Tag: Staffing

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Haverhill Fire Department 2023 FEMA S.A.F.E.R. Grant Acceptance Ceremony

Congresswomen Lori Trahan presented the Haverhill Fire Department with the ceremonial check for 16 new full-time firefighters on the department for the next 3 years, 100% of personnel costs covered by the S.A.F.E.R. FEMA Grant, worth over $4.1 million. There were many thanks made during the event while standing in front of the Bradford Fire Station where the Bradford Ladder 4 crew will be staffed as of June next year. Joining with us to celebrate was Congresswoman Trahan, State Senator Payano, State Representative Vargas, State Representative Hamilton, City Councilor and Mayor Elect Melinda Barrett, City Council President Jordan, City Councilor Lewandowski, & City Councilor Bevilacqua.

We’d like to once again thank the members of the Haverhill Firefighters Local 1011 in-house firefighter grant writers who wrote this grant for the city: Grant Team Leader Richard Shellene, Brian Ray, James Bizeur, Ryan Fairbanks, & Timothy Carroll. As well as the advocacy we gratefully received from US Senator Warren, US Senator Markey, alongside Congresswoman Trahan.

Special thank you to the work done by Chief Robert O’Brien, Local President Tim Carroll, & Local Secretary Ryan Fairbanks for their efforts towards procuring this grant by their years of work before, during, and after this grant was awarded to Haverhill. Work that was shared by our strongest supporters in the Haverhill City Council: Tim Jordan, Melissa Lewandowski, John Michitson, Colin LePage, & Melinda Barrett.

There is a lot of work still being done to prepare for these new firefighters to join the department early next year. We hope to update you more as the process continues. Please see the pictures below provided by Mike Jarvis from Jarvi Productions.

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FEMA SAFER Grant Award Union Statement

Subject: F.E.M.A. Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant

The Haverhill Firefighters of the IAFF Local 1011 would like to thank Fire Chief Robert O’Brien, our U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives, our State Senators and State Representatives, our Haverhill City Councilors, the International Association of Fire Fighters, and the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts. Along with a special thanks to our amateur fire department grant writers James Bizeur, Brian Ray, Ryan Fairbanks, Michael Foustoukos, and Timothy Carroll, led by Richard Shellene.

Five years ago, the IAFF Local 1011 stood in front of the Haverhill City Council and presented them with a plan to incrementally increase staffing levels to eventually provide the residents of Haverhill with a desperately needed second ladder truck staffed in Bradford. Proving a need for a second ladder truck on the basis of our call volume, the abundance of current high-rise buildings, and the more approved to be built in the city, Haverhill was far below the national staffing standard.

After researching and writing the grant, our local firefighter grant team, with an endorsement from Haverhill’s mayor, submitted an application for funding a fully-staffed ladder truck in March 2023. Our grant application, with the backing of our elected leaders, requested 16 firefighters to staff a second ladder in order to help Haverhill meet the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1710 standard in continuation with previous staffing increases at both High Street and Water Street. Combined with previous staffing increases, this grant will soon allow Haverhill to meet the 80% threshold set forth by the NFPA for responses and response times sometime next year. The FEMA SAFER Grant gives the City of Haverhill $4.1 million to be spent over three years, covering 100% of the salaries and benefits of 16 firefighters. Upon the expiration of the grant, we look forward to working with local leaders to continue to staff the much-needed ladder truck in Bradford. At an approximate cost of $1.4–$1.6 million annually for these firefighters moving forward in the 4th year, FY2028 will be the first full fiscal year the city will need to realize the cost of these critical firefighters at about 0.6% of the current total annual city budget.

We look forward to continuing our work with the Haverhill City Council, the Federal and State Legislature, and Haverhill’s next mayor to continue to find solutions for these fiscal hurdles, including additional grants. Haverhill Firefighters IAFF Local 1011 have and will always fight for the safety of the residents in our great city. We know that many of the past years haven’t been easy, but we believe the best is yet to come for Haverhill, its firefighters, and the residents we are here to protect.

Faithfully,

Your Haverhill Firefighters

2022-SAFER-Grant-L1011-Letter-to-Public-9.23.23-FinalDownload
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Haverhill City Council Public Safety Subcommittee 5/3/2023

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. (see more)

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Haverhill Mayor to replace entire fire department and others with robots

04/01/2023

Haverhill Mayor Fiorentini announced today that the Haverhill Fire department will immediately begin transitioning away from a traditional human-based fire department model to a robotic one.

When the city leader was questioned on how these tank-like robots equipped with water cannons would replace all of the duties that a firefighter performs other than fighting fire, duties like; water rescues, fire rescues, motor vehicle accidents, overdoses, hazardous material incidents, shootings, CPR, stabbings, and the everyday picking-grandma-off-the-ground-after-she-fell incident the 2 decade mayor said that “these robots can shoot water at 2,500 gallons per minute, so I’m sure the dozens of highly-paid robot operators now on city payroll will figure it out”. Among many other concerns, when questioned on the cost of the robots, Fiorentini would only say that the devices will cost significantly less than it costs to hire a firefighter for a hundred years. According the the mayor’s and auditor’s office, the cost of a single Haverhill Firefighter over a hundred years costs the city roughly $30 million dollars each whereas “these robots use significantly less consumables like toilet paper that the city has to pay for while human firefighters are on duty”.

The statement today coming only weeks after another lost battle between the local 1011 and the mayor, when union staffing claims where vindicated using a study funded by the mayor intended to prove the firefighters wrong and backfired. Feeling as though that this event is more of a political one than a realistic solution, Haverhill Firefighter Local 1011 President Tim “Tim” Carroll only commented that “this doesn’t make any sense” while looking up momentarily from his union issued iPad which was streaming the popular early-2000s show BattleBots.

The 20 year mayor was also asked whether he had any other innovative ideas for reducing the number of city employees. He would not get into specifics but provided us with photos of prototypes being considered to replace Haverhill police officers and teachers, refusing to clarify which ones would be used where (pictured below).

When pressed for more information regarding this very strange turn of events, the long-time head of the city only kept repeating “I’m just getting started, I’m just getting started, I’m just getting started” over and over again before we were rushed out of his office by a group wearing Cyberdyne badges.

More on this and other Haverhill news and views below…

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Haverhill Firefighters Vindicated through CPSM Study Results


March 10, 2023

Haverhill Firefighters and the CPSM Study Presentation to City Council – 3/7/2023

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… (see more)

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Haverhill Firefighter Staffing Shortage

Portland Street Fire 4.29.22 – Scene on arrival

The current effort to increase Haverhill’s dangerously low firefighter staffing levels has been ongoing since 2019. Since that time, staffing levels have not increased at all. In fact, the proposed 2023 City of Haverhill budget reduces the number of guaranteed on-duty firefighters 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 current daily compliment of on-duty firefighters is a minimum of 21, though Mayor James Fiorentini’s 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.

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