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September 23, 2009

5 Oak Park Firefighters Lose Their Jobs
from Village Budget Cuts.
commentary Ed Vincent

Yesterday 5 Oak Park firefighters were given the news by the Village
of Oak Park that they would no longer be needed in town. These folks
were the newest firefighters and those also most in need of a job, young
families and kids were all to be affected.

The sizes of the crews on a given shift will be reduced as a result of
these cuts. At one time Oak Park had as many as 21 members of the
force on a given shift, but that varied with vacations, sick days, and
Kelly days (Federal rules of maximum time that can be worked).

The past number of years Oak Park has already been working with
a lighter load of firefighters on a given shift, down now to 14 firefighters.
Some of the firefighters are already looking at other departments to
hire them, but this can take months to get a new job-even after they
like you. There are tests and lines formed to fit with the procedures
for civil service hiring.

Oak Park Fire Chief Bell has spent the past few days checking with
other departments for locations where his folks might find work. He
has found a number of locations where his recommendations can help
at least get on a list.

There are also about 15 current firefighters who are available
to take retirement soon, and any of those who leave will be replaced
happily by one of those cut in the past day.

We had many phone calls from friends of the fire department who
voiced their concerns (a fax attached below). I spoke with a number
of Mayors and Board Members from nearby towns to see how their
budgets are doing. River Forest has not fired any of their firefighters,
and Forest Park has kept all of their firefighters. They are both
smaller departments with fewer workers, but also stronger budgets.

When Oak Park helped commit to spending 7 million dollars to build
a parking garage at the High School, which has really helped close
the achievement GAP, River Forest was not given any of the bill
to pay with their wealthy citizens. Oak Park's budget seems to
be getting worse each time we turn around. We are currently waiting
to review the budget and see how and why things keep going down.
I hope that we have removed the real estate transfer tax from the
general fund assests.

Forest Park, with a more middle class neighborhood also has
$6,000,000.00 worth of sales tax a month coming from Walmart,
and did have $100,000,000.00 a year in car sales. Forest Park
also does not spend $6,000,000.00 on a one block street.

Perhaps we should close down our Village Board and outsource
our budget to Forest Park, they at least have a handle on their
finances.

A FAX FROM A READER