Crime & Safety

Village to Reopen Talks with Sturtevant on South Shore FD Overtime Costs

With a 4-3 vote, Mount Pleasant trustees approved approaching their South Shore Fire Deparatmentn partners in Sturtevant to reduce staffing at that station to help save money for overtime.

Mount Pleasant trustees Monday narrowly approved reopening discussions with Sturtevant in an attempt to save $113,000 in South Shore Fire Department overtime expenses through the end of the year.

With a 4-3 vote, the Village Board directed Village President Carolyn Milkie to approach Sturtevant officials about . Doing so could save $113,000 in overtime. The amount is not insignificant .

Options presented by South Shore Fire Chief William Bouma included:

Find out what's happening in Mount Pleasant-Sturtevantwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Funding the department as it is;
  • Closing Station 7 in the southeast side Lake Park neighborhood;
  • Talking with Sturtevant to reduce staffing at the Sturtevant station to five from six for all shifts; and
  • Unspecified alternatives yet to be named.

Sturtevant Trustee Chris Larsen was in the audience to listen to the discussion about South Shore Fire Department overtime, and though he was asked for input, he declined.

Still, Patch talked to Larsen last week, and he reiterated his position that Mount Pleasant needs to keep the Sturtevant station staffed at six — two, three-person crews — at all times.

Find out what's happening in Mount Pleasant-Sturtevantwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Sturtevant was understanding from the moment the consolidation agreement was signed in 2009 and Mount Pleasant said the staffing reductions were temporary," he said. "But Station 9 must remain fully staffed at all times."

John Johnson, another Sturtevant trustee, agreed, pointing to the McGrath study undertaken when the villages were contemplating consolidating their fire departments.

"The study was clear about closing the Lake Park station and opening a new station somewhere more central to serve residents who live more south and southeast," he said. "That meant we would put six fire/EMS in Sturtevant, which is what should be done."

During the discussion Monday night, South Shore union representative William Miller bluntly told trustees that by ignoring the McGrath study, they put the department and the village in this current position.

"The McGrath study listed three stations, not four, and the board elected to take a wonderful deal to build a station where it shouldn’t have been," he said. "If you'd planned for the future, we’d have a station that served all the people of Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant, but when we deviated off the plan and thought we knew more than the people we hired, that’s why we’re in this problem."

Hiring to Fill the Gaps

In a separate motion, Trustee Karen Albeck asked that the village Personnel and Finance/Legal/License committees explore hiring two new firefighters to reduce overtime for the rest of the year and potentially going forward as well. Her motion was approved with a unanimous vote.

Battalion Chief Jon Keiser said that hiring an additional two firefighters would save $14,000 in overtime this year, if salaries and benefit costs are deducted from the projected budget overage.

"Two new fire/EMS would save some overtime," he confirmed. "If we're more fully staffed, there's less need for overtime."

Albeck thinks doing anything other than funding South Shore is a waste of time and puts residents at risk.

"We should have been budgeting for this all along, and we need to address this now," she said."we are just asking for this issue to come up mid-year. More overtime puts stress on our fire/EMS people, which puts them and our residents at risk."

Can Village Afford It?

Trustee Gary Feest said throwing money at the situation isn't necessarily the right solution either with the recession still in effect.

"I appreciate this is not an easy subject, but to have people saying we have to come up with the money, I don’t buy that," he said. "We can redistribute, but if you set a budget then we need to talk about how to get the money to pay for the services. We don’t have that money in a sustainable way. If we can get a sustainable plan, then I'm all for it and will take the heat from residents if that means raising taxes."

Albeck disagreed.

"Yes, we do need to throw some money to fix the problem this board created. We need to fix this and stop playing numbers games. They need two more staff members. We need to deal with it."

Resident Mike Devine said he had no problem paying higher taxes if that means protective services are staffed and equipped appropriately.

"You started the problem and now you need to figure it out," he scolded the board. "I sat here one day and told you that you’re cutting. I don’t mind raising taxes as long as its for police and fire. We can’t borrow, but raise the taxes and tell people it’s coming."

But Trustee Jerry Garski was clearly exasperated with the topic.

"I am surprised with the talent in this room that you can’t come up with a solution," he said. "If it were up to me, I’d have a solution in a week and some of you wouldn’t like it."

Trustee Harry Manning also made a motion to form a committee to more fully vet the option of closing Station 7 in the Lake Park neighborhood. The motion was defeated based on discussion of having the Fire/EMS Joint Oversight Committee provide input and feedback for additional solutions.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant