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The Portland City Council is poised to vote Wednesday on an agreement with the Portland Firefighters Association that would offer pay increases to firefighters required to work mandatory overtime due to understaffing.
If the council approves the deal, firefighters will receive an additional $100 per mandatory overtime shift they work. The ratification of the agreement would also nullify any ongoing disciplinary action for firefighters that refused to work a mandatory overtime shift.
Another peculiar perk: Firefighters could once again wash their personal cars at the fire stations using city water. That practice became a point of contention early last year when then-Portland City Auditor Mary Hull Caballero called it a waste of taxpayer dollars and cited an administrative rule that bans employees from using city resources for personal use.
Fire Chief Sara Boone at the time told firefighters to cease washing personal cars at stations. According to the proposed policy language, the agreement would rescind Boone’s directive to halt car washing. The policy calls the reinstitution of car washing a “much-needed boost to morale.”
The policy proposal comes at a time when Portland Fire & Rescue is severely understaffed and its response times remain far longer than the bureau’s stated goals. Last summer, the firefighters’ union asked for double-time pay for mandatory overtime shifts worked, but then-Fire Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty called the proposal fiscally irresponsible. (Figures provided by the fire bureau show it spent $20 million on overtime pay last fiscal year. That’s a 54% increase from just two years prior.)
Current Fire Commissioner Rene Gonzalez told WW last year he wouldn’t rule double pay out. Since assuming office, he’s shown a particular affinity for firefighters and is amid a yearlong tour of every fire station in the city. Earlier this year, he banned the distribution of tents and tarps by Portland Street Response in an effort to reduce the number of tent fires that firefighters respond to, but he admitted it might be a “drop in the bucket” considering the number of tents distributed by the Joint Office of Homeless Services through its nonprofit contractors.
The proposal comes from Mayor Ted Wheeler, who oversees the city’s labor relations department.
The policy on the table Wednesday would also guarantee that the provisions extend to the union’s next labor agreement with the city. Its current contract expires this summer.