Worry grows over meager Lawrence fire staffing

[Geppetto 31]

By David Abel

Boston Globe

August 12, 2010

LAWRENCE — The Fire Department in this financially battered city has closed half its fire stations over the last five weeks, seen response times more than double, and relied increasingly on neighboring communities to douse fires.

There are now just 13 to 15 firefighters per shift in a city of about 80,000 people, less than half the number of firefighters per shift in 2009....

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/08/12/worry_grows_over_thin_lawrence_fire_dept/

[jack10562 414]

I saw this story on TV news this morning.

I wonder how long it will take where the neighboring departments in these situations are gonna get fed up and just say NO, when called for help?

They can barely cover a single alarm. That's disgusting.

The politicians blame the unions for not accepting unreasonable pay and benefit reduction demands to forestall the personnel cuts, and then go ahead and decline to fund essential services.

This is an absolute failure of government. It's primary responsibilities include providing for the safety of the public, it's residents, the taxpayers. Additionally, they're effectively taxing their neighbors by using their resources, which someone else paid for, on what is becoming an alarmingly regular basis.

[gamewell45 258]

I saw this story on TV news this morning.

I wonder how long it will take where the neighboring departments in these situations are gonna get fed up and just say NO, when called for help?

They can barely cover a single alarm. That's disgusting.

The politicians blame the unions for not accepting unreasonable pay and benefit reduction demands to forestall the personnel cuts, and then go ahead and decline to fund essential services.

This is an absolute failure of government. It's primary responsibilities include providing for the safety of the public, it's residents, the taxpayers. Additionally, they're effectively taxing their neighbors by using their resources, which someone else paid for, on what is becoming an alarmingly regular basis.

Its not just in Lawrence where this is happening, but also in other Mass Departments where they are conducting layoffs due to lack of monies to pay the firefighters. As with Lawrence, other departments in similiar situations, their unions are being portrayed by the public as the bad guy in this.

Tough times are ahead for the fire service.

[IzzyEng4 427]

Unfortunately this is nothing new in Mass with laying off their firefighters. It is a sad state of affairs throughout the state. Of course no one remembers what happened in Ipswich 10 or so years ago when a family was lost a block down from the closest firehouse with one guy on duty there!

[firebuff08 29]

I feel for the firefighters in Lawrence, but the City is in a bind and from what I can determine, the situation will continue to get worse, not better.

The City is in such bad financial shape that its finances have been taken over by the State of MA, similar to what happened to Waterbury, CT and other poor cities in the past.

Lawrence, MA is a WELFARE City.....it has a population that is decidedly younger than the MA average and an average family income that is half that for the State of MA.

The City's Grand List, the total value of all real property, continues to decline as abandoned buildings burn down or are torn down or are taken over by the City because the owners have not paid taxes for years.

Residential properties make up 78 percent of the City's taxpaying properties!!!!! And no wonder,who would want to locate a business in a City where the tax rate on commercial property is twice that of residential. The real problem there is the forgotten rule of economics ---NO BUSINESS CAN PAY TAXES. IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND NO BUSINESS HAS EVER PAID A PENNY OF TAXES AND NO BUSINESS EVER WILL. Taxing business is a scam by government to hide the amount of taxes you are paying. As an Economist by Education, I can tell you that every penny of tax levied on a business is paid by the customers of that business in the form of higher prices for goods and services. So the plan is Lawrence is self defeating. A business located in Lawrence, which is a tiny place of less than 7 square miles, is at an economic disadvantage to a business located in an adjacent town, because it must charge more to account for the higher taxes.

It looks like the Mutual Aid system is broken in that it has become strictly one way. The other towns around Lawrence, need to protect their own taxpayers. While I do not advocate that they stop aiding Lawrence firefighters, the other towns should set a limit on how many mutual aid calls they will do in a year for free (based on the number of mutual aids they expect to receive from Lawrence). After that, there should be an hourly rate, per truck, sent to Lawrence to cover the cost of providing the service. Or at some point, officials in the surrounding towns could face lawsuits from their own taxpayers angry over paying for services to Lawrence that Lawrence should be providing but simply can not.

