Orland to make firefighter job offers
BY MIKE NOLAN mnolan@southtownstar.com July 31, 2012 7:46PM
Updated: September 3, 2012 1:09PM
Firefighters offered jobs more than a year ago with the Orland Fire Protection District will have dibs on the 11 new firefighting jobs the district is creating.
Candidates from that eligibility list, created in 2009, will be contacted by letter and offered jobs, a three-member board of fire commissioners decided Tuesday at a special meeting. Letters with the job offers were due to go out Wednesday.
In May 2011, after two new fire district trustees were sworn in, the fire district board shelved a decision made by the outgoing board to bring on 11 firefighters. That vote came after then-Chief Bryant Krizik recommended the hirings to control escalating overtime costs in the district.
New board members, elected on a promise to curb what they viewed as runaway spending in the district, said at the time they wanted a better idea of whether additional firefighters were needed.
In a 3-to-1 vote last week, fire district trustees approved the new hires, saying they were needed to help rein in overtime costs. Including wages and benefits, it will cost an estimated $1.1 million annually to add the 11 firefighters, according to the district.
Money earmarked in the budget to pay overtime costs, about $2 million, will be used for the hires, who could be on the job by Thanksgiving, according to Jim Hickey, president of the fire board.
In deciding who would be offered jobs, commissioners had to decide whether to use the older eligibility list or a newer one generated in 2011. Those who were on the list when the original hiring decision was suspended will be offered jobs, regardless of whether they’re employed by another fire department, Commissioner John Brudnak said. They’ll have 10 days to decide whether to accept the offer, he said.
If not enough hires are culled from that list, the district will make job offers to those on the newer list, Brudnak said.
