Editorial by Matt Marquardt –
Councilman Travis Hickey’s long-sought after goal of changing the shifts of firefighters and other emergency responders in Mason City was dealt a death blow at yesterday’s council work session.
Hickey has been a critic of the overtime paid to firefighters, which last year amounted to over $50,000. To try and remedy this and eliminate overtime, he had pushed for possibly changing the shifts of these workers from 24 hour shifts to 8 or 12 hour shifts.
City Administrator Brent Trout finally shot a hole in this theory, saying that 24 hour shifts are “the best place to stay at.”
(PHOTO: Councilman Travis Hickey listens as City Administrator Brent Trout explains that Hickey’s pursuit of 8 or 12 hour shifts for fire fighters and emergency responders is a bad idea.)
Chief Bob Platts confirmed that to have enough firefighters on duty, as many as 9 new employees would have to be hired, thus raising expenses even further and outweighing any gains from eliminating overtime. The MCFD’s Jacob Schweitzer said at the work session that the newest national trend is actually longer shifts of 48 hours with 96 hours off before coming back to work.
A source confirmed that after the meeting, Hickey was giving up on the idea of pursuing shift changes.
The bigger concern became fatigue of emergency responders.
It was said during the meeting that some ambulance drivers and/or firefighters, after working a 24 hour shift, are allowed to (and do) pick up an extra shift and work as many as 48 straight hours.
This is in conflict with the private sector, the discussion went, where truck drivers, for example, are only allowed to work 10 hour shifts before by law being forced to take a break.
“You would have to go to significant lengths to convince me that someone working 48 hours is efficient,” said Mayor Eric Bookmeyer. “I mean, we all live life everyday, and we go to sleep after what, 10 o’clock?”
Watch video of discussion:
httpv://youtu.be/Vf4hqBLw6iQ
Mr. Marquardt any comment on you outsourcing jobs to des moines for your phone answering service. You seem to go after government entity in cerro gordo county. You sir are outsourcing from your own community to save a dollar. You won’t respond and will probably delete this.
I love the picture Matt! The headline should have read…”Hickey Fails” and that would have said enough but I like what you have it say in the join the discussion part at the top. Classic. Lol.
Join the Discussion:
Hickey fails at quest to set 8 or 12 hour MCFD shifts.
And then his picture. LMAO. Sums it up. Way to go Matt!
LMFAO! The caption in my mind goes like this….
Trout is sayin: Guys, we really shouldn’t do this cause I just found out that we’d be REALLY stupid if we did cause it cost us more money!
Hickey is thinkin: Fuk! I’m AM an idiot.
Bookmeyer is thinkin: Damn I wish i had a beer…I think i gotta poo….I wonder what we’re having for supper…..Hickey IS an idiot….Am I? Na!….WHOA!!! I’m glad that was just a fart!!!
Trucker Dave you are correct on how the standards are set by the feds and dot on hours of service for truck drivers. Question though when it comes to the public sector why don’t the same rules apply to say street departments when plowing snow or say the fire department. It was said at the meeting that firefighters work many 48 hour shifts and sometimes 72 hour shift with little or no rest based on their call volumes. Now tell me that is safe. Our federal govt limits the hours of service on the private sector for the safety of those individuals working as well as the general public but when it comes to the public side those same rules do not exist. Seems like a double standard to me.
It looks like reason has prevailed on this issue!!
Now, move on…. The council has not done a darn thing about jobs. Why not work on something that needs changing. Leave the sanitation department alone. It takes a special kind of person to deal with other peoples crap all day. I don’t care what time they get off– as long as my garbage and recyclables are picked up. They do a phenomenal job.. And, who locally would have the capacity to handle the entire city… we have one lame choice- Holts with old rickety equipment and questionable employees — no background checks??? and Waste Management who would have to buy tons of new equipment to do the job..And, if they are serious about jobs, then why lose valuable city employees to add to the unemployment lines… why not work on the ideas that came up as priorities for 2012-13. that would be a novel idea…. Get busy and remember that the dept heads and employees know one hell of a lot more about how things work than all council persons put together. Then there is the mayor who basically has no clue but to try to scare and intimidate employees. Yes he has no job. HIs wife is a doctor — he could be a house husband — but he even takes his kids to daycare so he has no responsiblity. As for his comment about working 48 hours at a time– sometimes doctors do that ,, even in the ER — talk about a real issue… Get busy and do the peoples business and now….
The council needs to concentrate on bringing decent jobs to town so people can make a living and survive. They think they can stick their noses everywhere and most of the time they don’t know what they are talking about. Why would Travis Hickey think he knew what would be best for the fire department? Has he ever been a fireman or worked there?????? We have a fine fire and ambulance department and they seem to do just fine. Leave them alone! Hickey is always sucking up and trying to look and act like he knows something and he doesn’t. $50, 000 in overtime for the department? So, how much were they spending at city hall for remodeling when it didn’t need to be done? At least the fire department and emts serve a purpose here. Between the council and the mayor, it is a flippin joke!
FF’s working wold fires have to observe the 2:1 rule up to a max of 16 hours of work followed by 8 hours off of the line.
Mason City provides fantastic fire and emt services. I wish the council would stop trying to fix things that aren’t broken.
As a neighboring fire chief our fire dept works quite often with the MCFD. I hope your city fathers do not make any changes to this dept. as they are top notch fire dept and very well ran. The people in MC need to count there blessings!!!
Just a little note here, it’s not the people of mason city that need to count their blessings on this subject, it’s the city council. The same holds true with the sanitation department..it’s not broke, we don’t need it fixed….
OMFG. Did they mayor just say he has to be convinced that someone is efficient? Does this guy even have a job? I heard he mooches off his wife and plays golf all day. Also heard when he got elected in that joke of an election over sleepy man that he marched into peoples offices and said its my way or the highway, really intimidated people. When will grown up Opee figure it out?
Hey, this is a slam on “Opie”… He was a good kid, not a spiled brat that throws tantrums when he doesn’t get his way And PLEASE leave the garbage pick-up alone!!!
The mayor is a figure head and we should not have to convince him of anything he has no power. The council are the ones that have the power to make policy.
The difference is: A truck driver’s work is constant for those 10 hours. Firemen and emergency responders are not in an emergency situation continually. They could nap between calls. The council does not need to micromanage the fire department. The fire department is doing a fine job!
Setting the record straight:
Commercial driver’s license holders may DRIVE up to 11 hours per shift before taking a minimum 10 hour break.
CDL holders may WORK up to 14 hours a day (16 hours a day, one time a week if they return to their home terminal at end of shift). The 11 hours drive time is counted within that 14 hours.
CDL holders may NOT work more than 70 hours per 8 day period without taking either a 34 hour re-start (which sets their hours worked back to 0 for the week) or wait for hours to drop off their log-book (waaay too complicated to explain here without eyes glazing over).
True, fire fighters are not USUALLY on-duty and working 24 hours straight… but the fire fighters around Colorado recently may have a different opinion on that topic. Given the dry weather of late, this fall’s harvest may give the firefighters a LONG workout!
God Bless the Fire Fighters and their loved ones!
(But I don’t like paying over-time when not needed)