According to the records of the Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue District, 67% of all the members of Local 1826 – District 6 abuse their Vacation, Sick and Overtime Pay and it’s been going on for some time.
The taxpayers in Lehigh Acres are being asked to support these firemen with massive tax increases but they the majority of firemen in Local 1826 – District 6 are eating up taxpayer’s money and abusing the system and the elected board continues to allow this.
There have been 210 sick time occurrences by Local 1826 – District 6 in the LAFD personnel since January 1, 2015. These 210 occurrences have generated 6,379 hours of sick time.
There have been 11,785.01 hours of vacation time taken by Local 1826 – District 6 personnel for the first five months of this year Jan – May 2015.
There have been 106.5 shifts of overtime generated from January 1 – June 7, 2015.
According to Fire Chief John Wayne, the Fire District could have eliminated all but 7.5 shifts of the 106.5 shirts of overtime if they were utilizing a 56 hour (proposed) workweek vs. the 48 hour (current) workweek.
All the firefighters would have to do is to give up their PAID Kelly Day ……
The Fire District has spent $121,353.25 on overtime dollars since October 1, 2015 (this number does include “late call” generated overtime as well…however it is small in comparison to the amount generated by employees calling in sick), but only budgeted $80,000 for overtime this fiscal year.
Chief Wayne stated, “Station 105’s (Bell Blvd) Engine has not been staffed since March 24, 2015…It’s only been used 12 times out of 158 days (January 1 – June 7, 2015).” According to Wayne, the Fire District could have either staffed a 5th Engine or a 5th Ambulance an additional 123 out of 158 days (January 1 – June 7, 2015) without generating overtime if utilizing a 56 hour (proposed) workweek vs. the 48 hour (current) workweek.
So why hasn’t the fifth fire truck or ambulance been on the road because on any given day the Local 1826 – District 6 has four to five firefighters on a PAID day off called a Kelly Day.
So wants more important a Kelly Day or Public Safety?
Prior to the District requesting negotiations date with Local 1826 – District 6, overtime was averaging approximately $1,851 every pay-period (2 weeks). LAFD documents show once our first meeting took place on December 16, 2015 (this meeting lasted 4 minutes and the Local cancelled all remaining meetings…they the union did not reschedule until March 25, 2015) that overtime average increased to approximately $4,847 every pay-period (2 weeks). And since negotiations have been in full swing (since March 25, 2015) the overtime average has increased to $11,973 every pay-period (2 weeks).