[antiquefirelt 994]

The real problem there is the forgotten rule of economics ---NO BUSINESS CAN PAY TAXES. IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND NO BUSINESS HAS EVER PAID A PENNY OF TAXES AND NO BUSINESS EVER WILL. Taxing business is a scam by government to hide the amount of taxes you are paying. As an Economist by Education, I can tell you that every penny of tax levied on a business is paid by the customers of that business in the form of higher prices for goods and services. So the plan is Lawrence is self defeating.

While the above is true, the system we live in will not allow Lawrence or any single entity to correct it. The price of goods will not change in Lawrence MA regardless of the taxation system they use as they are far from self-sufficient.

What system could be implemented that would change this? A strict income tax system fails to recognize the large sums of money that exchange off the books. Using only residential tax would cause even greater numbers of people to leave the cities for quieter suburban living, while the city residents would be forced to pay a greater tax due to the reduction in taxable residential properties. I'm sure there are far more complex systems that might put us back on the road to recovery, but alas they tend to be too complex for the voting public to grasp. And any complex system is fraught with loop holes and ways for some to not pay their share. In my eyes the only realistic system is a flat taxation system with no other incentives or loop holes, coupled with less subsidization for those without income.

Edited August 13, 2010 by antiquefirelt

[bfxfd 8]

Just a question ? what is the legal responsibility for the surrounding departments to respond mutual aid? Im sure eventually the leaders of the surrounding areas will have to put their people first.

[antiquefirelt 994]

Just a question ? what is the legal responsibility for the surrounding departments to respond mutual aid? Im sure eventually the leaders of the surrounding areas will have to put their people first.

Certainly when mutual aid stops being mutual the persons responsible for the budgets must evaluate having their taxpayers subsidize fire protection in the surrounding communities.

[Alpinerunner 61]

The legality is a good question. I think it's primarily governed by agreements. The other towns could simply say, "No more". And then they aren't obligated any more.

Of course you could always say, "can't do it" if any of your crews are out working jobs in their district. The questionable legal issues come if the Mutual Aid town's apparatus are not tied up, and they refuse to honor their agreement and someone gets hurt. The lawyers would probably have a field day with that.

[antiquefirelt 994]

We had a similar situation with EMS and ALS responses. Being the only 24/7 staffed FD with ambulances we were starting to get beat up pretty good when the vol. EMS services started declining about 6-7 years ago. A few tried to get their towns to pay for per diem staff for daytime hours to little or no avail. We finally had to start billing for EMS mutual aid, as it was in no manner mutual. Basically many people moved out of the "city" to the smaller surrounding towns and pay far less in taxes, but were still getting the same service paid for by the "city" taxpayers. That is no more.

Our city attorney asked us if someone didn't pay the bills if we'd continue to respond (we bill the originating jurisdiction for every call). We were surprised our lawyer would suggest anything but taking a hard line. Thankfully after much grumbling and some out and out refusal to call for the appropriate level of care, every request has been fully paid by the agency responsible for coverage where the call originated.

On the fire side, no such issues exist and being the county seat and commercial center we have the potential to need fire M/A for extended periods that would pay back the litany of small fires we're called to assist with.

I'd think Salem, NH taxpayers would be feeling the pinch. That FD has grown significantly in recent years and has many new decent apparatus and new positions to go along with the communities growth. Lately they are consistently in Lawrence which would seem to diminish their duty strength an a too often basis. Of course the experience being gained is not a bad thing.

[Geppetto 31]

Sounds like a hostile workplace to me

Mayor recruits volunteers to spy on firefighters

Eagle-Tribune

August 13, 2010

LAWRENCE — Mayor William Lantigua has enlisted a volunteer corps of film crews to chase firefighters and record their actions at the scenes of accidents, fires and other calls they respond to.

