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At the budget hearing on 5/31 Mr. Cote stated the WFD uses 1652 COS in fiscal 2017. A year in the FD consists of 33580 shifts (46 FF x 2 shifts per day x 365 days). So COS account for 1652/33580 or 4.9% or all shifts worked. So on average a FF takes a change 1 out of every 20 shifts for a job where half of all shifts are overnight, 6 out of every 8 tours fall on all or some portion of a weekend, and depending on how the schedule falls, a single platoon could work nearly every major holiday in a calander year. And because vacation is picked based on seniority the most junior FFs may be required to take all of their vacation time in January and February leaving them no way to get a shift off for the remainder of the year other than a COS. As for the 206 “unreciprocated” shifts, they represent just 6/10ths of 1% of all shifts. A number that severely undermines Mr. Cote’s assertion that this is a wide spread “scam.” It is further undermined by the fact that he claims 2 FFs are responsible for nearly a quarter of that 206 meaning the rest of the department would owe, on average, less than a day, And the arbitrary start and end dates to the data further skew any conclusions drawn from the numbers. A FF could take a COS on the night of 6/30 and repay that shift back on the day of 7/1 and Mr. Block and Mr Cote’s analysis would show an unreciprocated shift even though back to back shifts were swapped.

When it comes “detailed out” shifts Mr. Block and Mr. Cote are also mistaken. FFs can be DO for many reasons, but most commonly around “bids” when members change platoons, or for training. DO around bids result in no OT. It’s just a way to track which members moved to new spots for the first tour after a bid takes effect. Trainings can result in OT(but not always) if no floaters are available. But OT cost is the same whether an on duty FF is DO and his spot is filled at OT or whether the training occurs off duty and a FF is paid OT to attend. The cost to the city is the same. And large chunks of DO trainings are reimbursed by state of federal money because of grants written and secured by members of the department.

And Mr Cote claims the OT budget has been exceeded every year since 2003. While this may be true the salary line item has been under budget by over $4 million over the same span. And the OT budget deficit has been artificially inflated by federal grant money and a city council who has cut money from the OT line item even while knowing, that because of staffing deficits, the FD would not be able to avoid going over the reduced budget