Fire chief: Department OK with pay
Leader says firefighters satisfied with relationship with Arkansas side, appreciate city’s efforts in parity pay
Texarkana, Ark., Fire Department is satisfied with its firefighters’ pay and its relationship with city government, according to the department’s chief and union leader.
In interviews Friday, Chief David Fletcher and Jeff Pritchett, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 502, commended the city’s efforts to keep TAFD salaries on par with those of Texas-side firefighters—known as pay parity—despite tight budgeting.
Their comments come as a group of Arkansas-side residents has filed a lawsuit against City Manager Kenny Haskin and Mayor Ruth Penney-Bell claiming mismanagement of a quarter-cent sales tax, instituted by voters in 1996, meant to fund pay parity for police. A separate quarter-cent sales tax begun at the same time was meant to fund firefighter pay parity, as well.
“We’ve been satisfied with the city’s efforts to maintain that parity pay. We realize the city has lots of concerns beyond just our department, and we’ve been willing to help them be successful on all fronts. …
“You’ve got to kind of look at it and not just be so me, me, me, but you have to realize what’s best for the city. I’m proud to be part of a
department that will actually take that into consideration,” Fletcher said.
Pritchett echoed the sentiment, referring to a compromise reached last year that increased firefighter pay incrementally until parity was achieved. After Texarkana, Texas, increased all employees’ salaries in 2016, the Arkansas side could not afford to raise TAFD and police department pay to Texas-side levels all at once, officials said.
“I’m pleased with the trajectory the fire department is on at this point in time. The city has met parity 100 percent, in spite of an ordinance that only requires them to do 4 percent a year until parity is reached. So I feel they went above and beyond as far as meeting all parity right now,” Pritchett said, adding that he has confidence in the current municipal government.
“Overall, I’m pleased with the relationship between the fire department and the city,” he said. “I’ve had a good dialogue with Dr. Haskin, and I’m encouraged by the board that we have. To be quite honest, it’s probably the best Board (of Directors) we’ve had since I’ve been a firefighter in over 22 years.”
Both Fletcher and Pritchett declined to comment on the pay parity lawsuit, but Fletcher did express misgivings about one potential result, the parity taxes no longer being collected.
“After reading the claims that have been submitted, some possible outcomes of this suit could be highly detrimental to my department. If you read the two things that have been filed so far, they even go so far as to say, ‘Do away with it altogether.’ Where do you start cutting? How many 20-yearold men do I got to tell they no longer have a job? That’s what we’re looking at there. It would be devastating,” Fletcher said.