Budget Could Ax Vacations for Firefighters

Just one month into a new fiscal year, the Oceanside Fire Department already is having difficulty living within its budget and now is planning to cancel vacations and holidays to make up for a run on overtime hours.

In a memo dated July 26, City Manager John Mamaux directed the Fire Department to take the action after the department used up 24% of its budgeted overtime money for the year in just the first 16 days of the fiscal year, which began July 1.

“For whatever reasons, the overtime was being spent until the city manager’s office conducted a review,” said Dana Whitson, deputy city manager. “We’ve had ongoing concern about overtime expenditures in that department.”

The Fire Department will also have to reduce minimum staffing levels from 29 firefighters on duty at a time to 26, said Fire Chief Jim Rankin.

“It’s not an alarming situation, because we’re still maintaining five stations and the paramedic service,” Rankin said.

Mamaux’s memo also requires the fire chief to provide Whitson with the name of every Fire Department employee on sick leave so the city manager’s office can verify the illnesses.

Furthermore, late employees will be docked the overtime pay caused by their tardiness, Mamaux’s memo said.

Whitson said the overtime has increased because more people are off work due to job-incurred injuries and because the City Council slashed the Fire Department’s overtime budget from $728,929 to $165,890, which has made the amount used seem greater.

The vacation cancellations come on top of a 12.1% cut made this year in the Fire Department budget, which now stands at $9.7 million.