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SEPTEMBER 2021 E-NEWSLETTER
THE LABOR LANDSCAPE
The new City administration began it work
in January, tackling a wide range of issues
left unresolved by the previous
administration. They have adopted a
much-needed increase in the Occupancy Tax on
hotels, motels and vacation rentals in
residential properties. Plans have been
drawn and reasonable bids have been received
for a much-needed modern firehouse. And
perhaps most important, a sense of
transparency and decorum are being restored
to the business of public policy.
Much more work remains. In particular, the
need to resolve the many issues of
collective bargaining left ignored or
unresolved by the previous administration.
According to Cape May Budget data there are
114 city employees. There are seven unions
among employees of the city, ranging is size
from 3 to 26 members. Another 22 employees
are not unionized.
For 2020 the Total Employee Cost is
$14,000,000 and represents 67% of the Cape
May Operating Budget of $21,000,000.
Chart 1
THE HOT ISSUE
Chief among these unresolved fiscal
decisions is the current negotiations with
the Firefighters Union. This process has
been ongoing, and progress is slow. There’s
a growing amount of heat without a lot of
light.
Collective bargaining, especially in the
public sector, is always prone to theatrics
and strategies to bolster the positions of
each side. Cape May is no exception.
Aside from actually bargaining with each
other, the players employ time honored
tactics to secure their demands. Public
workers tend to enlist the public, taxpayers
or parents whichever the union, in their
perceived struggle to secure a living wage.
Management typically either pleads the
larger fiscal concern over austerity and
fairness, deflects discussion of specific
issues or remains silent while hiring
professionals to counter the professionals
sent by the union.
Taxpayers meanwhile sit on the sidelines and
await the outcome, often unable to
distinguish between bargaining rhetoric and
fiscal reality.Here’s what we
know about the game we watching:
- There are 25 municipal fire
companies in Cape May County.
- Twenty-one of these have volunteer
companies staffed by some 650
volunteers.
- Four of these municipalities
maintain a full-time, unionized staff -
Cape May, Ocean City, Wildwood,
and North Wildwood.
- Cape May participates in Mutual Aid
agreements with surrounding municipal
volunteer fire companies to provide fire
and EMS services. The cost of these
services is borne by the Cape May
Municipal Budget. Cape May neither
reimburses nor receives reimbursement
from these municipalities for the cost
of these Mutual Aid services.
- Two municipalities, Cape May
and North Wildwood, maintain
both a paid and a volunteer fire
service.
- Two municipal fire service employee
groups, Cape May and Ocean City,
are represented by the same union, the
International Association of
Firefighters (IAFF).
- According to the Federal Bureau of
Labor Statistics for 2020, the average
salary for a firefighter in:
o Philadelphia/Camden Metropolitan Area
is $67,120,
o Atlantic County Metropolitan Area is
$84,140
o Cumberland County Metropolitan Area is
$66,800
o Cape May County Metropolitan Area is
$52,230.
- The average salary of a firefighter
in Cape May is $62,758.
- The average statutory and
contractual cost of a firefighter in
Cape May is $113,162.
Chart 2
- As a unionized employee, in addition
to a base salary Cape May firefighters
receive a benefit package valued at
80.3% of their base salary. This
includes pension contributions and
negotiated contractual benefits.
- In addition to salary, the current
contract with the IAFF includes:
o 15-18 paid vacation days
o Overtime pay at time and a half the
hourly rate
o Reimbursement for non-required
training
o 14 paid Holidays (time and a half if
required to work)
o 3 paid personal days
o 15 paid sick days
o Individual and Family Health Insurance
o Clothing Maintenance allowance
o Annual reimbursement for the cost of
tuition, books, and travel (gasoline)
for up to 22 college credits toward a
Fire Safety Degree
- 2020 Base Salary - Current Cape May
all fire personnel
Chart 3
- According to the Cape May Budget
Office data for 2021, under the terms of
the current Firefighter Contract, an
entry level firefighter making $36,000
in 2020 would project to make $40,000 in
2021, an 11% increase.
THE END GAME
The five year collective bargaining
agreement between the firefighters and the
city expired on December 31, 2020. Prior to
its expiration, the previous city
administration resisted and delayed opening
negotiations with the firefighters over the
terms of a renewed agreement. Justifiably,
this delay caused a degree of animosity and
concern among both the employees and the
general public.
Negotiations finally commenced earlier this
year amid that air of animosity and concern.
Little accurate information is available
about what is actually on the table at these
closed sessions.
To form opinions about both the value and
the cost of a paid fire/EMS Service, the
public is left with little else but lawn
signs and press releases from the union and
silence from the administration.
At some point, hopefully soon, the posturing
will give way to compromise as it always
does.
When it does, Taxpayers will judge the
appropriate balance between public safety
and public dollars, and whether or not the
new negotiated agreement strikes that
balance.
Stay tuned.
As the fate of the next Firefighter
Contract is negotiated behind the closed
door of the Collective Bargaining
Process, compromise will eventually
prevail.
When it does, Taxpayers will judge the
appropriate balance between public
safety and public dollars, and whether
or not the new negotiated agreement
strikes that balance.
The TPA continues to examine both the
value and the cost of this essential
public service in order for the
judgement of each taxpayer is based or
as much information as possible.
The traditional model of the Volunteer
Fire Brigade is becoming less and less
viable across the State. A recent
article in the Cape May Herald
chronicles this trend.
https://www.capemaycountyherald.com/news/government/article_b6321d1a-e3ff-11eb-995b-736f53238ad2.html
While many towns across the county
continue to use the volunteer model,
five Cape May County communities, facing
increasingly complex service demands and
declining volunteer availability, have
adopted a career paid fire service.
