Selectmen Candidates Q&A: The Firefighters Contract Dispute

(Editor's note: This is Part 2 of a three-part Q&A with candidates for the Board of Selectmen -- incumbent Todd Johnson and challengers Ken Miano, Mary Ellen Fernald, Rick Menard, Jim Wentworth and Bob Marcin.)

Question 2: Two-part question. How do you feel the negotiations with the Firefighters Union have been handled? Which do you believe is a higher priority – bolstering the Stabilization Fund or keeping South Station open year-round?

 Ken Miano

I have managed both union and non-union facilities as well as having worked in both environments. Today, I work for a large Telecom company where I am a shop steward who also manages the day to day activities, employees, security officers, scheduling of resources and projects. Everything that happens at the Data Center flows through me. We generate $1 million per month in revenues. Management and union have coexisted peacefully here with two common goals, take care of our customers and stay employed; I handle the rest.

In this particular situation, when it comes to negotiations, there are four sides; management, union representatives, union members and the community. Somewhere in all of this lies the truth. Egos and emotions should be checked at the door. Bargaining, which is fair, responsible, and both mutually respectful to both the town and the membership should be at the forefront of these negotiations. I personally do not like some of the rhetoric I have seen in the news, blogs and the rumors. Quite honestly, I feel like a helpless pawn in all of this. I have found that if you look at any existing contract, a reasonable individual, with no agenda, will notice that a majority of these contracts were established years ago and some of the language may be archaic by today’s standards. Times have changed and what was done yesterday, is not good enough for today and extremely outdated for tomorrow. The bottom line is that whether you are from South or North Tewksbury, we all want our fire stations open, but in a financially responsible and safe manner. Let’s get together and start to find some common ground to build off of, for the good of Tewksbury.

Can you ever put a price tag on life; or on the minutes it takes to save or lose one? No you cannot. But we all need to understand that there is only one financial pie for which all the town services can draw from. We all need to make sure that we draw from that pie responsibly. To give you a better understanding on how important public safety is to my family, my wife is a Registered Nurse at a major hospital Emergency Room, where she interfaces with fire, police and ambulance crews. My son is employed as a hospital security officer and works with the same groups. My daughter and I have both taken the EMT course, her privately and me through Northeastern University. She works in security and I manage security. I truly understand the importance of both public safety as well as the need for a stabilization fund, because one can never be fully prepared for the unexpected. Working together, we need to find balance within our town and need to work extremely hard for the community as a whole to strike and promote that balance. The answers will be there, if we just open our minds to different possibilities.

Jim Wentworth

As a candidate for office who isn’t currently serving on the Board of Selectmen, I am not privy to the negotiations between the Town of Tewksbury and Tewksbury Local 1647. I recognize that there has been a lot of recent publicity and letters published in the press but I’m sure, ideally, both sides would prefer to keep the negotiations just between the involved parties.

 It has always been my position that if we are going to have 3 Fire Stations in Tewksbury, then those Fire Stations need to be open and serving the public every day of the year. I think that the backbone of our community is the men and women who serve on our police force and fire department. I believe that our public safety officers, who put their lives on the line every time they respond to a call, need to be equipped with the latest equipment, technology and resources to keep them and our residents safe.

Bolstering the Stabilization Fund is critical to the Town of Tewksbury. Our current Town Manager has done a good job of putting money away in this Fund to use for one-time capital expenditures as well as for town emergencies, reduced local aid, etc... The fact that we had started to build up our Stabilization Fund, when we were getting bonds for the new Tewksbury High School, allowed the town to receive a preferred interest rate which ultimately will save the town close to $1 Million. 

Mary Ellen Fernald

The question I have if we are talking about the  extensive  use of overtime, then why are we not looking at the cost to benefit ratio for hiring more base firefighters versus the expenditure of the vast amount of overtime monies that have been tossed around.

Todd Johnson

Negotiations with the fire union continue and I want to respect the process by keeping confidentiality.  I appreciate the work of all our public safety personnel and look forward to finding a resolution.  Negotiations are sometimes difficult and this is no different, but I'm confident we will settle this contract just like we've settled every other contract.

Selectmen are committed to keeping all stations open, but we are not yet out of the financial difficulties we've faced the last few years.  I feel voters were clear when I was elected that they wanted change.  One major issue we faced in financial management was the repeated use of one-time revenues in our operating budget.  I call it the "cocaine of municipal finance".  Using non-recurring revenues to fund recurring operating expenses, like overtime, is not sound.  It's easy to be lured into using one-time monies, but they inevitably are depleted. 

Stabilization funds should be used for one-time expenses and, like the family savings account, for emergencies. The question is mis-characterized as a choice between the stabilization fund and fire station.  We need to build our stabilization fund through unanticipated state aide, one time revenue, free cash, and new growth, so we can weather unexpected needs.  These funds are unpredictable so we should not rely on them to fund the operating budget. When used on one-time needs, they save interest costs on leases and borrowing.  We need to continue to work hard together to find other ways to keep all stations open.

Rick Menard

This fight so far has produced 2 losers and no winners.  Chief Hazel, through the actions of the town administration, has had his budget cut.  He is the expert the town has hired to run the department based on his experience and knowledge.  Through his budget request he has stated how much funding he needs to do it safely…he has been ignored, yet again.  Our Board has chosen not to listen to the man they hired and underfunded his department, forcing him to put his members and the taxpayers at increased risk.  The residents are also going to be the losers if we don’t stand up for ourselves through this election and town meeting.  There is simply no more fat to trim, the department is bare bones already.  There needs to be more hires or funded overtime to complete minimum staffing for fire suppression.  The fire department budget is one of the lowest funded line items in the town and has the best sick time rate at 1.4 days per person.  They also brought in $800,000 in ambulance revenue to the general fund. The contract will work itself out in the end, most likely through mediation the way it looks now.  The members of the department will get the same salary whether the station is open or not, so will the Town Administration.  Simply put, we the taxpayer are the ones who lose in the long run, hopefully it won’t cost us our lives.

Part 2:

The Board and Town Manager have done an excellent job in securing a top rated bond status according to Standard and Poor’s.  We, according to our Comprehensive Annual Financial Report of 2011 (CAFR), have been rated at the AA level with AAA being the highest possible.  We have, again according to the most recent CAFR, amassed $3,300,000.00 in unallocated funds. We have build a stabilization fund large enough to justify taking a deep breath, and doing the right thing for the taxpayers. I just don’t see why we look to cut the most important services to our community in attempt to bolster the fund even higher?  Is an AAA rating so important that we should cut a Fire Engine, leaving just 2 companies to protect over 30,000 people in 20sq miles?  Even after earning a great rating and millions in the bank for future needs, Administration still won’t give the Chief, their expert that they hired, the additional funding he needs to keep us safe.

Bob Marcin

Candidate Robert Marcin chose not to submit an answer to this question.