It was a spectacular PR coup.
As Eddie Santiago, the fire union president, called his press conference to order to complain about the mayor’s new staffing policy, she walked in.
It was a long line of earnest people from the unions and the community, sitting at a table that went the length of the room, facing the bank of reporters and TV cameras.
And she walked right in and sat down.
Eddie talked about the danger of longer response times, showed maps and shared calculations, and made the obvious case that if you take a fire company out of service – as the mayor’s “dynamic staffing” scheme does – you make citizens wait longer for firefighters to arrive.
At a certain point, reference was made to the mayor. Eddie invited her to come forward. As she came up, he thought better of it and said that, actually, no, it was their press conference and she shouldn’t speak.
But she spoke anyway, standing beside him, waving an agreement which she had already signed which, she said, would end dynamic staffing that very night – if the union would sign.
And if it would agree to two demands: To transfer $500,000 from the so-called 2% fund to the city; and if it would approve the move of four firefighters assigned as drivers for the Protectives back to regular duty with the fire department.
As she made her pitch, she reached up, repeatedly touching Eddie on the arm and shoulder as he scrambled to take in what she was saying.
All while the TV cameras were rolling.
And then she marched out.
It was brilliant and ballsy. From a steal-the-show standpoint, it was a move for the ages. It muted the firefighters’ concerns and made the story about her offer, and a seeming shift of responsibility for the brownouts from her to them.
She became the reasonable one offering a resolution, and they became the haters refusing to negotiate.
That’s how it looked to the TV cameras.
Only it turned out not to be so.
It turned out that the demands Lovely Warren made don’t make sense and aren’t within the power of the union to agree to. That’s according to a variety of current and former political and fire officials from across the Rochester and Finger Lakes regions.
Let’s take them in order.
First, the 2% money. That is a payment made each year by the state to every fire department in New York – volunteer and paid. It gets its name from a surtax imposed on out-of-state fire insurance companies. It is earmarked by state law for niceties for firefighters, and is fenced off from being taken or used by municipalities.
Many volunteer companies will use the money to stock their refrigerator or to buy exercise equipment. Some have used it to buy emergency radio scanners for firefighters to take home, or for matching jackets for parades or casual wear.
The state specifically says the money can’t be used for routine fire equipment or for the operating expenses of the department or the municipality. It is for the firefighters, it is not for the politicians.
The Rochester Fire Department usually gets a little more than $600,000 a year in 2% money. Over a number of years, that money piled up until several years ago when there was about $9 million and the city and the union asked a judge to oversee a disposition of the funds.
In that 2013 court-supervised agreement, some of the money went to build the union’s headquarters and some of it went to buy turnout gear and new air tanks for all the firefighters in the department. The headquarters was completely 2% compliant, but the equipment needed the judge to sign off on it, because it was equipment the city would otherwise provide.
That means the city ended up being benefited by that 2% expenditure.
And it seems like the bear has come back to the honey tree.
Lovely Warren wants half a million.
But she can’t have it. The state doesn’t allow it. That’s the view of several current and former fire chiefs, mayors and town supervisors familiar with the regulation.
So the mayor’s first demand is impossible.
And the second one is illogical.
It has to do with the four Rochester firefighters who are detailed as drivers for the Protectives – a subordinate volunteer agency that provides fire-scene salvage and support. The Protectives have a truck, but it is driven not by volunteers, but by one of the four firefighters.
Lovely Warren wants to move those firefighters back to regular duty, and train the Protectives to drive their own truck.
The Protectives would probably love that, and – as the performance of countless volunteer fire departments shows – do a great job.
But the drivers are more than just drivers. The firemen assigned to support the Protectives are experienced and self-directing. The thinking is that if a Protectives crew is unexpectedly called into some emergency service, having a senior firefighter with them will provide leadership and capability that otherwise might not be present.
Additionally, the drivers are sometimes firefighters who, while capable of performing all necessary duties, may need to take it a little easy on their bodies. Often, firefighters will become Protectives drivers when they are coming off assignments which were particularly damaging to their bodies.
But all of this is meaningless to the issue at hand because, according to former senior officials of the department and the city, the mayor doesn’t need the approval of the union to transfer the drivers. The Protectives – and their drivers – are under the command of the fire chief, who is under the command of the mayor. Those driver positions are not negotiated with the union.
If the mayor wants to make a change with Protectives drivers, all she has to do is say the word.
So that gets back to the mayor’s demands – they don’t make sense.
One is illegal, and the other is unnecessary.
Which makes you wonder where they’re coming from.
“Honestly, I don’t think it’s about the money,” one member of City Council said. “I think she cannot stand to be challenged, or be wrong about anything.
“This whole reaction is way over the top.”
And it would be funny, if it wasn’t dangerous.
Because while the mayor won the PR battle, she didn’t win the substance battle.
And the substance is just what the union president said it was – response time.
And the fact that the longer it takes the fire department to get to you, the better your chances of dying.
The mayor needs to rescind her policy, she needs to staff her fire department, and she needs to learn that when you grab the attention, you ought to have something to say.