The Secret List www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com
We regret to advise you that a West Memphis (Arkansas) Firefighting recruit died during a training exercise today in Camden, Ark. David Eason, 38, suffered a heart attack during the exercise at the Arkansas Fire Academy just before 4 p.m. According to West Memphis Fire Department Battalion Chief Tim McNeely, Eason was doing an exercise designed to teach firefighters how to follow a hose out of a burning building if they get disoriented.
He was in a darkened basement wearing his firefighting gear, but there was no actual smoke or fire involved.
"He got quiet. They immediately turned the lights on. At that point, he had stopped breathing. They had a paramedic on scene, and he started working with them," Chief McNeely said. Eason was flown to a nearby hospital, but pronounced dead less than an hour later. McNeely said Eason was in good shape and passed a physical to become a recruit. Eason leaves a wife and two young sons. As always, our sincere condolences.
One of the worst hit cities is Camden, New Jersey, but Camden is hardly alone in her fiscal plight or dismal future. Dozens of cities and counties across the US are in long term financial jeopardy. Camden is a study of what happens when events conspire with inertia to create a downward spiral.
As of last Wednesday evening, 68 firefighters were laid off there, after the local union and the City failed to reach a deal.
A few facts about Camden:
-80% of the city budget comes from the state. (It’s 2010 budget was $185M, $121M came from Trenton.)
-They are expecting to collect only $21 million in local tax revenue for the current $138 million budget.
-It is America’s poorest city with a median household income of $18,000.
-More than 50% of the 80,000 residents live in poverty.
If the measure of what a city should provide to its citizens is what it can afford, then Camden should be providing next to nothing. The City has little or no funds or tax base and Governor Christie has long since made clear his disdain for the program that has consistently provided state funds to cities that are deemed to be stressed. He also signed legislation capping property tax increases at 2% removing a key revenue producer for local governments. The outlook, especially as the Great Recession lumbers on, is extremely bleak.
Camden is a desperate and destitute enclave teetering towards implosion where the accepted norms no longer apply. Yet leaders, labor and management alike, seem to cling to the past for fear of a bitter future. How many other American cities are drifting toward a Camden Scenario?
In this crisis environment, is the role of a union leader to act to protect jobs or to protect a level of wages and benefits that will automatically (and often immediately) result in union members being laid off? Are union leaders charged with looking ahead to make tough decisions or is it just the here and now that matters? In Camden and similar cities those are the fundamental questions if unions are to be relevant in this post-prosperity economy.
The "play-it-safe/ no-risk" strategy in the short term means putting the weakest into the lifeboats and lowering them away. The ship is still taking on water but the load has been lightened and the list is gone, if only for awhile. This strategy implies that no other actions (changing course, reassigning crew, and adjusting rations) will do. Sounds fine if land is just over the horizon or you aren’t in the life boat. But what if land is nowhere in sight?
Camden and cities like her are firmly and forlornly adrift. Hewing to old rules and the play-it-safe strategy in these places means a lot of things, one of which is that newer firefighters who put their faith in the union and its members have been abandoned without a (real) fight. Regarding "everyone goes home" -in Camden they went home and may not come back and it doesn’t make unions stronger or more effective, quite the opposite-it makes them irrelevant as they stoically protect "gains" destined to be enjoyed by a select few and only for a while.
that the most important thing about a job is having one, in no small part because of health benefits for your family. According to IHS Global, the once familiar world of pay and benefits is dead, perhaps for a generation or more. We need to move from denial to acceptance and be willing to adopt strategies that maintain the reasonable minimum for the maximum before we cast them over the side, most especially in places like Camden where the current cost of essential services will never be covered by local revenues. In this environment, lay-offs should be the last resort, rather than the first, for unions.
If in cities like Camden people refuse to take furloughs or even more drastic measures as a means of closing a real budget gap they are indicating to elected officials and the citizens that firefighters and paramedics won’t be part of a solution. (Though it must be said that furloughs in Camden are the equivalent of bailing the Titanic with a teacup.) But the real reason to take a furlough or a pay cut is not to show anyone anything, it is to keep brothers and sisters employed, especially when you know that the fiscal situation is dire and long-term. Otherwise, the outcome is the lifeboat strategy which is the beginning of a divide and conquer mentality that can take years for unions to overcome, as those with the least resources are given five minutes to grab their possessions and head for the boat deck. It’s a riveting and emotional scenario to behold-but was it really necessary?
The lifeboat strategy (which works till you run out of lifeboats or the ship glides beneath the waves) actually makes unions irrelevant. It takes neither intellect nor leadership to stubbornly adhere to the status quo in cities like Camden. Has the real conversation even occurred there? The booming Camden of the 20th century died in 1969. Investors and employers pulled out 40 years ago. What is left is the moldering detritus of a once prosperous city propped up by the largesse of the state. That all ended with the Great Recession and the exit of former governor John Corzine. An entire city has become a de facto welfare recipient on a massive scale.
Here’s just one an idea; I am sure there are many better ones. Start with some questions. Three years from now what is the likely budget of the fire department given a clear-eyed, rational assessment of what has happened to the city? Is it 50-60% of what it was three years ago? (Given tax revenue that is a rosy prediction.) What changes have to be made to fit that budget model? Everybody knows that the major costs of running a fire department are personnel related. Work together to create a fair and voluntary buy-out for current vested members so that they leave with dignity and a decent pension. (Christie might even agree to that.) Adjust the salaries and benefits to meet the expected revenues and effectively re-launch a new fire department based on what the city and citizens can afford; keeping in mind that it has not been able to afford the current fire department in years.
Sound drastic? It is. But, so is the situation in Camden (and other places.) Their "trimmed down" current budget, ($121M) is 25% less than last year but local revenues will cover only 15% of that. Where is the rest coming from this year-and next?
Holding the current course with recurring rounds of layoffs denies reality and weakens the department and the union. Those who support that strategy are effectively enabling a fatal habit. It has the advantage of being safe for now even if it makes leaders largely irrelevant in charting their fate. Being irrelevant isn’t necessarily bad until you feel the water lapping on your shoes.
