BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – There’s a big meeting shaping up over members of Brevard County Fire Rescue negotiating their next taxpayer-funded contract.
For years, firefighters have said other counties are paying their firefighters better.
Starting pay right now at Brevard County Fire Rescue can be less than $15/hour. The group said that after doing research, they learned firefighters at agencies in Seminole, Osceola and Indian River counties pay upwards of $20,000 more.
A young fireman told News 6′s James Sparvero that morale continues to be low.
“Since (I started working for) Brevard County, I’ve seen morale come and go, up and down,” Shane Kennedy, a fire medic said. “Now that we’ve fallen so far behind in both pay, work/life balance and our benefits package that we’re offered, it seems like the morale is back down to where it was.”
Kennedy, 25, started with BCFR five years ago and has noticed retention problems.
“Lately, it seems like a lot of people that have good mindsets, and are eager to learn, and eager to do these things are leaving for other places, other counties that are offering significantly higher pay — 20 to 30% more in some cases,” he said.
Brevard firefighters added that the newly hired firefighter EMTs in their department don’t get a pay increase for seven years when they come on board.
In firefighters’ next contract, Kennedy said he would like to see more pay and more focus on retention than recruitment.
“We have no problem getting people in the door and many of them have also left,” he said. “So by us increasing the top-out pay and possibly giving a better work/life balance, we may be able to keep more people longer and provide the community with more experience and better service.”
Joshua Madsen is a lieutenant fire medic who has served Brevard County Fire Rescue for 23 years.
“We’re losing a lot of quality employees and you’re placing them with brand new kids out of school that don’t have the experience that don’t have the training,” Madsen said.
Firefighters said they need to work overtime just to make ends meet.
Mclean Becton said he works more than 180 every two weeks.
“I’ve been here for five years and I definitely don’t make enough on a normal salary to be able to live in Brevard County,” Becton said.
He and his wife Nicole are extremely frustrated because the poor pay impacts his work-life balance. Becton said he barely gets to see his wife because he’s always at work.
“When we do have kids, it’s going to be a lot harder to support the family by myself at the home front,” Nicole Becton said. “They work so hard they put themselves on the line every single day and it’s a totally thankless job and they’re so unappreciated.”
Firefighters plan on addressing county commissioners during Tuesday night’s meeting at the government center in Viera.
The meeting starts at 5 p.m. and before then, supporters will join firefighters at a rally outside the commission chambers starting at 3:30 p.m.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: