ATLANTA PROFESSIONAL FIRE FIGHTERS

August 20, 2008

Honorable Mayor Shirley Franklin
City of Atlanta
55 Trinity Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30303

RE: Fire Station 7

Dear Mayor Franklin:

On behalf of the firefighters, I’m writing to ask that you withhold your promised veto of 08-O-1540, which reallocates general funds for the staffing and operation of Fire Station 7 in the West End.

While I understand the city faces severe fiscal challenges, the cuts to Fire Rescue staffing have gone far beyond what is safe for our citizens, visitors and firefighters. I also appreciate that your attempts to address the shortfall responsibly were thwarted by city council when it chose to pass a tax cut instead of the modest increase you had proposed.

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August 8, 2008

Greg Giornelli
Chief Operating Officer
City of Atlanta
55 Trinity Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30303

RE: Fire Fighter Objections to Vehicle Use Policy

Dear Chief Giornelli,

I’m writing on behalf of the members of the International Association of Fire Fighters who are entrusted with the responsibility of operating City of Atlanta motor vehicles, including emergency vehicles and fire apparatus.

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Staffing - Local 134 has been working closely with neighborhood activists from the West End in lobbying Atlanta City Council to restore funding for 15 sworn-positions to reopen Fire Station 7. Last Wednesday, the Finance Committee voted unanimously to reallocate $1.2 million from non-departmental consulting accounts to do just that. The ordinance, which was introduced by Councilmembers Cesar Mitchell and Cleta Winslow, has 10 co-sponsors, so it’s expected to pass when Council returns from recess on August 18th. Although the Mayor opposes the re-allocation, the funds will be transferred to accounts which can only be used for Fire Station 7 personnel and operations, so there would be no rationale for the administration to block the effort.

Councilmember Felicia Moore has introduced a similar paper to re-fund Squad 4 personnel and operations. That ordinance has 12 co-sponsors. Ms. Moore asked that the ordinance be held in committee in order to allow the Station 7 ordinance to get a clean vote and provide time to find the $1.4 million in the budget.

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by Jim Daws

Dear Editor,

Once again the AJC has published inflammatory pieces on Atlanta employee’s pensions and gotten its facts all wrong. In Cameron McWhirter’s article, and Jim Wooten’s commentary, they claim that the entire increase in the city’s pension liability was caused by the enhancements that were enacted in 2002 and 2005. That is simply not the case.

The fact is that only 5 to 10 percent of the increase is attributable to those changes. The remaining amount was caused by underpayment to the fund from the city, less than anticipated return on investments, and changes in actuarial assumptions to try to head off future increases due to underperforming investments.

The amounts that were attributable to the pension improvements were fully vetted during the legislative process and budgeted for. The Finance Committee held multiple sessions on the issue over several months and had all the numbers it needed to make informed recommendations to the full council.

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FY09 Budget - The FY09 budget crisis keeps getting worse and worse for public safety in Atlanta. After the initial shortfall, the mayor submitted a budget proposal that eliminated 95 sworn firefighter positions. That was bad enough, but through elimination of vacancies, creating attrition through retirements and transferring 18 positions from the field to the airport, the department was going to be able to hold onto all its sworn personnel and the recruits at the fire academy.

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by Jim Daws

Dear Editor,

When President Lisa Borders says, in her July 8th letter, that Atlanta City Council raised public safety spending, she is referring only to a very small budget increase for police. She is excluding the much larger budget cuts to fire and rescue, which resulted in a net decrease in public safety spending.

Although normally considered an integral component of public safety, President Boarders apparently considers fire protection, disaster response and emergency medical services outside the definition of the term.

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By Lisa Borders
For the Journal-Constitution

Published on: 07/08/08

City must clean up own mess

The Atlanta City Council faced a simple choice in passing this year’s budget: Who should pay for the city’s financial mismanagement?

We started the budget season with the administration delivering a surprising and partially avoidable $140 million budget shortfall. Mayor Shirley Franklin’s team put together a proposal of job eliminations and tax hikes to balance the budget.

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By Jim Daws
For the Journal-Constitution

Published on: 07/01/08

One of life’s great truths is, “You reap what you sow.” Atlanta citizens should be aware that, with budget cuts to Atlanta Fire Rescue, the Franklin administration and Atlanta City Council are sowing a very bitter harvest indeed. That harvest will likely yield a bumper crop of property loss, fire injuries and deaths.

The budget that City Council passed on Friday cuts at least 10 percent from the department’s budget and abolishes 94 firefighter positions, equal to about 12 percent of its staffing. That will leave fire protection, disaster response and emergency medical service in Atlanta dangerously short-staffed. The increased risk will be borne by citizens, property owners, visitors and, most of all, the firefighters who will find themselves repeatedly forced to confront life-and-death situations with inadequate staffing.

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FY09 Budget - Yesterday, Mayor Franklin and the Atlanta City Council dealt a major setback to public safety in Atlanta. Not only did council pass the mayor’s budget proposal that abolished 94 sworn firefighter positions, but they added an additional 2.5% cut to departments in the general fund. As a result the citizens of Atlanta will suffer longer emergency response times to fires and medical emergencies, and less effective emergency services. Firefighters will be asked to assume even greater risks as they respond to dangerous calls for help without the minimum staffing to safely and effectively do the job.

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Greg Giornelli
Chief Operating Officer
City of Atlanta

Dear Chief Giornelli:

It’s two weeks short of one year since a pay step for sworn firefighters was authorized in the FY08 budget. Despite numerous notifications to the Human Resources and Finance Departments, there are still many firefighters who have not received their pay step and/or back pay. Our organization has asked on several occasions that Finance and Human Resources set up a temporary customer service center where employees with pay discrepancies can meet with the personnel who can address their pay issues. Additionally, we have repeatedly provided the names of those members with pay discrepancies.

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