A proposal to reclassify three of the Kingman Fire Department's six battalion chiefs from exempt to non-exempt status revealed conflict between the city's police and fire departments at Tuesday's City Council meeting, and led to hard feelings and some profanity.
City Manager John Dougherty said the change was necessary for three of the battalion chiefs who work in operations and are on the same 24-hour shift schedule as firefighters.
Because they are salaried, they are ineligible for overtime and holiday pay, and do not have the flexibility to take time off as do other exempt employees, including the other three battalion chiefs who work in administration. "The three in operations are shift commanders," said Fire Chief Jake Rhoades. "This is strictly based on shift assignment. It's about the schedule, not the workload."
Rhoades said the department's minimum staffing is 13 a shift, including three firefighters and a shift commander on the fire trucks stationed at the city's four stations.
"This position kind of falls between two worlds," he said. "They can't take off. If they work a holiday, they don't get holiday pay."
He said the overtime pay the three would earn would not impact his budget because a fifth engineer position would be eliminated and that salary would be used for the extra pay.
Councilwoman Jen Miles suggested titles change in order to avoid confusion, and that's when Kingman Police lieutenants Jim Brice and Bob Fisk addressed the Council and things got heated.
"We're opposed to this agenda item and recommend you put it on hold," said Brice, pointing out the city's Compensation Committee has not reviewed the proposal.
"We have the same problem in the police department," he said before recommending the Council send the issue to the "already existing" Compensation Committee.