Just recently, Stone Harbor has joined
this list by creating a paid fire
company in its 2021 budget.
Given its unique and potentially
flammable nature as both a tourist
destination and a residential community,
Cape May and its Fire Department provide
an impressive range of services to its
resident and visitors:
- Extinguish Fires
- Structural Collapse Response
- Emergency Medical Services and Transport
Ambulance
- Ocean Rescue
- Vehicle Extraction
- Ice Rescue
- High Angle, Confined Space Rope and Rescue
- Educational Programs
- Community Involvement and Support
- Emergency Response involving hazardous or
toxic materials
The U.S. Coast Guard Fire Department
Station 59 supplies an engine and West
Cape May VFC supplies a truck company on
all first alarm assignments with Cape
May Fire.
Second alarm assignments to the City of
Cape May bring firefighters from West
Cape May VFC, Townbank VFC, Erma VFC and
Villas VFC
CMFD also provides the first due engine
company for parts of the island that
include the Harbor/Marinas and other
sections of Lower Township.
CMFD is the Rapid Intervention Crew for
Station 61 Townbank VFC, Station 62 Erma
VFC in Lower Township. CMFD also provides emergency medical
services for Cape May, West Cape May and
Cape May Point. In 2021, the City
will receive between $330,000 and
$350,000 in revenue as reimbursement
from West Cape May, Cape May Point and
individual insurance carriers for these
services.
All members of the Cape May fire service
are certified as both Firefighters and
EMS providers and, in addition, several
CMFD staff are certified fire
instructors and are trained in fire
cause and investigation.
In some paid career departments, fire
prevention and property inspections are
a subset of the fire department.
Cape May maintains a separate Fire
Prevention Bureau apart from the CMFD to
perform this task.
The position of Career Firefighter has
evolved into providing a wide variety of
services to a community. This
occupation requires comprehensive
technical training and a rigorous
qualification process governed by the
New Jersey Civil Service Commission.
The hiring process is controlled by both
written and physical tests, and
eligibility lists based on test scores,
veteran status, volunteer points, and
residency. These eligible lists may last
between two and four years. Once
qualified and listed, candidates receive
and evaluate offers of employment.
The duties of a Career firefighter are
described here:
https://info.csc.state.nj.us/jobspec/01839.htm
The NJ Civil Service Commission offers
the Intergovernmental Transfer Program
(ITP) which provides any Civil Service
employee the opportunity to transfer
from one jurisdiction to another, while
maintaining permanent civil service
status. This program allows a fully
trained and qualified career firefight
for personal or professional reasons, to
apply to any municipality which
advertises a Civil Service vacancy in
its Fire Service. In recent years two
Cape May firefighters have opted to
apply and have taken an ITP. Two
others have left for positions in other
states. There is currently one
vacancy in the CMFD.
The availability of qualified, eligible,
and interested firefighters is a limited
labor pool. Cape May competes in that
market with paid fire companies in and
beyond Cape May County. The core of that competition rests
squarely on salary and advancement
opportunities.
The current contract with the Cape May
Firefighter Union was negotiated in 2015
and expired in December of 2020.
That contract includes the following
salary schedule based on years of
employment. Salaries are annual as are
raises based on years of experience.
For example, a firefighter hired in 2016
at $36,000 annually would receive a salary
of $44,800 in 2019.
A firefighter at Step 10 making $56,700 in
2016 would make $66,720 in 2019.
Under the present Salary Schedule, a
firefighter would reach the maximum salary
after 18 years of service.
CMFD operates on a 56-hour work week, with
24-hour shifts followed by 48 hours off.
Given that Cape May operates in what has
become a very competitive market among a
relatively small number of communities, TPA
has examined the collective bargaining
agreements of the four other municipalities
which operate a paid career fire service.
Benefits such as pensions, overtime and
health benefits are calculated upon salary.
Other incidental benefits vary across the
contracts.
This chart displays the salary schedule for
the final year of Cape May’s contract
against the contractual schedule for 2021 in
each of the other paid career departments in
the county.
Stone Harbor, Ocean and Cape May operate
on a 56-hour work week
Wildwood and North Wildwood operate on a
48-hour work week.
Since contracts are based on an annual
salary and not hourly wages, the amount of a
salary and the length of the work week
determine a projected hourly wage, and this
varies for each contract.
For example, a salary of $50,000 in a
48-hr. workweek translate to $20/hr.; for a
56-hr. workweek it would be $17/hr.
Stone Harbor created its paid service in
2021 and opted to use its existing Police
Salary Schedule for its Fire Service.
Given that a paid fire department within the
county has now altered the model, the
balance within the competitive marketplace
for qualified firefighters may well have
further shifted.
In Stone Harbor, firefighters are not
Civil Service employees and positions in
this newly created Career Service are being
filled by an internal city test and
screening process
.
While all of this raw data draws
attention back the two central issues on the
minds of taxpayers, – the value of the Fire
Service and the cost of that service, -- it
also raises a third issue.
The Value of
maintaining a qualified, trained, and
dedicated career fire service in and for
Cape May is obvious, even imperative.
The Cost of
that Service is real and significant, as
discussed in the previous TPA Newsletter.
The new reality is how
well Cape May understands and responds to
the increasingly competitive market for
professional firefighters.
This new contract is the critical
crossroad.
It must do three things:
- It must Preserve and protect the
value of our Fire Service It must
Control the fiscal weight of a Paid Fire
Service on our budget; and
- It must Improve our ability to
compete for and retain professional
firefighters.
- If it doesn’t do all three equally
it will be a failure. This no small
task. To succeed, each side must accept
their full responsibility to meet these
three goals.
As taxpayers we’re all anxious to see how
well they do.
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