UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS -- Residents had many questions and concerns at a town hall meeting to discuss the proposed consolidation of fire services for University Heights and Shaker Heights Jan. 10 at City Hall.
Only five residents had attended the city?s first town hall meeting on the topic Dec. 4, and Mayor Susan Infeld was seeking a better turnout this time. A post card publicizing the event was mailed to every household in the city two weeks ago.
Jan. 10, about 50 residents packed council chambers, and 17 of them offered comments or questions, along with a Concord man who works at John Carroll University, four University Heights firefighters and a man representing the Westshore Regional Fire District.
?I appreciate the passion expressed by the people in the room,? Infeld said. ?The council and I have heard many residents express support for this concept.
?However, I see the people here tonight are very concerned.?
Many questions and concerns centered around a study that considers combining fire services for the two cities. The accuracy of the study, conducted by Emergency Services Consulting International and released in October, has been questioned by the University Heights firefighters union, IAFF Local 974.
The union?s executive board indicated in a Dec. 4 letter to Infeld that the union opposes the merger, based on the ?inaccurate or misleading? information in the study.
?Based on what I?ve read, this merger is not more efficient,? said Sharon Samuels, of Silsby Road. ?It impacts on the safety of residents.?
Response times analyzed
Both Samuels and Harvey Morrison, of White Road, pointed to a performance analysis that indicated the Shaker Heights Fire Department?s first-unit arrival times increased from an average of 4:36 in 2010 to five minutes in 2011. The analysis indicated University Heights? first unit improved from an average of 4:33 in 2010 to 4:21 in 2011.
This data was presented by Philip Kouwe, a consultant from ESCI, during a PowerPoint presentation to both city councils Oct. 15. Different data for both cities? fire response times was used in the actual study.
?As the response time increases, our homes are farther away from services, our homeowners insurance goes up, and the value of our homes goes down,? Samuels said.
Samuels said instead of merging fire departments, there may be other options the city could consider to reduce costs, such as eliminating backyard garbage pickup.
?I agree somewhere down the road, mergers have to happen,? she said. ?But I just feel that all the options have not been looked at.?
Infeld said the study indicated response times were ?superlative? in both cities.
?Speaking for City Council and myself, it is imperative, if this consolidation moves forward, that the community continues to enjoy a very high level of service, which they have come to expect, and that the response times will be superlative,? she said.
?As for response times increasing, that would be not acceptable to the City Council or to me.?
Option 1 favored
Infeld noted four options for consolidation were offered in the study, and that she and Shaker Heights Mayor Earl Leiken favor Option 1. That option involves keeping all three fire stations ? two in Shaker Heights and one in University Heights ? operational, with the elimination of a fire chief position, she said.
?Option 1 most closely matches the way we currently operate,? she said. ?The most significant cost savings would be equipment purchases moving forward.
?(The two cities) would share that cost. Also a larger department would offer economies of scale in everyday purchases.?
This option does recommend eliminating one piece of the city?s fire equipment, which would be a ladder truck, Infeld said.
Cyril Kanagaraj, of Warrensville Center Road, talked about how the city?s fire department helped save the lives of him and his family during a recent fire at their two-family home.
?No smoke detectors went off,? he said. ?We didn?t have any warning. It was two adults and one child.
?When you have a fire, and you have a child, there?s nothing more important than the safety of that child. If you cut back, you?re going to lose.?
There are other ways to cut the city?s budget to save money, Kanagaraj said.
?But if you take away services, you?re playing with lives,? he said.
Infeld said there are no plans to reduce staff, other than a fire chief from one of the cities.
?We are not talking about cutting services,? she said in response to concerns expressed by a resident. ?It is not our intention, if this were to move forward, to offer lesser service whatsoever.
?We would like to see the service not only be maintained, but to increase and be better than it is now.?
Can it go on ballot?
Only two of the 17 residents who spoke said they were in favor of a merger.
?We?ve got to consolidate,? said Kate Uhlir, of Fenwick Road. ?I want to thank you for taking this initiative.?
Sheila Hubman, of Ashurst Road, asked if placing the issue on the ballot had been considered. Several other residents later asked if that were possible.
?I think this is something that should be decided by the residents,? Hubman said.
Infeld said she and council ?feel the need to hear from the community,? but the city is required to adhere to its charter, which explains the process to be followed.
At the Dec. 4 town hall meeting, acting Law Director James Budzik said both city councils would have to approve a merger for it to go forward.
