05/24/2026
We would like to thank everyone for your continued support of public safety and safe staffing.
Sincerely, Thank You.
It was frustrating to hear all that was said at last Tuesday’s Council Meeting regarding our members while simultaneously being denied a chance to speak or respond. Our goal here is to clarify misrepresentations that were made. We would also like to discuss the courts ruling on our minimum staffing levels, and reiterate our commitment to providing the City of Lowell the highest level of emergency response services.
Last Tuesday, it was stated that the fire department overtime budget has been “out of control” for the past 4 years, we agree. Where we differ is the root cause of such increases.
Ending Brownouts.
The council committed to ending the dangerous practice of Brownouts as a cost saving mechanism after a series of fatal fires near the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022. There were 691 Brownouts the year prior. That’s 691 times that the cost of 1 officer and 2 firefighters was not borne by the city. When that practice ended, those shifts now need to be filled. There are only two ways to fill shifts, increase staffing, or pay overtime to the current staff. As staffing was not increased, the pressure fell to the OT budget. This caused a significant spike in overtime expenditures that can clearly be seen across the next several budgets.
Staffing.
Fully staffed, our department should have 213 members. Currently we have 13 vacancies. In addition to those vacancies, 20 members are out on injury leave(12), sick leave or FMLA (7), or administrative leave (1). That reduces us to 180 members. If we remove members in administrative positions, that number shrinks further to 165 available to work on companies. The minimum number of members needed to fully staff a shift is 41. Multiplied by 4 groups and we need 164 members to keep all of the companies open. That also means that there is only 1 additional member across 4 groups that can cover an opening, without the need to hire to fill a position.
This means that 25% of the time only 1 member can use a vacation, sick or personal day before overtime funds are needed. The other 75% of the time, overtime funds are immediately needed.
This should highlight a structural issue. Overtime is being used at extreme rates because there simply is not enough staffing to fill shifts when virtually anyone takes a shift off for any reason. Laying off 6 members would put all 4 groups in a staffing deficit where overtime funds would still be required even when no one took any time off.
Management has tried to account for this staffing shortage by moving 4 Fire Inspectors, 1 Public Education / Community Relations Firefighter, 1 Community Opioid Outreach Firefighter, and 1 Emergency Managment officer to staff fire companies. The result of this is now a reduction or elimination of these critical, proactive, and preventive services to the community.
Sick Leave.
According to the FY24 published budget (the last year in which this H.R. performance metric was documented), the average city employee used 76.17 hours of sick leave per year. Most employees are scheduled for 8hr work days. This means that the average employee used greater than 9 days of sick leave.
Our members work 24 hour shifts. If they were to stay home for an illness of their own or a member of their families, it would take 2 of our sick units to cover the same “day off”. If firefighters were to take the same average of greater than 9 days off per year, that would equate to using greater than 18 of our sick units. However use of more than 9 is being deemed excessive. 10 of our sick units are just 5 calender days in a year. Thats 5 days to be sick ourselves, care for an ill immediate family member, or attend some form of medical appointment. 5 days is not excessive, especially when you consider the physical and mental demands placed on firefighters in the performance of their duties. Our jobs also require constant up close contact with sick members of our community as we provide them with the best of care. 5 calendar days is not excessive, by the city’s own available metrics, its below average.
The Court Ruling.
Our collective bargaining agreement includes a provision in which management must budget for a minimum of 203 uniformed firefighters. This language was mutually agreed upon and understood to be the minimum level of staffing in which we could deliver high quality emergency response at its fullest capacity. This budget fell well short of that number. We brought this issue to Superior Court as a means of redress after all other attempts to reconcile our staffing concerns had failed. Thankfully, the Justice of the Superior Court agreed that management must request the proper funding for the minimum safe staffing standards set in our collective bargaining agreement. We are asking all of our Council Members to support this amended request in support of public safety.
Overtime Costs.
As stated in the beginning, we agree there is an issue with the increases seen in overtime costs. We want to work together to help reduce this, but we have to be realistic in this approach. Both our team and the Manager himself have stated we are ready and willing to meet to discuss things. Both sides met this past Friday with the goal of tackling this issue in the long term. We believe there are several solutions to staffing, overtime, and the interpretation of any leave and its consumption. We look forward to continue this work and continue to provide high quality emergency response services to the City of Lowell.
Thank you again to all who have supported us, and continue to do so! We are looking forward to this Tuesday’s Council Meeting where we can continue this conversation civilly and factually.
