A public hearing is set for next week on the issue of a new contract for Sedgwick County firefighters.
Negotiations between the county and the bargaining unit for Fire District 1 have been at an impasse for six months.
During the last year, the two sides have had face-to-face meetings, used mediation, and brought in a fact finder to try to come to terms on a new contract for firefighters and lieutenants in Fire District 1.
The district provides fire protection and emergency medical service response for about 631 square miles of Sedgwick County, primarily the unincorporated areas of the county and the cities of Bel Aire, Kechi, Park City, Maize, Bentley, Andale, Garden Plain, Goddard, Viola, Haysville and Furley.
The issue is pay. The bargaining unit says wages for firefighters have been flat since 2012, while other county employees received pay increases through a merit-based pay pool. But the county says firefighters have received comparable step increases during that time.
Commissioner Dave Unruh says the county presented its final contract offer last fall.
"We have an offer on the table that supplements that some, but it’s in the form of a bonus rather than in a pay raise," Unruh says. "The fire union wants more substantial ongoing pay raises from their perspective."
The Sedgwick County Commissioners are the governing body for Fire District 1. Unruh says low revenue growth in Fire District 1 has challenged the district’s budget.
"It’s a difficult issue because I’m sympathetic to their pay that has been pretty stingy here, but we also have to have the revenues to support it," he says. "And we’re pretty reluctant to add to the mill levy of those residents who live in the unincorporated area."
Unruh says the county’s revenues for operating Fire District 1 come from property taxes in that district. The county’s records show there has been low assessed valuation growth over the past five years, including growth of less than 1 percent for 2016, along with future projections of low growth.
"If we give into the demands of the Fire District, we will have burnt through all our reserves and be operating in the red in just a few years," Unruh says.
The Sedgwick County Firefighters Union IAFF Local 2612 is the bargaining unit for firefighters and lieutenants for Sedgwick County Fire District 1. The union says it has 120 members out of a 135-member department.
The public hearing will be held May 11.
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