The Citizen: A Fireman’s Backup

By Chaney Ferguson
The Times of SWLA




The past seven months has been a long and stressful process for the firemen of Lake Charles. Negotiations between the local union and the city have not reached an agreement on the issue of higher pay.

“What the membership wants is to have equal pay with the Sulphur fire department,” said Wil Veuleman, president of the firemen’s union.

Currently a rookie fireman with the Lake Charles Fire Department starts out at $23, 849 while working 2,912 hours a year. A rookie fireman in Sulphur starts out with $29, 186 while working the same amount of hours.

“When we initially started we wanted parity with our counterparts here in town, the police department. We backed off of it because we felt it was too big a push,” said Veuleman.
A rookie police officer in Lake Charles starts out making $32, 432 while working 2,184 hours a year.

“What we are asking for is not reaching for the stars. It is just asking to be equal with everyone else around here,” said Veuleman.

The city’s main issue during negotiations has to do with overtime.

“Overtime is abundant, but it’s that way because we are minimally staffed,” said Veuleman.
There is a nationally recognized staffing standard of four men per truck, but the city has always just carried three.

“When you carry the minimum it doesn’t take long or it is very easy to get in the trap of running low when someone quits or has to leave,” said Veuleman.

When someone leaves it creates an empty spot that must be filled with overtime pay until someone can be hired. The civil service process of hiring a new fireman takes approximately six months.

“So for those six months,” said Veuleman, “we are “x” amount of positions short, and those positions are being paid time and a half everyday.”

Veuleman and Justin Governale, vice-president of the firemen’s union maintain that the overtime issue is not the concern of the firefighters.

“It is the city’s problem to address—and that is to hire more people. To hire more people you have to be offering competitive pay at the very beginning and they are not, and that is sort of where we have stagnated,” said Veuleman.

The issue of higher pay also affects how long men stay with the department.

“Chief Manuel stated that since he became chief in 2003 there have been 123 people hired throughout the classes, and 60 aren’t with us anymore,” said Veuleman.

“So half the people we’ve hired in six years are gone. That is a significant turnover rate for this size department.”

Training for a fire department takes generally around $25,000. When firemen leave for another station or leave to take another job, that training money is gone.

“You might as well have set it in a pile and lit it on fire because you have wasted it,” said Veuleman.

Recently in the news, there was a chart showing the difference in salaries for firemen around the state in cities such as Houma, Alexandria, and Lafayette.

“You can pick out cities to do a survey on and make us look like we are not that far behind, but I can pick out cities that show you we are behind significantly,” said Veuleman.

“All of those cities that we are being compared to offer incentives to their departments while we have no incentives whatsoever,” said Veuleman.

“But we aren’t losing men to Houma or Alexandria. I’m losing men to Sulphur so that is who we have to compete with, and with that in mind that is the pay we need to be striving to pay men right here. That is our stance,” said Veuleman.

Currently there are around 178 members of the Lake Charles Fire Department. The union represents 165 of those members.

“That is what we call the fire suppression division. The fire stations, dispatchers, investigators, training officers, mechanics, and some of our other support personnel that we also represent, but the majority of us are all firefighters,” said Governale. Firemen respond to more than just fires.

Governale provided a list of other possible calls to which they respond: any type of fire, downed power lines, car wrecks, pots on the stove, fire alarms, hazardous material (in the whole parish), or an incident on the interstate with an 18 wheeler.

“We will go wherever we are needed,” said Governale.

There are times when all stations are attending to fires. These times reveal the major difference between the police and firemen.

“If the police are short, they run short because they can double up on their areas. If they have too much to handle they have the Marshalls and the Sheriff’s Department to help them,” said Veuleman.

The fire department does not have backup. Governale says they are their own backup.
“We can’t run short, not only for our own safety, but for the safety of the citizens,” said Veuleman.

There are days with down time when the firemen sit in the station wondering if anyone is even in the city.

“Down time lets us know someone isn’t losing anything, whether it is property or life, and that is always a good thing,” said Veuleman.

On July 28, the firemen’s negotiation team will meet with the city’s negotiation team in order to come to an agreement.

The firemen urge the citizens to get involved in this and call their city council and the mayor, and voice their opinion.