Panel backs more access to state benefits for GFD

In a move intended in part to help retain firefighters and ambulance crew members, the Grafton Finance Committee last week recommended that all part-time members of the fire department be eligible for the Wisconsin retirement system when they qualify.

The village currently allows only three part-time members of the department to qualify for the benefit, which forces Fire Chief Bill Rice to stop scheduling people who are close to accumulating the 1,200 hours for a year that makes them eligible for the retirement benefit.

“I essentially have to suspend them as if they had done something wrong rather than rewarding them,” Rice told the committee. “We’re just too busy a community to have a restriction like this.”

And, Rice said, with the increasing number of calls, the department needs all the firefighters and ambulance crew members it can attract.

“What’s driving this is the huge increase in call volume,” he said. “The fewer employees will work more hours.”

According to a report to the Finance Committee, the call volume increased 70% in the past 10 years.

The retirement program, Rice said, is an incentive for department members to stay and to attract new members.

“We should see this as a retention and recruitment tool,” he said. “It’s an awesome retention program.”

Trustee Dan Delorit said it’s wrong to penalize department members who are willing and able to put in the time.

“If somebody earns something, they should get it,” he said.

“As challenging as it is to get staff, I think we should do everything we can.”

When the fire department, which has five full-time employees and roughly 65 part-time members, became a village department in 2013, it was not allowed to have any part-time members exceed the 1,200 hour limit, according to a report by Rice.

“This practice came in direct conflict with rising call volume and the reliance of a small number of part-time members to regularly staff the fire department, especially during daytime hours,” the report states, adding that members who qualify for the retirement benefit are typically the best, most dedicated volunteers.

In July 2017, the report states, the village agreed to allow three part-time members of the department qualify for the retirement system.

Currently, two members are part of the system, Rice said, and two more people are getting close to that 1,200 hours.

“These are younger people. They bought houses in Grafton,” he said, primarily because of the fire department and the relationships that have resulted from that.

The average cost to the village for a part-time employee in the retirement system is about $1,200 annually, Village Administrator Jesse Thyes said.

“I don’t feel it’s a large number for what we’re getting,” Rice said.

But Thyes noted that an employee doesn’t have to record 1,2000 each year to qualify for the retirement system. Once they hit that number, they qualify for the rest of their years with the village, and as more people qualify for the retirement benefit, the cost will add up.

“I don’t feel we’re all the sudden going to have all these extra people putting in all these hours,” said Trustee Lisa Harbeck, a member of the committee.

The committee unanimously recommended allowing all part-time members to join the retirement system, a decision that will now go to the Village Board for consideration.