Butler Mayor Tom Donaldson says changes need to be made in the city’s fire department or the city will continue its slide toward financial collapse.

“As we assess the financial situation of the City of Butler we are faced with choices,” he said.

“The first being take no action — continue the status quo and do nothing except talk with consultants and pay for study after study which end up filed away with no action taken — all causing some to feel better because we discussed the problem. The second is to, as a group, take the action needed to start real change as prescribed in the studies.”

Donaldson explained the timing of his comments.

He said he decided to comment now “because of the issues swirling around the fire department, as I’m looking for a new chief.”

“These issues are all still here, the disagreement over the illegal grievance settlement and the illegal promotion, and these are festering and they’re going on and nothing’s been done. The only way the public is aware of it is if someone lets them know.”

The fire department has been without a fire chief since the city council accepted Nick Ban’s resignation April 13.

The grievance settlement Donaldson referred to was the settlement April 28 between city council and city firefighters Jim Kaufman and Donald McCoy that allowed the two to be promoted without taking the civil service test.

Donaldson refused to sign the agreement, believing it to be illegal because it went against civil service rules and regulations.

Donaldson said cuts have been made in other areas, including the parks and streets departments, as well as the police department. He also commented on the fire department’s four-man minimum per shift.

“If it were not in our contract we could eliminate upwards of $100,000 per year in overtime,” he wrote.

Donaldson suggested changing from four four-man turns to three five-man turns to eliminate overtime and some official ranking within the department.

Donaldson said that if these issues are not addressed, the city will head toward “total financial collapse.”

He also said, “the time for talking is over” and “the time for action is here.”

“Council and the mayor and (fire department union) need to work together to make these recommended changes, because they’ve been recommended (in studies) as far back as 2006 and 2012,” he said. “Nobody has taken action, and this is a perfect time for the union and the city to work together, and this is all that I’m bringing it up for.”

The studies Donaldson referred to are the City of Butler Early Intervention Program Management Review: Step IV, done by Resource Development & Management, of Pittsburgh, and the Fire Department Assessment, done by Municipal Fire Services Consulting.

Both of these studies assessed that a mix of full-time and part-time firefighters would be a positive step for the city’s department.

Donaldson also said firefighters work 24-hour shifts and 42-hour weeks that allow some of them to work at other jobs.

He said these firefighters then are not available to be called in to work for the city department.

All but three firefighters live outside the city, also hurting their availability to be called in quickly.

Councilman Richard Schontz agreed that changes need to be made, specifically that part-time firefighters need to be in the department’s mix.

“If we do that we’ll be able to have successful savings,” he said. “If we can’t, the contract will bind us to having four men on each turn and that will create a problem for overtime.”

The main problem, Schontz said, is the arbitration.

“Arbitration is binding,” he said. “Whatever they rule, that is what we must obey.”

Councilwoman Kathy Kline said that the department budgets well comparatively. She noted that the Warren, Pa., fire department has 17 full-time paid firefighters, with 13 utility firefighters, which are very similar to part-time firefighters.

Kline said she spoke to the department’s fire chief, who said without the utility firefighters the overtime cost would be between $300,000 and $350,000.

Warren fire chief Sam Pascuzzi confirmed these figures to the Butler Eagle this morning.

“This community, they need to understand we do not have part-time firefighters, and we keep it (overtime) at $100,000 a year,” Kline said. “So I’d say we’re doing a pretty good job.”

She also doesn’t believe making cuts to the fire department will help the city’s financial woes.

“Our dollar demise has nothing to do with the fire department,” she said.

Donaldson said that much like his effort to merge the city’s parks and streets departments, he wants the city to look at the feasibility of merging its fire department with its neighbors’ volunteer fire departments.

Councilman Michael Walter noted that the city is currently contractually bound to the aspects of the department Donaldson wants to change.

“The contract expires at the end of next year,” Walter said. “If (Donaldson) wants contractual changes, that’s when we do it. That’s when everybody else does it.”

Walter also said these issues should have been addressed differently.

“If (Donaldson) wanted to work with the council he should have worked with council and not made it public,” Walter said. “I’ve said this before; personnel matters are not a matter of the public.”

Councilman Corey Roche and representatives from Local International Association of Fire Fighters 114 could not be reached for comment.