Lantigua says he has received several complaints from citizens concerned about "slow response" times by firefighters and questioning whether the jakes' actions are driven by last month's layoff of 23 from the department. The mayor said some of those callers have volunteered to follow firefighters, video them on the job, and turn over the tapes to City Hall....

http://www.eagletribune.com/latestnews/x960348430/Mayor-recruits-volunteers-to-spy-on-firefighters

[INIT915 1,119]

Sounds like a hostile workplace to me

Mayor recruits volunteers to spy on firefighters

Eagle-Tribune

August 13, 2010

http://www.eagletribune.com/latestnews/x960348430/Mayor-recruits-volunteers-to-spy-on-firefighters

While I disagree with his comments completely, I don't think you'd be able to classify this has a hostile work environment. It seems to me from the article, the "volunteer film crews" would be capturing actions which take place in the public domain. (The only possible exception is if this is covered by a CBA, which I am willing to bet, it is not.)

If anything, as long at the LFD firefighters continue doing their best (with what they have to work with), the Mayor will be the one with egg on his face if no incriminating video footage is captured.

[ffp20 14]

people are incredible arent they? Fire houses are closed and people think response times are gonna be the same????????????

[efermann 28]

I used to live near Lawrence and taught high school there for a year about 8 years ago. It's sad to say that it doesn't sound like there has been much, if any positive changes since I left. I'll be honest to say that I don't remember who the mayor was at the time when I worked there, but I do know there were city finance problems that were being blamed on the teachers, firefighters, etc for several years before I worked there. During my year there, I never had the opportunity to visit a fire house or get to know any of the firefighters. But I did have one student who's home was lost in a fire during the school year, and another who called me the year after I left to say he lost everything in a fire. Besides the lost firefighter jobs, Lawrence is a city in desperate need of help in many, many areas.

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

Sounds like a Mass version of Mt. Vernon or Buffalo

[Geppetto 31]

Accord puts eight Lawrence firefighters back on job

By Jill Harmacinski

Eagle-Tribune

Sep 22, 2010

LAWRENCE - Eight of 24 city firefighters laid off in July are being rehired immediately after Mayor William Lantigua and Lawrence firefighters came to a long-awaited cost-savings agreement yesterday.

The Lawrence firefighters' union voted 57 to 7 to make $241,000 in contract concessions, which include each firefighter working 24 hours overtime for free and giving up a week's vacation. Firefighters voted on the contract concessions in meetings Monday night and yesterday afternoon....

http://www.eagletribune.com/local/x180463174/Accord-puts-eight-Lawrence-firefighters-back-on-job

[abaduck 123]

While the above is true, the system we live in will not allow Lawrence or any single entity to correct it. The price of goods will not change in Lawrence MA regardless of the taxation system they use as they are far from self-sufficient.

What system could be implemented that would change this? A strict income tax system fails to recognize the large sums of money that exchange off the books. Using only residential tax would cause even greater numbers of people to leave the cities for quieter suburban living, while the city residents would be forced to pay a greater tax due to the reduction in taxable residential properties. I'm sure there are far more complex systems that might put us back on the road to recovery, but alas they tend to be too complex for the voting public to grasp. And any complex system is fraught with loop holes and ways for some to not pay their share. In my eyes the only realistic system is a flat taxation system with no other incentives or loop holes, coupled with less subsidization for those without income.

Don't make the system more complex, make it far simpler. People seem to think the only thing they can do is tinker around the edges of property taxes, with exemptions and rebates and revaluations. I've said it before and I'll say it again: IMHO, the whole notion of property taxes is dumb and wrong and evil and unjust. The only individual taxes that are even approximately fair are taxes on income and taxes on spending, of those a tax on income is by far the fairest. Tax what someone earns, according to their ability to pay, don't tax what they own. That's not exactly hard to explain. Abolish property taxes and bring in a local income tax. Tax businesses on their profits, if you must, not on their real estate.

Any real estate taxes are just city hall saying 'Guess what? You don't really own s*** around here, you're just renting it from us for as long as you can afford to pay our taxes'. How exactly is that fair? If that system was serving us well we wouldn't be having this conversation. Time to get a lot more imaginative.

[NJMedic 96]

Just a question ? what is the legal responsibility for the surrounding departments to respond mutual aid? Im sure eventually the leaders of the surrounding areas will have to put their people first.

The first rule of mutual aid is to cover your area first. There is no easy solution for Lawrence. Basically they are screwed. Yoy might see the surrounding towns start charging Lawrence to respond.