By Michael D. Pitman
Journal-News, Hamilton
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Middletown City Council has agreed to a new three-year fire union contract with a goal of reducing so-called legacy payouts and making salaries more competitive.
City Manager Paul Lolli said the contract the council approved 4-0 was a culmination of several months of negotiations with IAFF Local 336.
“One thing we knew that was going to be challenging was how far behind our firefighters were in wages and salaries,” he said. “We set out to do what we could to correct that.”
The contract’s first year will see a 10% wage hike, which will be applied retroactively from Jan. 1 . A 7% increase will be added to both the second and third years of the contract. Lolli said Middletown Division of Fire firefighters were underpaid anywhere from $3,000 to $12,000 when compared to surrounding jurisdictions.
“We were losing a lot of our firefighters to a lot of these communities around, and the same holds true with our police ranks,” Lolli said. “We had to bridge that gap, we had to stop the bleeding.”
He added the contract will allow Middletown to compete in the recruitment and retention of firefighters.
Over the past few years, the Middletown Division of Fire has lost upwards of a dozen firefighters to other neighboring jurisdictions. But it’s not easy finding new hires. Assistant Fire Chief Steve Ludwig said during their last hiring cycle Middletown interviewed 12 people, and of those interviewed, “several were not hirable.”
There were several minor changes to the three-year contract, which retroactively begins on Jan. 1, including with regards to injury and authorized leave, temporary assignments to a higher rank, discipline, and insurance.
The new contract works toward reducing what is known as legacy payouts, where firefighters historically would “bank” paid time off in exchange for a large payout when they retired. Lolli said that had significant costs to the city, in some cases, more than $100,000 per retirement.
This generation of firefighters, however, wants to have their money upfront, Lolli said, adding that many other communities have reduced or eliminated legacy costs. He said this would “save the city significant funds.”
“We don’t have a dollar amount right now, but we do know this moves us in the direction that will be able to reduce that cost for the city in the future,” Lolli said.
At Middletown City Council’s next meeting on Aug. 6, they’ll consider a memorandum of understanding with the city’s corrections officers union. Lolli said it’s been tough to compete with the Butler County Jail because there’s a nearly $5 per hour difference in wages.
“These are some of the same problems we’re seeing with police and fire, however, this is probably a little bit more of a serious nature,” the city manager said. “They’ve lost three in the last year, so retention is a problem.”
The plan is to have a $2.50 increase for the corrections officers in Middletown, “which will get us closer to competing with the Butler County Jail .” The salary increase would add about $25,000 for the remainder of the 2024 budget, and add $57,000 to the budget for 2025 “which we feel will fall within the financial plan of the city.”
A fully staffed corrections department would also prevent the need to police officers reassigned from police beats to the city jail when they’re short, Lolli said.
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