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Over $8M In Unused Leave Paid To Houston Firefighters
JAMES PINKERTON
Houston Chronicle
Reprinted with Permission
Last year, one Houston Fire Department deputy chief retired and walked away with a generous check for $211,808 — and that was just for his unused sick days, vacation and holiday pay.
An executive HFD chief with 39 years on the job also retired in 2010 and left with a payout of $186,409 for his leftover sick time, vacation and holiday pay.
Those hefty termination checks helped account for nearly $17 million paid in the last two years to Houston firefighters who retired or quit and collected on their unused sick days, vacation and holiday pay, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of benefits.
In 2010 alone, the 128 firefighters who left HFD were paid $8.7 million, a 6 percent increase over the $8.2 million departing firefighters received in termination pay during 2009.
The top 10 severance payments to retired firefighters for the last two years were all above $142,000, and while most firefighters received more than $10,000 there were several payments of less than $1,000.
The city's long-standing policy allowing firefighters to cash in on their unused sick, vacation and holiday time has emerged as a critical factor in the Fire Department budget during the current fiscal crisis, as Fire Chief Terry Garrison seeks ways to trim operating expenses and avoid laying off firefighters or closing fire stations.
Last October, Garrison said mounting overtime and severance payments caused a $10 million budget shortfall, which he proposed closing by transferring firefighters from office jobs to fire stations, outsourcing the uniform shop and reducing the number of response teams.
There are nearly 600 Houston firefighters who have 30 years or longer on the job and could retire at any time, part of a pool of future retirees who collectively could be owed an estimated $75 million to $80 million in termination pay, Garrison said.
There is no way to predict when, or how many, of the older firefighters will elect to retire, the chief said.
Garrison said the city owes the departing firefighters the money, adding the department saved funds in the past because overtime was not paid to staff shifts where firefighters worked instead of taking sick days or vacation time.
"When these benefits were negotiated many years ago, there was going to be a time and a place when those were going to have to be paid out. So now we've reached a point where … we're paying it out, and people are surprised at the amounts,“ Garrison said. "As far as I'm concerned, those were negotiated in good faith, and they are fair benefits."
'They Earned The Money'
Jeff Caynon, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association local 341, maintains the department's budget shortfall was "artificially created" by city officials who only allocated half the amount previously budgeted for severance packages and overtime costs.
He bristled at the notion of not paying Houston firefighters the severance pay they're owed for working long hours in a hazardous job that paid less for similar employment in the private sector.
"They earned the money. So anybody saying 'can we afford it?' - the only way you can afford it is to steal it from them, because they've earned it,“ Caynon said. "I mean, this is for time they have worked."
Houston is not unique among Texas cities who allow fire employees to save unlimited amounts of vacation and sick leave, although officials in Austin and Dallas said caps have been negotiated on severance hours firefighters can collect.
"Oh man, that would be a true benefit,“ said Lt. Joel Lavender, a spokesman for the Dallas Fire Department, when told of the amount of some of Houston's severance checks.
The financial liability of termination payments for city workers concerns some elected officials, who are already worried about future contributions to fund pension plans for police, fire and municipal workers.
City Council member Anne Clutterbuck characterized the future liability the city faces for severance payments for fire and police as "staggering,“ and likened some of the recent payments as winning the lottery or a jackpot.
"It is huge, and if everyone took advantage of it, it will bankrupt the city, and the public needs to know about it. I can tell you both the police and fire (administrations) are very aware of it,“ she said.
The specter of hundreds of city workers retiring overnight - and the millions they would be owed - permeates every budget discussion about city pay and benefits, Clutterbuck said.
"You don't want to negotiate or even have a conversation in public about pensions, or about health care benefits or any of the other ways we compensate city employees because, God forbid, it might trigger a mass exodus and we can't afford to pay it,“ Clutterbuck said. "We're stuck with the existing obligations unless we go into bankruptcy, which is not something on the horizon.“
At the Houston Police Department, where nearly half the force is eligible to retire, termination payments to officers who leave are not made in a lump sum. Due to state legislation allowing police unions and city management in Houston to negotiate on salaries and benefits, retiring HPD officers agreed to collect their severance pay through one of three "Phase Down" programs that continues their normal paychecks until accrued hours are paid off, said Mark Clark, executive director of the Houston Police Officers' Association.
Hours Now Capped
Officers can also elect to take a five-year payout of their termination package.
The 300 police officers who retired, quit, died or were fired during calender years 2009 and 2010 collected $1,066,378 in severance payments, according to city payroll records.
Caynon said city officials have opposed efforts to allow fire department retirees to enter a phase down program for severance pay.
Garrison noted newer firefighters have a cap on the number of vacation hours they can accrue, adding the city is making efforts to better plan for retirements.
