The head of the city’s firefighter union wants to know the long-term plan for retaining a crop of new hires when the temporary funding used to bring them on board expires.
The problem is — just as it has been in the past — there does not appear to be one, and the union president is concerned the fire department will, once again, be targeted for budget cuts through staffing reductions when it comes time to pay up.
Atlantic City was awarded $4.3 million in federal grant funding that is to be used for hiring roughly 25 new firefighters. The new hires will increase the department’s total numbers to about 200, a move necessitated by nearly a dozen retirements earlier this year that dropped staffing levels below a judge’s order for a minimum of 180 city firefighters.