Board of Aldermen 12-08-2020 Page 26
firefighter certified Il. So | was mistaken and | apologize for that. | said that based upon the appendix that
was attached to the CBA that shows grades of firefighter, you know starting at Grade 100 firefighter and
then firefighter certified number one goes to the 111 level and then firefighter certified number two is at the
200 level, | think, if | remember correctly.
So Chief Rhodes told me that we don’t hire anybody at less than a Firefighter Certified Il. So those first two
levels of pay on those schedules evidently are not applicable. They are not used. He told me that a
beginning firefighter has to be certified and at level II but they do start at the lowest grade so they start at
the lowest pay but after 9 months’ probation, they then go to Grade 221 which is the Certified II Level. So
they start a little less than $50,000.00 but after 9 months they jump up to if | read these schedules correctly,
$53,568.00 and that’s without considering any overtime. You know the statements that people make, I’ve
heard them from constituents and my fellow Aldermen who have the opinion that the firefighters deserve
every penny and that’s their opinion and | respect that.
As an Alderman, | am responsible to the taxpayers and | think, | agree that firefighters ought to be paid an
appropriate amount. But I’ve said ever since we started talking about these Collective Bargaining
Agreements that it looks to me like the Nashua Fire Department is among the best paid, if not the best paid
fire department in the area. So to think that our firefighters are not being paid fairly, that they are being
underpaid, as far as | can tell, that’s not true. And I’ve invited the Firefighters, I’ve invited the Fire
Commissioners to get in touch with me and show me that I’m wrong about that and no one has. | did ask
CFO Griffin you know what actually are we paying our people? And according to the information he
provided me, the lowest paid firefighter right now is getting around, including overtime is getting close to
$70,000.00 that’s the lowest man on the Fire Department. The highest and I’m not talking about the Chief
or the Deputy Chiefs, but the highest is $147,862. According to CFO Griffin the average firefighter and
these are not the Lieutenants or the Captains, the average firefighter is making $86,174.00. The average
Captain is making $119,921.00.
| don’t think we are underpaying our Firefighters, | believe we should keep up with the times, they are
certainly entitled to cost of living increases. But the cost of living increases have been averaging 2% or less
over the past 5 years. In this contract, in addition, you know this contract is paying over 10% over four
years so that’s 2 %2% average but something that | haven’t heard a lot of people talk about is built into the
Collective Bargaining Agreement, or in addition to the cost of living increases, are increases in the steps.
Adjustments to the steps — effective July 1* 2021 there’s a 3% increase to the steps. You know, these
steps are labeled 10 not 15 so people who have 10 to 14 years’ experience are going to get a 3% increase
in addition to the cost of living increase. And then all the steps above that get a 1% increase to make sure
that all the steps stay 1% above the lower step. So built into this thing are in addition to cost of living
increases, adjustments to the steps.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion and | respect everybody else’s opinion, but as far as | can tell, our
firefighters are well paid, they deserve to keep up with the times, they deserve to get a cost of living
increase, but | don’t think we can afford these other increases and certainly for them to get in addition to all
of that, additional increases for converting to the high deductible plan, seems inappropriate. And I’ve heard
some people say that their HMO’s should not be taken away from them. | don’t think that any of these
proposals for any of these Unions are talking about taking the Point of Service Plans or the HMO plans.
There is some adjustment to it. But what the City is trying to do is incentivize people to convert to the high
deductible plan and that incentive is by paying them the increased amounts that Director Kleiner has
explained to us which goes into their health care savings plan. So | apologize for the length of my remarks,
| apologize to the people who disagree with me on this, you know, | respect your opinions but | am going to
vote to sustain the Mayor’s Veto.
President Wilshire
Alderman Tencza?
