Retired fire Lieutenant Robert "Bob" Carter, 29 years of service with the DFD, has passed away at the age of 74. 

Memorial services will be held Sunday, July 5, 2009 at the Georgetown United Methodist Church in Georgetown, Georgia.  A memorial service will be held in Dayton in two weeks.

Flowers will be accepted or donations may be made to the Quitman County Junior Commissioner or to the Georgetown United Methodist Church Children's Fund.

On June 18^th the department sent a letter to all District Chiefs informing them that on July 1, 2009 their position was being abolished.  At that time they will all be demoted to the rank of Captain yet continue to do their current job as a “Shift Commander”.

Demoting the DC’s strips them of their pay as well as reducing other benefits such as pension contributions. This is pay and benefits earned for taking on the additional responsiblities, stress and workload of the rank. By reducing them to the rank of Captain they remove this pay and benefits yet expect them to maintain the responsibilities which other Captains are not required nor trained to do.  The City of Dayton has stated that this move is being done for budgetary reasons.  

On January 16, 2009 a grievance was filed along with a letter to immediately send the issue to arbitration.  An Unfair Labor Practice was also filed with Ohio State Employee Relations Board citing violations of the ORC 4117 (collective bargaining bill).  District Chiefs are members of Local 136 and as such the City is required to negotiate any mid-term changes to the contract, which they chose not to do.

The City of Dayton, as is many other cities, is using the current economic downturn as an opportunity to run roughshod over contracts and unions.  If the city ultimately prevails on this action, it will likely sweep across the country. The rank of District/Battalion Chief will go the way of the Dodo.

Read the letter here

(June 10, 2009) The Supreme Court of Ohio today upheld as constitutional a 2006 state law that bars a political subdivision of the state (e.g., a city, county, township or school district) from requiring its employees, as a condition of employment, to reside within that political subdivision.

The Court’s 5-2 majority opinion, authored by Justice Paul E. Pfeifer, rejected arguments advanced by the cities of Lima and Akron that in barring enforcement of local residency requirements the General Assembly exceeded its authority and violated the cities’ home rule authority to “exercise all powers of local self-government” under Article XVIII of the Ohio Constitution.

Read the decision here.

According to an article in Firehouse.com, The City of Portsmouth, Virginia has settled a racial discrimination lawsuit contending that a test used to hire entry-level firefighters rejected a disproportionate number of African American candidates.  Sound vaguely familiar?

You can read the entire article here.

Detroit's public pensions lost more than $2 billion, 30% of their value, in an 18-month period ending in December — which may eventually require the deficit-ridden city to double contributions to the plans.  The article also shows that the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (Ohio PERS) also lost 27.7% in the same period.  There was no mention of Ohio Police & Fire.

Read the article...