Pittsburgh financial oversight agencies strike a deal A peace treaty between the City of Pittsburgh's fiscal overseers encourages the city to further cut its Fire Bureau.
The Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, created by the General Assembly, and the Act 47 recovery team, empowered by Gov. Ed Rendell, agreed yesterday that they would require the city to seriously consider new cost-cutting measures by January 2007.
When oversight is of the mindset to hurry up and wait -- we are not sitting in a good spot.
On the other hand, I don't think law suits are the way to fix anything. But, I'd be more encouraged if those who are to be instramental in fixing things would meet more than once a season. The "no" vote by phone proves my point.
Perhaps a collaborative relationship with the city is fine -- like us all 'drinking the coolaid.'
It is not about the firefighters, nor the stations, nor some other blame game that could be sheltered with some 'expert report' and 'commissioned study.' This is about do nothingness. This tailspin is about being asleep at the controls. Now, the slumber is proven to be deep for the oversight board too.
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Pittsburgh financial oversight agencies strike a deal
Suit to block city's fire contract settled
Thursday, July 28, 2005
By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A peace treaty between the City of Pittsburgh's fiscal overseers encourages the city to further cut its Fire Bureau.
The Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, created by the General Assembly, and the Act 47 recovery team, empowered by Gov. Ed Rendell, agreed yesterday that they would require the city to seriously consider new cost-cutting measures by January 2007.
The ICA sued the city and the Act 47 team in April over a new firefighters contract that, it claimed, violated the city's promise to shave more than $10 million from a Fire Bureau that had spent $61 million in 2004.
That lawsuit will be withdrawn under terms of a memorandum of understanding the ICA approved at its meeting yesterday. That removes a major barrier to collaboration between the two agencies, said Act 47 team co-leader James Roberts.
Instead of fighting it out in court, the two overseers will use their significant leverage to force the city to exercise an option to reopen the firefighters contract in January 2007.
At that point, under the agreement, the city will have to pursue a "goal" of achieving even more savings as outlined in a study done for the ICA by Texas consultant ERASE Enterprises.
That study said the city should close 13 of its 35 stations citywide, build three new stations and trim 288 firefighter jobs to help save some $20 million annually by 2008. The city has since closed six stations, reducing the total to 29, eliminating 108 already-vacant firefighter positions and saving an estimated $10.7 million annually.
Roberts said the yet-to-be-finalized agreement does not require that the city implement any or all of the ERASE study, but demands that it be given due consideration.
The ICA approved the memorandum in a 4-1 vote, with board Chairman Bill Lieberman voting no by phone.
The agreement also requires that the ICA and the Act 47 team share all information, communicate seamlessly and meet regularly -- probably monthly, said ICA Vice Chairman John Murray.
"Now we're going to have a structured collaboration and will have this agreement on exactly what everybody does," said Murray.
The agreement follows the departure from the ICA board of Jim Roddey and David O'Loughlin, who voted for the lawsuit, and their replacement by Barbara McNees and Matthew Simon, who voted to settle it.
"We are pleased that the new members of the ICA have decided to pursue a collaborative relationship with the city and Act 47 team as we continue our work on Pittsburgh's economic recovery, instead of the hostile, unproductive and expensive approach of the previous members," said Craig Kwiecinski, spokesman for Mayor Tom Murphy, in a statement.
Pittsburgh Fire Fighters Local 1 President Joe King said he had no objection to any agreement to consider the ERASE study, provided it did not demand that all of its findings be adopted. King noted that the construction of new fire stations and purchase of new equipment that are necessary to fully implement the study might be good for the rank-and-file, but expensive for the city.
As recently as 2001, the city budgeted for 872 firefighters. It now has 640 on the payroll, according to the city controller's office. The bureau plans to hire more firefighters later this year, but also may face a wave of retirements, said King.
(Rich Lord can be reached at rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542.)
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