Andy Lay
City officials have allocated additional funds for firefighter overtime as the Columbus Fire Department struggles with staffing shortages.
Columbus City Council voted Tuesday to approve the second reading of an ordinance providing for this appropriation and other city expenses, as well as the second readings of amended salary ordinances in accordance with the changes.
The appropriations ordinance states that CFD has “additional overtime expenses in the projected amount of $130,000” and $4,800 in additional faithful service expenses that need to be appropriated from the city’s general fund. The amended salary ordinance for sworn fire personnel updates the maximum expenditure for overtime to $798,047.
According to Director of Administration and Community Development Mary Ferdon, the fire department had paid out nearly $480,000 in overtime so far this year, as of late July. She said this is due to retirements and staffing shortages, as well as several firefighters being on leave.
Columbus Fire Chief Andy Lay said at a previous council meeting that over the last five years, the department has lost 15 people, which “never happened before.” Seven have left within the last year, and an additional individual had plans to leave soon. Lay added that these are firefighters with 10 or so years of experience.
“I have had, all year, six people off on medical, psychological, suspension, whatever it be,” he said. “I have averaged about six to seven firefighters just on those alone, long-term illness, that kind of thing. So that kind of comes with the territory, but then you have seven people leave. That’s 13 short since April. That’s a lot of overtime, and we have 24-hour shifts. So our last pay cycle was $65,000 in overtime.”
The ordinance also included appropriations from the city’s general fund for additional overtime expenses for the transit department, additional part-time expenses for the animal care department, 2023 election expenses and consulting service expenses for the Columbus Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Another piece of the ordinance is a transfer of funds within the human resources department’s budget to cover expenses related to salaries and benefits for a position that is being moved from 30 to 40 hours a week, according to Ferdon.
There is also a $283,000 appropriation from the city’s American Rescue Plan Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund for parks department capital expenses, which is necessary to “rectify an error” with the 2023 budget, city officials said.
The proposed salary ordinances include changes for not just CFD and transit overtime, but also the addition of a second Animal Care Services operations manager. This is so that the outgoing operations manager can train a replacement before retiring, said Ferdon.
