficient manner. We have received no such assurance. Community Coach seems to be "growing the need" rather than responding to a real need. Its buses still run empty or near empty a good portion of the time. A relatively large staff runs the operations, and they continue to utilize $70,000 vehicles to do the work. Other communities are beating us cost-wise, through the use of measures such as volunteer drivers, vouchers (to pay taxi fares), utilization of smaller sedans or vans for specific purposes. The MCTA suggests that Community Coach management invest more time in improving their operation and less on perpetuating its growth.