From The Star Press, May 22

MUNCIE, IN – Forty firefighters -- more than a third of the Muncie Fire Department -- will be laid off in the next 30 days as a result of a $3.4 million city budget shortfall, Mayor Sharon McShurley announced Thursday.

The mayor's announcement came in the form of a letter to Mike Whited, president of the local firefighters union, and in effect declared an economic emergency, allowing for the manpower cuts under the city's contract with the firefighters.

The city's financial state is such that "if immediate actions are not taken, the City of Muncie would be forced to close its doors beginning November 2009," McShurley wrote.

The layoff of 40 firefighters for six months would translate into $951,173 to help cover the projected revenue shortfall from property tax caps imposed on local government and schools, according to City Controller Mary Ann Kratochvil.

McShurley's letter to Whited came 48 hours after firefighters failed to make any concessions in pay, benefits or manpower, despite being told for more than a year that the city would lose revenue and needed to reduce staff.

Whited, president of Firefighters Local 1348, expressed disappointment that the mayor was unwilling to give firefighters 30 days, as requested this week, to come up with a plan to avoid layoffs.

"We recognize that declaring an economic emergency could hurt bond issues and have other far-reaching ramifications for our community," Whited said in a press release.

McShurley and Kratochvil denied the declaration of an economic emergency would impact the city's financial status or its ability to borrow money or pursue bond issues.

"All this does is enable us to do layoffs," McShurley said.

Deputy Mayor Richard Shirey delivered letters exercising the layoff clause to Fire Chief Sean Burcham and Whited on Thursday afternoon.

The contract provides for the fire union, McShurley and Alison Quirk, president of Muncie City Council, to talk about the pending layoffs within 15 days. If no resolution is reached, layoffs start with the most recent firefighter hired.

Burcham said he could not endorse laying off 40 firefighters, adding that he had only learned of the planned number of layoffs on Thursday.

"This changes everything and we will have to go back to the drawing board," Burcham said, adding that layoffs were not the answer.

Acknowledging that the mayor's hands were tied by revenue shortfalls, Burcham said he planned to meet with ranking fire officers to come up with a alternate plan next week.

Fire Battalion Chief James Clevenger Jr. was working at the downtown headquarters Thursday afternoon when news of the layoffs hit. He served as interim chief this spring before Burcham was appointed as former Chief Eric Wilson's permanent successor.

"This is far more drastic than anyone envisioned," said Clevenger, calling the layoff of 40 firefighters "unbelievable."

Clevenger said he believed leaving the department with 70 officers would result in the department manning only five of its 10 trucks, and operating out of as few as three stations.

McShurley recently announced plans to close two of the city's seven fire stations, the MFD's downtown headquarters and the Mock Avenue fire station on Muncie's southeast side. At the mayor's direction, the role of firefighters in responding to emergency medical calls has also been reduced in recent days.

And Clevenger said he could not pretend that firefighters could maintain a four-minute response time to all locations in the city only utilizing three pumper trucks, a ladder truck and a rescue squad vehicle.