County To Extend Volunteer Firefighter Contract Another Year; Work With Volunteers

February 13, 2008

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The Escambia County Commission voted Tuesday afternoon to extend the county’s contract with 15 volunteer departments for another year while discussions continue on a unified countywide department. The commission must vote to ratify their decisions at their next meeting before their recommendation becomes final.

The county’s current contract with the independent volunteer departments expires September 30 of this year, but the commission recommended extending that contract for one year until September 30, 2009. In the meantime, negotiations between the Escambia County Volunteer Firefighters Association and the county will continue toward a combination volunteer and paid department, with the negotiations set to end by February of 2009.

There has been concern among the county’s volunteers and citizens that the county’s proposal was for an all paid, career firefighter department that would eliminate the volunteers or would made them inferior to the paid firefighters.

But that’s not the case, according to Mike Whitehead, commission chairman. In the combined volunteer and career firefighter system, rank is rank he said, with a definite chain of command to be in place.

“If you are at Station 15, then you report to whoever is in charge at 15, but you are also going to report to whoever is above the food chain there,” Whitehead said, using Walnut Hill’s Station 15 as an example.

But that’s not the way the system has been working at times, according to Robbie Whitfield, president of the volunteer’s association and chief of the Ferry Pass Volunteer Fire Department.

The county currently operates a “dual” system of paid career firefighters and volunteers. The paid firefighters man select volunteer stations during the weekdays, including Century and Molino.

Whitfiled gave Whitehead the example of a paid career lieutenant that “if the fire chief of that station tells him to do something, he’s told he doesn’t work for him. Are you saying that is the way it should be?”

Whitehead said the fire chief of that station should have the authority of any paid fire chief. “If it doesn’t work that way, then that career lieutenant needs to leave and go find another place to work,” he said.

“We embody the position with the authority to make the decision whether the person in that position is a volunteer or paid,” Whitehead continued. “I don’t care. If they are qualified to be the station chief, then they are the station chief. Period. I have a hard time accepting (that is happening). If the career don’t like that, then I agree they need to leave and start over. I can deal with that.”

“I agree, but that has not been happening in Escambia County,” Whitfield replied.

“Document and we will replace administration that does not play the game,” Whitehead said, “the same way I expect volunteers to be replaced if they don’t play the game.”

“I will be the first to ask Bob (McLaughlin, county administrator) to fire him,” Whitehead said in an apparent reference to County Fire Chief Ken Perkins. “If we are not treating volunteers and career firefighters equally, then administration needs t go. Period. End of report. Because as far as I am concerned they are the same.”

“I just find it very hard to accept that we’ve go two different standards around here,” he said. “This will always be volunteer system at least until our grandkids are around.”

“The idea of 15 kingdoms, 15 different departments and 15 different regions not being accountable to one rand and file command is a problem,” Commissioner Gene Valentino said.

But commissioners and Whitfield agreed that terms could be worked out to bring the volunteers and paid career fighters together under one chain of command. And they stressed that the volunteers will never go away.

“The north end of Escambia County will never be dense enough,” Whitehead said, “to warrant paid firefighters. We will have to have volunteers.”

“I don’t think we are that far apart from where we want to be,” Commissioner Grover Robinson said. “We are still going to be a volunteer system. The vision is we have a combination system, but sometimes the fault is with both sides.”

Commissioner Kevin White, who represents District 5 and the North Escambia area, said he would support extending the volunteer’s contract for the additional year until September 30, 2009, while negotiations continue between the volunteers and the county

“I don’t believe there is a need for an extension on the contract,” Perkins told the commission. “We can work with the volunteer leadership to come up with most of our processes and policies. We can work as a combination department by October 1.”

“If there’s an ability at the station level to break off and say ‘I’m not following Chief Perkins’ rules on this’, I’ve got a problem,” Valentino said.

“Without the contract that could happen,” Whitfield said, using his Ferry Pass volunteers as an example. “Without a contract, I don’t have to answer to the association; I don’t have to answer to Chief Perkins. I can do what I want.”

After over an hour and half of discussion, the commission voted to support extending the contract the additional year. The county and volunteer association is to come back to the commission with a plan for the combination department by February 2009. The commission will then forgive $24,000 in stipend overpayments to volunteers. The new combination paid and volunteer department is expected to be in place prior the end of the contract extension on September 30, 2009.

The commission’s vote at Tuesday’s meeting of the Committee of the Whole is not binding and must be approved in a regular meeting. The next regular meeting for commissioners is at 5:30 on February 21.

Pictures above: Firetrucks on the scene of a structure fire Monday afternoon in the Bratt Community. Paid career firefighters stationed at Century and Molino joined volunteers from those departments as well as Walnut Hill and McDavid fighting the fire. To read the story about the fire, click here.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News