After the Fulton City Council voted to increase the wages for starting firefighters Tuesday, council members and the Fulton Professional Firefighters Union still disagree on the appropriate wages for firefighters.
Councilman Rick Shiverdecker made a motion and Councilman Steve Moore seconded the motion to raise the starting firefighters' wages to match the base starting rate for full-time city employees, which is $9.50 during the six-month probation period and $10 after completion.
"This (the raise) affected a total of five people," Director of Administration Bill Johnson told the Fulton Sun during a meeting with the city contract negotiating team Friday. "Only three of those individuals were at $8.65 (an hour)."
Mayor LeRoy Benton added that he felt the fire union has expressed more concern about increasing wages for starting firefighters than other department positions - a deciding factor in the council's decision Tuesday to only address that position.
Johnson said the rest of the fire department will still not be receiving a raise based on several factors - the first being the five-percent raise given to all city employees on Jan. 1, 2015. However, the fire union was not initially included in the raise because of its union status, Benton said.
"The council did not do those under a union agreement because they had to comply with the contract," Benton said. "The firemen came to us and said they'd like to have the five percent (increased wage), so we gave that to everyone. They did not ask us about the 8.65 (starting wage) at that time. When they came out of the contract, we decided to treat them as all city employees. That's why the council raised the rate."
After several months of negotiations between city officials and fire union representatives, Johnson recommended the council vote against adopting the new contract agreement with the union during its Aug. 11 meeting. Of the six council members present at the meeting, five adhered to Johnson's recommendation while Deputy Mayor Mary Rehklau voted in favor of the contract, stating she agreed that Fulton firefighters are underpaid and deserve a raise.
Johnson is aware that the findings from the salary survey the city conducted during the negotiating process indicated that Fulton firefighters earn nine percent less than the average wage for firefighters compared to municipalities with a population similar to Fulton's.
He said the survey also indicated that Fulton's 11 fire engineers make more than the average pay for fire engineers in other small cities like Fulton.
"I think the fire union has been trying to imply that everyone makes $8.65," Johnson said Friday. "When a firefighter gets promoted, he gets promoted to be a fire engineer, but based on that same salary survey, it appears that fire engineers are actually one percent over the average, so we determined that a nine percent across-the-board raise for everyone was excessive."
A firefighter is typically promoted to fire engineer within two to two-and-a-half years if the department has a vacant position.
Although Fulton fire engineers are making slightly more, three Fulton fire captains are earning seven percent less than fire captains in other municipalities based on the city salary survey. Despite acknowledging that Fulton fire captains and starting firefighters make less than other small town fire department employees, Johnson said the survey indicated that city employees in other departments are also making less than average.
"Not to speak for the other council members, but it wasn't believed to be fair to those 20 firefighters to give them a significant boost in wages without looking at the other 170 employees that the city has," Johnson said. "When it comes time to implement the findings from the salary survey, we will make an attempt to do so for all city employees and not just a special class."
Johnson added that city officials want to make a wage adjustment for all city employees making less than their department's average when implementing the 2016 budget.
"We didn't think it was fair to give just the fire department a nine-percent raise and ignore the street, the electric, the sewer, the water, the cemetery and the parks (employees)," Johnson said.
The Fulton firefighters will continue to work without a contract, just like all other city employees.
Johnson is aware of the next organized rally for the firefighters scheduled before the next city council meeting Sept. 8.