"What we're trying to do is negotiate a way that makes it more reasonable for the city and the same time makes it a benefit to the members as they leave,“ the fire chief said.
Houston Chronicle
Reprinted with Permission
Last year, one Houston Fire Department deputy chief retired and walked away with a generous check for $211,808 — and that was just for his unused sick days, vacation and holiday pay.
An executive HFD chief with 39 years on the job also retired in 2010 and left with a payout of $186,409 for his leftover sick time, vacation and holiday pay.
Those hefty termination checks helped account for nearly $17 million paid in the last two years to Houston firefighters who retired or quit and collected on their unused sick days, vacation and holiday pay, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of benefits.
In 2010 alone, the 128 firefighters who left HFD were paid $8.7 million, a 6 percent increase over the $8.2 million departing firefighters received in termination pay during 2009.
The top 10 severance payments to retired firefighters for the last two years were all above $142,000, and while most firefighters received more than $10,000 there were several payments of less than $1,000.
The city's long-standing policy allowing firefighters to cash in on their unused sick, vacation and holiday time has emerged as a critical factor in the Fire Department budget during the current fiscal crisis, as Fire Chief Terry Garrison seeks ways to trim operating expenses and avoid laying off firefighters or closing fire stations.
Last October, Garrison said mounting overtime and severance payments caused a $10 million budget shortfall, which he proposed closing by transferring firefighters from office jobs to fire stations, outsourcing the uniform shop and reducing the number of response teams.
There are nearly 600 Houston firefighters who have 30 years or longer on the job and could retire at any time, part of a pool of future retirees who collectively could be owed an estimated $75 million to $80 million in termination pay, Garrison said.
There is no way to predict when, or how many, of the older firefighters will elect to retire, the chief said.
Garrison said the city owes the departing firefighters the money, adding the department saved funds in the past because overtime was not paid to staff shifts where firefighters worked instead of taking sick days or vacation time.
"When these benefits were negotiated many years ago, there was going to be a time and a place when those were going to have to be paid out. So now we've reached a point where … we're paying it out, and people are surprised at the amounts,“ Garrison said. "As far as I'm concerned, those were negotiated in good faith, and they are fair benefits."
'They Earned The Money'
Jeff Caynon, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association local 341, maintains the department's budget shortfall was "artificially created" by city officials who only allocated half the amount previously budgeted for severance packages and overtime costs.
He bristled at the notion of not paying Houston firefighters the severance pay they're owed for working long hours in a hazardous job that paid less for similar employment in the private sector.
"They earned the money. So anybody saying 'can we afford it?' - the only way you can afford it is to steal it from them, because they've earned it,“ Caynon said. "I mean, this is for time they have worked."
Houston is not unique among Texas cities who allow fire employees to save unlimited amounts of vacation and sick leave, although officials in Austin and Dallas said caps have been negotiated on severance hours firefighters can collect.
"Oh man, that would be a true benefit,“ said Lt. Joel Lavender, a spokesman for the Dallas Fire Department, when told of the amount of some of Houston's severance checks.
The financial liability of termination payments for city workers concerns some elected officials, who are already worried about future contributions to fund pension plans for police, fire and municipal workers.
City Council member Anne Clutterbuck characterized the future liability the city faces for severance payments for fire and police as "staggering,“ and likened some of the recent payments as winning the lottery or a jackpot.
"It is huge, and if everyone took advantage of it, it will bankrupt the city, and the public needs to know about it. I can tell you both the police and fire (administrations) are very aware of it,“ she said.
The specter of hundreds of city workers retiring overnight - and the millions they would be owed - permeates every budget discussion about city pay and benefits, Clutterbuck said.
"You don't want to negotiate or even have a conversation in public about pensions, or about health care benefits or any of the other ways we compensate city employees because, God forbid, it might trigger a mass exodus and we can't afford to pay it,“ Clutterbuck said. "We're stuck with the existing obligations unless we go into bankruptcy, which is not something on the horizon.“
At the Houston Police Department, where nearly half the force is eligible to retire, termination payments to officers who leave are not made in a lump sum. Due to state legislation allowing police unions and city management in Houston to negotiate on salaries and benefits, retiring HPD officers agreed to collect their severance pay through one of three "Phase Down" programs that continues their normal paychecks until accrued hours are paid off, said Mark Clark, executive director of the Houston Police Officers' Association.
Hours Now Capped
Officers can also elect to take a five-year payout of their termination package.
The 300 police officers who retired, quit, died or were fired during calender years 2009 and 2010 collected $1,066,378 in severance payments, according to city payroll records.
Caynon said city officials have opposed efforts to allow fire department retirees to enter a phase down program for severance pay.
Garrison noted newer firefighters have a cap on the number of vacation hours they can accrue, adding the city is making efforts to better plan for retirements.
