The Covington City Commission was confronted with a night of public criticism on Tuesday as community members and groups filled the commission chambers to voice their concerns–and displeasure–with the city on several topics, most notably changes to the overtime policy for the city’s firefighters.
The policy, which had been recently changed in the face of ongoing budgetary problems with the city’s general fund, nearly 30% of which is dedicated to the fire department, took up much of the night’s discussion. But others spoke their grievances as well.
For one, Mohammad Ahmad and others continued to speak out in favor of a city resolution supporting a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Many of the ceasefire supporters recapitulated their arguments in previous meetings and expressed affirmation of the firefighters’ concerns.
Some of the most pointed criticism came from Covington resident Michael Gabbard, who said that a Newport police cruiser had been illegally parked on 8th Street between Greenup and Scott Streets. One day, when he appealed to some Covington police officers nearby to do something, he said, the captain rebuked him and told him the cruiser wouldn’t get cited. Gabbard did not share the captain’s name.
Gabbard left after his statement. Commissioner Tim Downing encouraged Gabbard to contact the commissioners directly with his concerns.
In regards to the fire department overtime issue, firefighter and President of Professional Firefighters Local 38 Ben Wasson summarized the union’s concerns to the commission. He argued that change-ups in the overtime policy had the effect of reducing firefighting services for the city.
“When you simply reined in overtime costs you effectively cut firefighter staffing to unacceptable levels,” Wasson said.
Wasson and Local 38 had been speaking out on social media about the policy changes in the days leading up to the meeting. In those posts, they argued the overtime cuts had reduced available firefighters, such that trucks and at least one ambulance had to be sidelined for lack of staffing.
Ken Smith, the city manager, took issue with these criticisms, saying they mischaracterized the situation.
“I want to emphasize that we have not taken one dollar, not one dollar, from the budget,” Smith said. “We have not laid off one firefighter. We have not cut anyone’s scheduled hours. We have not cut anyone’s salary. We have not ordered any station browned out, and we’ve not ordered any equipment browned out.”
Budgetary meetings between city staff and the commissioners, which discussed measures to rein in the budget’s general fund deficit, have been ongoing over the last year. LINK nky was present at these meetings, and while direct cuts to fire department staff and equipment were not discussed, overtime stoppages to the fire department and soft hiring freezes throughout the city government were. The city had passed over purchasing equipment for the Public Works Department and hiring a new administrative assistant the week before to control expenses before setting the next year’s budget.
Smith defended the overtime changes, saying that he had only directed the fire chief to make do without additional unscheduled overtime, which he argued had been increasing at an unsustainable rate over the past few years.
He displayed two charts on the city commission chambers’ projector screen that showed the number of service calls since fiscal year 2016 compared to the number of unscheduled overtime hours. They showed a gradual increase in unscheduled overtime hours from 2018 onward.
Unscheduled overtime hours occur when scheduled firefighters can’t perform their duties due to unforeseen circumstances, such as getting sick, and someone else from the department must fill in. Overtime hours, whether scheduled or unscheduled, are paid at higher rates than normal hours, so an overabundance can strain city finances.
“Last year, fiscal ’23, the fire department paid $1.3 million in unscheduled overtime,” Smith said. “That’s on top of 2.3 million in scheduled overtime, and it exceeded the budget by more than $900,000. This year, we already spent $1.74 million in overtime, including 620 in unscheduled overtime. So halfway through this fiscal year, we’ve already exceeded the unscheduled budget overtime by $220,000. That’s not sustainable.”
Mayor Joe Meyer said later in the meeting, “This is a serious budgetary management problem within the fire department.”
Smith and the commissioners discussed why there was such an increase in unscheduled overtime, departmental turnover rates, and the structure of the city’s finances. Much of this seemed to be aimed at rebutting the criticisms leveled at the city.
Smith stated, for instance, that the current city budget is for a full fire department, even if it is currently short-staffed. He also said that money related to the Central Riverfront Development site did not come from the city’s general fund, meaning that it hadn’t affected the fire budget.
By the end of the discussion, all commissioners expressed an interest in investigating deeper. Commissioner Shannon Smith even recommended having a third-party auditor investigate the department to better tease out why the overtime hours had increased.
After the meeting had adjourned, Wasson responded to the commissioners and the city manager’s exchange. He said that the department, like many in the country, was understaffed and that hiring more firefighters was the best way to reduce the reliance on overtime.
“We have contractual benefits. There’s lots of reasons that people are off work. They need to hire more people,” Wasson said. “They clearly don’t understand the little intricate workings of our department.”
When asked what he thought about the prospect of a departmental audit, he said, “I think that they’re not going to like what they find, that we’re already grossly understaffed. We’ve been using overtime as a Band Aid. We need more firefighters on the streets.”
The next meeting of the Covington City Commission will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 20 at 6 p.m. at Covington City Hall on Pike Street.