Firefighters Give Back Raises

Firefighters facing budget cuts give back their raises to taxpayers. Martin County Firefighters Union voluntarily returned their 5% cost of living raise tonight to the county taxpayers. Martin County Commissioners say the firefighters giving back their raise is unprecedented.

"Voluntary contract concessions of this scale are unheard of in the public sector," union representative Todd Tucker told commissioners at the podium, "But as Martin County residents and taxpayers, we recognize the financial crisis is real."

It saves the county $1.5 million. It's enough to hire at least 3 more firefighters to cut down on swelling overtime costs hitting $200,000 a year.

"It is unprecedented and I thank them," said Commissioner Lee Weberman,"Overtime numbers are shocking and have increased astronomically in the past few years. Maybe this will help cut overtime by adding positions."

Returning the raise also keeps fire stations on the chopping block now open.

"I don't want to kid you--it hurts. 5 % hurts."said Cliff Williams\Martin Co. Firefighter, "We're talking about making my monthly bills, that is what it is. I mean, vacations, don't really plan to--it's definately money out of our pockets. It's not about the individual firefighter at this point, it is about the community."

The firefighter's union says in a tough economic times, they want to keep the level of service high and that means making a sacrifice to keep staffing levels up.

The Firefighter's union has tough words for Martin County administrators, saying if they'd listened to the union's recommendations last year--it would have saved taxpayers somewhere around $500,000 to 1 million dollars.