Yuba City department gets needed fire reinforcements

May 12--The largest hiring class in the 107-year history of the Yuba City Fire Department started work this week, and it was a welcome sight for the existing firefighters, who logged more than 50,000 hours of overtime the past two years due to vacancies in the department.

Last Friday, the department swore in 22 new staff members, including nine new fire recruits funded by a $1.5 million Federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant the city received last year.

All told, the department added 12 new fire recruits, five fire apparatus operators, three fire captains and two battalion chiefs.

The additional personnel will improve response times and the overall service the department provides, as well as improve insurance service office ratings for local businesses, said Bill Fuller, spokesman for the department.

But firefighters forced into working overtime are wondering why the department waited so long to bring on new personnel, saying overtime has been an issue for the department since 2014.

"Guys are tired," said Dave Newquist, president of Yuba City Firefighters local 3793. "There is a point where it's not about the money anymore, and it gets to be too much."

In 2015, the fire department spent $1.5 million funding about 32,000 hours of overtime wages and $3.9 million on about 107,000 hours of regular wages, according to data provided by the city.

In 2014, the department spent $1.2 million on about 26,000 overtime hours and $4.1 million on about 120,000 regular hours.

During the worst periods, there were up to 180 shifts of overtime in a month, according to Newquist.

Vacancies in the department varied from four to nine positions in 2014 and four to seven positions in 2015, according to the city.

The amount of overtime worked for each individual firefighter varied. In the most extreme case, one fire apparatus engineer worked about 2,200 overtime hours, almost as much as the 2,300 regular hours the engineer logged. The overtime pay for that individual was $99,000. The normal salary for a fire apparatus engineer is $86,000.

Newquist said that engineer worked more overtime so other firefighters could spend time with family. But others missed important occasions due to overtime requirements.

"There are guys that have missed anniversaries, birthday parties and weddings because they got ordered back to work," Newquist said.

The fire department said there were several reasons the hiring process took so long and the overtime was required.

Fuller said that, at times, the positions were frozen to save money. Other times, firefighters were injured or on leave, and constant staffing requirements forced the department to call firefighters to duty.

Leave hours totaled about 15,000 in 2015 and almost 16,000 in 2014, according to the city.

Fire Chief Pete Daley said the recruitment process to fill the positions took longer than he expected. The department received more than 440 applications for the vacant positions.

"The other reason is we were waiting for the SAFER grant, that put us in a holding pattern," Daley said. "Now that we have the grant, and the people on board, that should reduce our overtime."

CONTACT reporter Andrew Creasey at749-4780 and on Twitter @AD_Creasey.

___

(c)2016 the Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, Calif.)

Visit the Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, Calif.) at www.appeal-democrat.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.