Why Anne Arundel’s firefighters’ union isn’t endorsing Steve Schuh; Guest column

As president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1563, I represent over 800 professional firefighters serving Anne Arundel County and am duty bound to set the record straight on County Executive Steve Schuh's claims that he is a steward of public safety in our county.

Schuh claims he's brought "real change in public safety to Anne Arundel County." This is false. He has put petty politics ahead of public safety by returning the Federal SAFER Grant of over $7 million for 52 desperately needed firefighters after he lost at arbitration.

Schuh says county public safety professionals are no longer underpaid compared to surrounding jurisdictions. This is also untrue. For the first 12 years of employment with the county, Anne Arundel Firefighters are the lowest paid of any surrounding jurisdiction and they don't hit the area average until 17 years of service which encourages trained, seasoned firefighters, to seek employment opportunities outside of the county to gain pay parity.

Schuh takes credit for funding six firehouse projects, but these were all placed in the budget pipeline by County Executive Laura Neuman well before he was elected.

Schuh goes as far as taking credit for a public safety property tax credit which he vehemently opposed! You'll remember that Gov. Larry Hogan paved the way for the tax credit, which is one of the reasons Hogan won our endorsement unanimously, only to have Schuh fight against it.

Schuh further claims he "funded positions to put more public safety professionals on our streets." This is also false. He has only added four 24-hour positions during his administration which does nothing when compared to staffing losses from attrition to surrounding jurisdictions or retirement.

This leads us to the No. 1 reason we cannot support Schuh - his genuine lack of interest for our public safety staffing.

Several neighborhoods in our county do not have access to adequate public safety staffing resulting in two or fewer firefighters riding out on the fire engine or ladder truck to protect your family and property in an emergency.

We assume our tax dollars provide us with a strong safety net protecting our family, our home, and our property. In exchange for our tax dollars, investment of personal resources to protect our homes, and having a family emergency plan, we expect that a call to 911 will result in an adequately staffed team of first responders imminently arriving to protect our family and home.

And we most certainly expect our firefighters are staffed at a level to mitigate risk and protect their health and safety.

South county and some north county area (Ferndale, Glen Burnie, and Pasadena) taxpayers are much more likely to have half of the recommended number of professional firefighters responding to your call.

In south county, all stations have only two firefighters guaranteed on duty at any given time to be dispatched to a fire emergency. Ferndale in North County has zero professional firefighters to dispatch in the event of a fire emergency and Schuh has eliminated ladder truck staffing at both Severna Park and Glen Burnie.

If you live in Deale and call 911 to report a house fire, you will have two firefighters arriving. Once they arrive, they can assess the situation and call in other available resources to help.

This means the two-person crew from the neighboring station must be dispatched to the Deale area.

I urge you to consider our county's public safety, and that of your family, when you vote in the upcoming election.

Joe Addivinola is the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1563..

Credit: Joe Addivinola - Joe Addivinola is the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1563..