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OGDENSBURG, New York (WWNY) – The city of Ogdensburg has stopped giving its firefighters hazard pay.
According to City Manager Stephen Jellie, the city determined a section of the contract with the firefighter union is illegal.
Essentially, the city says the contract contains two safety clauses for the same issue, which is against the law.
Jellie says one of the clauses pays firefighters ‘hazard pay’ when the city fails to have fewer than 6 personnel on a shift. He says that clause has nothing to do with safety.
Jellie says the current contract was hastily negotiated under a previous mayor and the union tried to obtain more perks for its members.
The city now wants the $311,000 paid out in hazard pay since January 2021 to be paid back.
The International Association of Firefighters Local 1799 responded to Jellie’s announcement with this statement:
“Local 1799 finds it both unfortunate and unsurprising that the City Manager chose the day after firefighters bravely responded to a tragic fire in our city, to once again publicly attack our collectively bargained agreement. Ogdensburg Firefighters consider this yet another blatant example of bad faith bargaining displayed by the outgoing manager; once again illustrating the impossibility of any trusted dealings with this management group.”
Below is the full announcement from Jellie:
The City of Ogdensburg has determined that another section of the bargaining unit agreement with the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) Local F-1799 constitutes an illegal job security clause. Since January 2021, that illegal job security clause has cost City taxpayer’s $311,000 in non-warranted payments to fire department employees. The City will seek full re-payment of all non-warranted hazard pay disbursed to employees as a result of this illegal clause that was included into the hastily negotiated contract between the IAFF and City of Ogdensburg officials following the staggering 2019 election defeat of then Mayor Wayne Ashley, Councilors David Price and Jennifer Stevenson.
Article 18, Section (c) requires “hazard pay” when the City fails to employ less than 6 personnel on any one of its four fire department work shifts (platoons) despite the fact Section (e) of the same article requires the City to maintain 5 personnel on duty at all times for what IAFF Local 1799 officials insist is a safety clause. The obvious decision for City officials is that the contract cannot contain two safety clauses for the same issue, and Section (c) has nothing to do with job and worker safety but rather another attempt by unions officials being led by then Union Secretary/Treasurer Ronald Bouchard to obtain more perks for union employees should the City not financially be able to meet their staffing demands. The City will no longer stand for this type of single focused greed that IAFF officials have used against the City for many years that has and continues to be one of the primary reasons for the economic distress and near bankrupt conditions facing the City. Former City Manager Sarah Purdy noted in 2016 that the City’s Water and Sewer funds had been inappropriately used to pay thousands of dollars to firefighter and police retirements that the City’s General Fund could not afford; a fact also not by the New York State Comptroller’s Office in a review of the 2017 Preliminary Budget (see attached). Those irresponsible actions led to the City being forced to borrow over $35M to pay for upgrades to its Wastewater Treatment Plant because reserve and capital improvement funds were depleted.
As part of a recent arbitration hearing, Union President Jason Bouchard and former Secretary / Treasurer Ronald Bouchard attempted to convince the Arbitrator that Section (e) of the bargaining unit agreement is intended entirely for the “safety” of IAFF members, yet the contract does not mention the word “safety” in that section or anywhere in the contract. Former Union Secretary / Treasurer Ronald Bouchard passionately testified that Section (e) mandates 5 personnel on duty as the only effective and safe level of staffing in which firefighting operations can be initially conducted and he insisted that is the reason that a “hazard pay” clause requiring payment for less than 5 employees on duty is NOT contained in that section. City officials took note of this testimony and have now determined that Section (c), which requires “hazard pay” for the number of firefighters employed by the City overall, NOT the number of employees on duty constitutes an illegal job security clause.
The City of Ogdensburg will cease the payment of so- called “hazard pay” to IAFF Local 1799 personnel immediately and within the confines of Civil Service Law, it will seek the immediate re-payment of all funds disbursed to employees beginning January 2022 to present. The City will, as it always does, seek an amicable and collective resolution to this matter with IAFF Local 1799 officials, however under the leadership of Union President Jason Bouchard and his now retired but still actively involved uncle, Ronald Bouchard, no productive or meaningful negotiation has ever been allowed. IAFF union officials at the local and state level have sought to prevent the City from recovering economically and have openly professed on more than one occasion with their words and actions that their members pay and perks transcends the City, and its taxpayers overall financial needs.
Since taking office in January 2020, the administration of Mayor Jeffrey M. Skelly has worked tirelessly to save the City from bankruptcy and financial ruin, while working equally as hard to accelerate the revival of the only city in St. Lawrence County.