University Heights Law Director Tony Coyne, who did not attend the Jan. 10 meeting, said in an interview a resident who is a registered voter could initiate a referendum proceeding, if the councils approve the merger. That person would have to collect signatures on petitions and file them with the clerk of council, he said.
?If 10 percent of registered voters petition the council clerk within 30 days of council approving establishment of a council of governments to manage consolidation of the two fire departments, that would enable council to either reconsider the resolution or put it on the ballot,? Coyne said.
?If 20 percent of registered voters sign the petitions, the clerk of council has to put it on the ballot after the signatures are verified.?
But since such a merger would also require a collective bargaining agreement between the city and the firefighters union, ?it may be more complicated than a simple referendum,? Coyne said.
Loss of control feared
Randy Witczak, EMS coordinator of the University Heights Fire Department, said a merger, as he understands it from the study, would result in Shaker Heights overseeing the combined fire department.
?If this merger happens, we become employees of the Shaker fire department,? he said. ?This city (would be) contracting out its fire and EMS services to the city of Shaker Heights.
?So when you have a problem that affects this community, you?re going to have to go to Shaker and cry foul. You?re not going to be able to vote Shaker?s council and mayor out of office.
?Why would you want to give up the power and the control of a fire department you have in the city? I don?t understand it.?
Infeld said the city would not be giving up control of its fire department or safety forces.
?By charter, the city will have a fire department, and the fire chief will report to the mayor (of both cities), and that would not change,? she said. ?Any oversight of a combined fire department would involve the mayor of University Heights.?
John Novosielski, president of the University Heights firefighters union, said the city?s firefighters found many inaccuracies in the study.
?ESCI has done a lot of these feasibility studies,? he said. ?I couldn?t find one that is similar to our makeup, of University Heights and Shaker Heights, that was a successful merger, to this point.?
Novosielski noted all four options presented in the study propose elimination of the department?s ladder truck.
?The ladder is a very important piece of equipment in this community,? he said. ?There would also be elimination of the second ambulance.
?Both of those are going to be important because University Heights? emergency call volume hit an all-time high last year. Our call volume is steadily increasing.?
?Look at all the issues?
Denise Balint, of Charney Road, asked if Infeld and council had reviewed the concerns and issues raised by the firefighters union related to the study.
?I think before anything is decided, you really have to look at all the issues,? she said.
Infeld said she and council had received the comments the union made, but ?the topic of this meeting is something different.?
In an interview Jan. 11, Infeld said she has asked Kouwe, the ESCI consultant who spoke to both city councils, to respond to comments made by both fire unions in reaction to the study.
?We?re still waiting for a response,? she said. ?The consultant (Kouwe) said he felt he had addressed all of the unions? questions when the report was released, but I asked him to look at the document again.?
For the consultant to return to respond to questions or comments, as one resident suggested, that would have to be requested by council, Infeld said.
?Does status quo work??
Vice Mayor Frankie Goldberg said she was ?thrilled? with the turnout at the Jan. 10 meeting.
?This forum is the first time I have heard from our residents with regard to your concerns and questions,? she said.
?The question for me, as a council member, is does the status quo of our current fire department work today? Will it work in the future??
Regardless of the outcome, the city is on ?the cutting edge? of exploring the issue, Goldberg said.
?I think this council and this mayor would be remiss if we didn?t look under the hood of our fire services to make us all better, not in the short term, but in the long term.
?I want to be educated as a councilperson and as a resident of University Heights with regard to our services. Let?s make the hard decisions together.?
Infeld said the next step is for her and council to reflect on the comments they have heard from the public meetings, and from residents outside the meetings, and make a decision.
?I think the community is now aware there is a proposal under consideration, and the community and fire staff in both cities deserve a timely answer,? she said.
In May 2011, the two cities received a $25,000 grant from The Cleveland Foundation to conduct the study. A $25,000 match was paid by the two cities in proportion to their populations.
The Cleveland Foundation also agreed to pay $15,000 for implementation costs resulting from shared fire services.
ESCI held public meetings in both cities in May and presented an overview of the results of the study in both cities in October.
The study has been posted on both cities? websites. To see the study with the firefighters unions? comments in reaction to the study, visit local974.org.
See more news from University Heights and Shaker Heights at cleveland.com/university-heights or cleveland.com/shaker-heights.
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Twitter: @EdWittenberg
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Source: http://www.cleveland.com/university-heights/index.ssf/2013/01/university_heights_residents_e.html
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