COST SAVINGS
COST SAVINGS
FALSE
Consolidation will save taxpayers $1.6 million.
FACT
The estimated cost savings were based on a projected department roster, for 2023, that did not include a Chief of the Department, was short four captains and one firefighter. Additionally, none of the firefighters were moved through the 12-step salary guide between 2020 and 2023. These omissions exaggerated the savings by over $1 million.
Costs savings depend heavily on an accelerated and highly unlikely rate of retirement.
The new plan calls for reducing the amount between full and minimum staffing from four to three. This 25 percent reduction, in the buffer, will increase the amount of overtime tremendously and is not addressed in the cost projections.
Firefighters get sick, injured and take time off. Projected savings fail to account for exorbitant overtime costs that will be accrued due to the plan’s proposed skeleton staffing.
Does not include costs for dispatch services. Maplewood pays $50,000 per year to outsource dispatch services to an independent company REMCS. South Orange was dispatched through the police department at no cost to taxpayers, until Sheena Collum moved dispatch to REMCS at a similar cost as Maplewood. Dispatch through the police department was more effective as police dispatchers understood the community and were familiar with the building types and size, the residents at those addresses, industrial characteristics, hazardous materials on site, and so forth. There is also now a delay in processing 9-11 calls. In the past, a 9-11 call would be received by the PD and would dispatch us directly. Now, the PD must process the call and then notify REMCS, who in turn dispatches the fire department. Seconds count!
Does not include cost for EMT services. South Orange EMT services are currently provided through a a professional service during the day supplemented by an exemplary volunteer contingent at no cost to taxpayers. Maplewood taxpayers pay more than $1 million per year for EMT Services.
Because the plan makes Maplewood and South Orange more dependent upon assistance from neighboring communities, it leaves the struggling taxpayers in East Orange, Orange, Newark & Irvington picking up the tab for our firefighting costs.
Sheena Collum’s numbers don’t add up.
FIREFIGHTING
FALSE
Increases number of firefighters per shift and does not impede response time.
FACTS
Assumes fire trucks and engines can speed through local streets at 35 MPH, an assumption even the Joint Committee has dismissed as unfeasible.
The consolidated fire department will have 71 firefighters and supervisors, 5 less than what are currently employed. The recommended number for a fire department for a community the size of Maplewood & South Orange combined is close to 90.
The minimum number of firefighters recommended by the National Fire Protection Association for a single-family home in a residential neighborhood is 17. The first engine, staffed with an officer and three firefighters should arrive on the scene within four minutes travel time. The second 4-person company, whether it be an Engine or a Ladder, should arrive on the scene in six minutes, to comply with “two in, two out” regulations and avoid catastrophic loss of life and property; and the full complement of 17 within eight minutes of travel time. The minimum number of firefighters for a strip mall or garden apartment is 28; the minimum number of firefighters assigned to each responding truck and engine in a community with the population and density of South Orange and Maplewood is four.
Maplewood's only staffed engine is located too far from most South Orange neighborhoods to be counted on as part of an initial response.
The consolidation plan does not account for the presence of Seton Hall University, which swells the population of South Orange by 10,000 and is an extremely complex property containing student residence halls, classrooms, kitchens, cafeterias, laboratories, sports facilities, and that hosts large events.
The South Orange and Maplewood Fire Departments already participate in an automatic agreement whereas the departments respond automatically to fires in each community. This concept and implementation plan was put forth solely by the local union reps in a good-faith effort to achieve the supposed goals of the Joint Committee. Any and all operational efficiencies that would be gained through consolidation are already being realized through this automatic aid agreement. These “shared services” were realized without the disruptions, costs and compromised safety of the consolidation plan.
Continuing to push this flawed consolidation plan with the automatic agreement in place proves that the motivations for consolidation are unfortunately purely political.
Sheena Collum’s numbers don’t add up.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
FALSE
Sheena Collum repeatedly states that South Orange and Maplewood Fire Fighters “only” respond to about twenty "real fires" a year.
FACT
The South Orange Fire Department responds to approximately 3,000 calls per year, with more than 150 of them house fires. These smaller fires, gas leaks, automobile extrications, railroad emergencies and other “minor” incidents are prevented from becoming “major” because of our ability to respond adequately in terms of time and personnel, all of which will be seriously undermined by this consolidation plan.
The consolidation plan FAILS to plan for the massive redevelopment occurring in South Orange and Maplewood, which will increase the population and building density of both communities. The increased congestion will severely hamper the ability to respond in a timely fashion, particularly if firefighters are called to a scene in South Orange while they are operating in Maplewood.
The consolidation plan does not take into account the increased demand for emergency response due to climate change, catastrophic weather and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
EMS
Maplewood pays sixteen firefighters to maintain EMT certifications, with four assigned to each shift on a rotating basis. Maplewood has no volunteer ambulance service to supplement this service. Last year, they were unable to respond to approximately 400 calls and had to call on surrounding communities for help. (The South Orange Volunteer Rescue Squad covered 372 of these calls) The cost to taxpayers exceeds $1 million per year. As new Firefighters are added to the consolidated department, they will become part of the "16" and South Orange taxpayers will be funding Maplewood's inadequate EMS service.
South Orange’s EMS services are provided by one of the strongest volunteer EMS in the area, the South Orange Rescue Squad, and are supplemented by RWJ. Robert Wood Johnson uses a bay at Station 2, in Newstead, and bills patient's insurance for services, as does the Maplewood Fire Department. In the event the patient does not have insurance, services are rendered free of charge. They are on duty from 6am to 6pm, Monday-Friday, the time it is most difficult for the volunteers to cover. This higher-quality EMS system provides South Orange with almost 100% coverage at ZERO cost to taxpayers.
Why does Sheena Collum want to commit South Orange's hard earned tax dollars to Maplewood's failing EMS program?