"What we're trying to do is negotiate a way that makes it more reasonable for the city and the same time makes it a benefit to the members as they leave,“ the fire chief said.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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The media blitz has hyped the issue as "firefighters" are now greedy in these economic times. BS
Wake up. The guy worked 39 years and probably didn't call in sick and took very little vacation. 39 years worth of time the taxpayer didn't have to pay the guy for his time off, and also didn't pay time an one half for man for man coverage to backfill his position. So paying this guy a one time "severance" as the Houston Chornicle called it is BS. You see, if he took all that time off it would have cost the taxpayer all of that plus time and one half to cover him. That equals 1.5 times more moolah. Absolutely no city or town funds the "potential" last check payout because they all want to keep the tax rate down on the "Here and Now". But when someone retires, they all grumble the FD/PD retirements cost too much. The guy earned the time, the city agreed to pay it to him, so it is rightfully earned. That time has been calculated, accrued and accumulating on his paystub for 39 years.
Now if you bean counters think capping the newer firefighters (like they did) is going to save the taxpayer money... the answer is NO IT WON'T.
You see they will bank their time until the cap is met, but instead of losing any potential earned time that would have been previously banked, they will just start taking the time off instead of giving it back. Vacation useage and sick time abuse will rise and the OT budget will have a massive short fall to backfill the slots.
Thus as some see the one big fat check as being absurd, you will see that same check plus OT coverage being paid out in smaller increments throughout one's career.
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Permalink Reply by Kim Stellhorn on
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The city is in this 30yr plus bing able to retire because of mayor and councils of the 70's putting a freeze n hirings thus putting the department and city in this big money crunch....yes start the caps and the changes for all new hires coming in, but pay the guys who have put in their time and deserve what was promised them.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Paschal on
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In Oklahoma City Oklahoma we have caps on time and can only sell back 1/2 of unused leave. Our city will not hire firefighters and does not pay call back we get the FLSA overtime of 12 hours every 27days. However due to our minimum staffing requirements and the fact we have 50 less firefighters than we had over 20 years ago they will just cancel your scheduled and approved leave time and tell you to bad come to work. Now our state wants to adjust our retirement.
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Permalink Reply by Fabulous Heather Days of Summer on
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OMG _ would these people hire an accountant and a money manager to help them do the math - and run the city effectively instead of Monday morning quarterbacking - these decisions were made decades ago - the FFs held up their end of the agreement and put in their teamwork - now the other part of the team needs to get their act together - this makes me so sad - what a mess
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Permalink Reply by Gary Stevenson on
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It's media/political induced news. Replace HFD with about any similar sized FD in the nation and the attacks are similar. Government workers, specifically public safety is under attack.
A couple of reads:
The Shameful Attack on Public Employees
Firefighters Feel the Squeeze of Shrinking Budgets
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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That is exactly it Gary.
We see more people today more concerned about seeing other people suffer, because they did, vs doing something about their own plight to increase their standards.
The simple fact that public workers are paid by taxes is not the reason as to why taxes are high. The general populace has no problem paying a $70 cell phone bill a month, a $100 cable/satellite TV bill a month, etc. They are not calling for cuts to such employees of services so they see a reduction in their bills, but hot damn, will the same people demonize a public worker where they may pay like $50 a YEAR for such service.
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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Really there's three levels of "public" employee:
Teacher - god bless them, teaching the future, they're worth every cent they earn.
Police Officer - Shitty job, dangerous, keeping us safe 24/7, they're worth every cent they earn.
Firefighter - Sits around watching TV, works 2-3 days a week, has it made, stealing every cent they can. Oh and sometimes, they put out fires and save people...sometimes.
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Let's not forget the ever popular "paid to sleep" as well......oh and not to mention "what are my tax dollars buying you for dinner today" comments.
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See the post about poor spelling.
I think these two issues may be related.
Also, who exactly is pushing the 'unions are evil' agenda? Anyone?
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Also, who exactly is pushing the 'unions are evil' agenda? Anyone?
****raises hand vigorously***** ****I know, I know*****
Can you say Wall Street and corporate elitists? The same people pulling in huge bonuses, despite a bailout, crying about allowing tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% lapse and those who are content with telling people what a person should make, despite the people making them wealthy.......and just ironically spend a lot on the campaigns of those thus pushing such agendas to reduce or eliminate such union efforts.
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It's funny, not so long ago unions were seen as the last bastion of the working man. They were there to protect the workers against greedy, uncaring, profit-before-workers corporations.
Now, corporations claim that the unions are wrecking america, politcians excitedly repeat it and the people that used to be protected by the unions are now about as rabidly anti-union as the corporations (who, ironically could not care less about those same people).
I guess (and unbeknown to them) unions have become a part of the liberal elite. Right there with teachers unions, actors and nearly anyone with an education beyond grade 12.
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