Automatic Aid Agreements Challenged as Contracting Out – Texas
The Austin Fire Department is being sued by the Austin Firefighters Association, IAFF Local 975, over automatic (mutual) aid agreements that the city recently entered into that call for the closest units to an incident to respond.
IAFF Local 975 claims that the agreements essentially “contract-out” work in violation of state civil service laws. The complaint states: “the city’s agreements with the ESDs and municipalities contract out normal fire protection service within Austin city limits, providing for ESD personnel to be dispatched as part of the city’s initial or primary response, and sometimes the only response.”
The suit filed in Travis County District Court claims that by entering into the agreements the city is violating the Civil Service Act by using non-civil service firefighters for its primary (as opposed to emergency/mutual aid) response. IAFF Local 975 is seeking a permanent injunction to block the use of non-Austin firefighters for primary response except in major emergencies where mutual aid is needed.
Here is a copy of the complaint: Austin FFs petition
All I can say is WOW. Some times the lows that the IAFF will stoop to never cease to amaze me. While I was a member of the IAFF, I used to bury my head in shame at some of the things they do.
To me their argument should be rendered completely invalid, and not even allowed to move forward. But my opinion may be a little biased as I spent my years working in public safety in the birthplace of automatic aid. With automatic aid being so… automatic around here, I find it troubling when I see agencies that dont use it. When I recently read that LA city and LA county dont use it, it blew my mind.
Anybody that’s putting forth an argument against automatic aid is putting forth an argument against the safety and welfare of the people in the community they serve, and they should be ashamed of themselves! When job security get placed above public safety, its time to go! and as far as i’m concerned thats a line that once crossed there is no coming back, those individuals need to look for a new career…
Around here the motto is 30 cities, 28 departments 1 response…
The issue here appears not to be that the people don’t need the closest units, but rather that the city is trying to neglect its taxpayers by not expanding its own fire department where needed. ESD’s with part time workers and volunteers are very common in Texas. They’re cheap, offer a lower level of service than a full time department can, and have very low standards when it comes to hiring since they don’t have to comply with civil service law. Whether the IAFF should be leading that lawsuit is a separate question, but they do have a point that it’s essentially contracting out the Austin Fire Department’s work to agencies with lower standards.
Firehat – you are correct to an extent, however the problem isn’t necessarily an issue of expanding their department, it is one of station location. In many instances an ESD station might be across the street or a few blocks away from a call due to the City’s annexation of areas. The City of Austin is notorious for annexing property tax rich areas and leaving gaps where there isn’t money to be had, leaving the ESD to provide protection. When it comes to the level of training and staffing, part of the Auto Aid agreement was that the ESDs involved would maintain a minimum 4 man staffing to meet the City’s minimums. As far as part time/volunteer, while many ESDs in Travis County are still combination departments, all but one maintain full time certified firefighters, most of which are also members of a Local as well as the IAFF. If you go to the TCFP site and start looking at certification levels for ESD firefighters vs City firefighters, you will notice that there is an overwhelming percentage of ESD firefighters with higher levels of certification than City firefighters.