Staffing Levels Will Adhere to Common Council’s Mandate at Waukesha Fire Department

The will continue to follow the Common Council’s directives to staff 26 firefighters at all times but may have to pay out overtime to do so under, Fire Chief Allen LaConte said Thursday.

“It will be on an as-needed basis,” LaConte said. “It is difficult to say when I will need to do that.”

LaConte may need to ask firefighters to work overtime to cover for vacations, funeral leave or sick days. On average, paying a firefighter overtime to cover a full, 24-hour shift would be about $835, the fire chief said.

The city is facing a preliminary projection of a $1.5 million loss in state aid. The tools that are being provided to the city under Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, if passed, would only make up about $300,000 of that deficit. As a result the city’s hiring freeze that has been in place for civilian employees was extended to public safety workers until more information comes forward about the state aid figures.

The fire department recently had a retirement and will not be able to fill that vacancy under the new hiring rules that went into effect this week.

“As we get into the summer months, we are going to be required to do that more because obviously more people are going to be on vacation,” LaConte said. “I would much rather not have to approach it this way, but I can understand that you don’t want to hire somebody and tell them two months later they don’t have a job. … This is probably the best way to approach it for the short run.”

Despite the hiring freeze, LaConte is committed to keeping maintaining the staffing levels and striving to meet the seven-minute maximum response time that was previously set by the Common Council in order to continue supplying the emergency medical services and fire protection to Waukesha.

“That is what I was sworn to do,” LaConte said.