The truth behind the rift

[Jefferson Firefighters]

What's really going on between Jefferson firefighters and Jefferson Parish administrators?

The Jefferson Fire Fighters Association censured CAA Deano Bonano and Interim Fire Director Dave Saunders with unanimous votes of 'no confidence' on October 3, 2008. Within three weeks, Interim Fire Director Saunders suddenly proposed a work schedule change that will result in a massive pay cut for fire personnel. This work schedule has been in effect for 50 years and a 1993 fire and rescue study paid for by Jefferson Parish deemed the current schedule "most appropriate" and cost effective.

[ACE]

How can Mr. Landry state that Jefferson Parish will have a 2,000,000.00 deficit if they don't fix the wasted money in overtime then in the same breath say that if a firefighter works the Parishes proposed schedule and the kelly day he will make the same amount of money? Doesn't that still mean that they would be spending the same amount of money? Sounds like Jefferson Parish and it's Asbestos attorney need to spend a little time reading this website to get the facts.

[Unregistered]

Ace,

This is exactly what we have been saying all along. Jefferson Parish representatives such as Mr. Landry continue to misrepresent the facts to the public in obvious effort to confuse the issues. We suspect this is done to place a "smoke screen" on the original mismanagement issues raised by firefighters. This type if mismanagement still exists today and are the actions of CAA Deano Bonano and Acting Fire Department Director David Saunders.

As you stated how can they claim that a firefighter is going to make the same money and not lose pay? At the same time they claim that they are going to allow the same firefighter to work the proposed day off and make overtime and then at the same time claim this exact overtime is unfordable and going to cause a deficit.

All of these key phrases are designed by their PR firm to cause unnecessary alarm to citizens because of the current financial market. This appears as an attempt to relate the fire departments current dispute to other financial issues across the country that are clearly not related.

The Fire Department has always been well funded by the citizens who requested by vote a fully paid class 1 fire department. Firefighters are not asking for a raise or to increase taxes. The department is already operating well below its approved millage and budget. The department to date is still not collecting the full millage that voters approved. Even Parish President Broussard is quoted as saying the proposed cuts in overtime were not needed to keep the fire department funded. You can read the article below.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/eastjefferson/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1228976548231400.xml&coll=1

The fact is if you were to give firefighters a day off as proposed then it would either mean you would have to hire firefighters in our place which would cost additional dollars or you would have to have less firefighters on the truck coming to your house for a fire or responding to other emergencies.

Jefferson Parish adopted the National Fire Protection Agency Standards as a whole by parish ordinance and currently is running fire trucks below these standards because of mismanagement and against their own ordinance. They are doing this by not having the recommended number of firefighters responding on fire trucks. The proposal to give firefighters a kelley day or day off of work would exacerbate this problem reducing the already understaffed fire trucks to have less firefighters on them on any particular day.

The only other option would be to hire and train additional firefighters to fill in the day current firefighters are not allowed to work under the proposed plan. The Parish paid 1993 MMA study concluded it was more "cost effective" to have current firefighters work the hours to provide around the clock fire protection opposed to hiring additional personnel maintaining their training and benefits. The proposed cuts were suggested without any new studies that would contradict the 1993 study based on the same schedule and hours.

It would seem that the citizens of Jefferson Parish would have benefited from Parish Officials investigating these issues fully opposed to awarding a parish contract to an asbestos attorney to handle this labor dispute.

This is a Quote from Mr. Landry's (the attorney awarded the parish contract) website.

"Asbestos law isn’t just an area we cover – it’s ALL we do".

Source:
http://www.landryswarr.com/

Citizens such as yourself should ask our elected officials how an asbestos attorney such as Mr. Landry obtains a parish contract to handle labor disputes? Also ask what would make him an expert on fire department operations and pay plans? It would seem that citizens would benefit more from an attorney specializing in this field opposed to someone who advertises that all he does is asbestos law. This could be why there are so many contradicting statements coming from parish officials regarding these issues.

An article in the Gambit places Mr. Landry's fees at 173,000 and we suspect that the fees may be higher than that using current figures all paid for by tax payers.

http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A49139

It almost makes one wonder why Jefferson Parish needs a contract attorney while we have a largely staffed parish attorney's office with lawyers on staff?