Willowick asking voters to approve charter changes

Willowick’s registered voters are being asked to approve amendments to the city’s charter that will allow the Fire Department to fill its roster more easily.

For Issues 5 and 6, there are 9,416 residents who are able to eligible to vote in the May 8 Primary Election.

Issue 5 is a proposed charter amendment that will allow the Fire Department to hire part-time firefighters without administering the current required competitive exam prior to hiring.

“Right now, when we hire through the Civil Service Commission in the Fire Department, we typically give a test and hire from that,” Willowick Mayor Rich Regovich said.

“Since we are a part-time Fire Department, people don’t want to test. The last time we hired, eight people tested and we hired all eight.

The mayor wants the city to have the ability to hire on a temporary basis and have the new hires go through training and probation for 18 months, and then have them test.

“They test better after training and will still fall under civil service control in the city,” Regovich said. ‘It’s just a different way to hire and keep our roster up.”

According to the mayor, since the city’s Fire Department consists of parttime personnel, the roster is around 60 firefighters, but can go up to 72, putting six people on a shift.

“What we are finding is that as we lose people, it’s harder to replace them,” Regovich said. “I think all the other departments are finding it increasingly harder to find candidates also. The fire programs at Lakeland, their numbers are down. There’s not a lot of people entering fire service at this time.”

Issue 6 is also a proposed charter amendment that allows the Civil Service Commission to make decisions regarding civil service appointments, promotions, demotions, hirings, terminations and all other personnel matters for the city.

Changes to the charter will allow the city to more easily replace staff for the Fire Department, plus give the Civil Service Commission in the future the chance to make the decisions when they start testing large groups again, Regovich said.