Haverhill Fire Staffing Shortage
May 4, 2023
The Haverhill City Council Public Safety Subcommittee met last night to discuss the needs of the Haverhill Fire Department, the results of the CPSM Audit, and to hear recommendations from the public, firefighters, and Fire Chief O’Brien. Unfortunately, Fire Chief O’Brien was ordered by Mayor Fiorentini to not attend the meeting. The members of the subcommittee and firefighter’s union all expressed their disappointment with Mayor Fiorentini for his action in preventing the public from hearing directly from the city’s fire chief. The members of the subcommittee and firefighter’s union all expressed similar priorities for improving funding to the fire department in coming years. Please see the list of requests Local 1011 President Carroll presented to the city council subcommittee in accordance with the study (commissioned by the mayor) findings and in continuation with what the firefighters have been requesting for years to improve Haverhill public safety, all confirmed by the independent audit. (Watch below & see the letter)

March 10, 2023
Since early 2019, the Haverhill Firefighters have been working with several city leaders to try and improve our working conditions, our safety, and the safety of the public. Many of our concerns were also echoed by Fire Chief O’Brien, the city council, and the public. In 2022, Mayor Fiorentini ordered a study be conducted of the fire department in an attempt to refute firefighter claims that the fire department was not being properly funded, equipped, and staffed. Tuesday night, CPSM presented their findings and here they are in line with what the Haverhill Firefighters Local 1011 have been saying about the Haverhill fire department; that the HFD… (please see official statement below)

Update: 06/21/2022 - Haverhill City Council Votes to further decrease Haverhill Firefighter staffing by voting for Mayor Fiorentini's budget, cutting 4 permanent Haverhill firefighter positions.

Video Description: 06/21/2022 Haverhill City Council FY2023 Budget Vote
We will be sharing more information about this meeting and the resulting vote but we thought it was important for you to see and hear Firefighter Fairbanks’ remarks to the council after discovering that the council was about to vote to reduce the Haverhill Fire Department’s minimum manning despite existing staffing shortages.

06/10/2022
The current effort to increase Haverhill’s dangerously low firefighter staffing levels has been on-going since 2019. Since that time, staffing levels have not increased at all. In fact, the current 2023 City of Haverhill budget actually reduces the number of guaranteed on-duty firefighter’s by removing them from the 911 Call center and not increasing the per-firetruck staffing (better known as “minimum manning” or per-piece staffing). The daily compliment of on-duty firefighters right now is a minimum of 21, though Mayor James Fiorentini’s current proposal reduces that number to 20. Under the mayor’s proposed 2023 budget, Haverhill will lose 4 firefighter positions per week unless the Haverhill City Council stands for a TRUE STAFFING increase. The cost of this true increase comes at a price-tag of only $9k per firefighter in these positions. In other words, for $9,000 a year, you can guarantee that there will always be a firefighter on the apparatus they are assigned at any time, all the time. The mayor’s current proposal would leave that position vacant every time anyone is on vacation or out for any reason.
To counter the Haverhill Firefighter’s union efforts, Mayor Fiorentini and Auditor Angel (Wills) Perkins have published and presented a “Fire Salary Analysis” which contains easily refuted false costs for hiring new firefighters. Our goal is to help Haverhill City Council see the glaring inconsistencies in the mayor’s skewed “firefighter cost estimates”. In the letter below, you will see the Haverhill Firefighter’s breakdown of how the costs presented by the mayor and city auditor could not possibly be true for many reasons; including for the simple fact that if their estimates were even remotely accurate the current Haverhill Fire Department budget would be 3 times what it current is. We ask you to stand with us and for the truth of how much a Haverhill firefighter actually costs the city and more importantly, how much value a firefighter brings to the City of Haverhill.
Please read more below.
Open Letter to the City Council on 6/9/2022
The letter sent to the Haverhill City Council on 6/9/2022 showing the inconsistencies and glaring inaccuracies with the “Haverhill Fire Salary Analysis” presented by Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini and Auditor Angel (Wills) Perkins
Images of the letter sent to the Haverhill City Council on 6/9/22





