Here is another fact to consider. If the volunteers are indeed hired (W2, employed, paid), they will be required by the state of Florida to earn the state’s Firefighter 2 certification(200+ more hours). They will not be allowed to respond to ANY call until this training is gained. No exceptions, no grace period to earn certification, effective immediately.

Most busy volunteer stations staff their stations with personnel that run “standby.” The personnel get “call credits” according to how many hours they standby. This basically gives them incentive to be at the station regardless if a call goes out or not. The county has eliminated this standby time as of this month. This presents a big problem. Volunteer personnel are not inticed to be at the station. Now we have personnel responding to the station in the busier parts of the county in order to make calls. We all know how big a risk that will be if we have firefighters with red lights trying to navigate traffic on Mobile Highway during rush hour. The north end volunteers aren’t effected so much by this as it is more manageable to return to their stations.

The county has a serious delima on their hands. How can we give volunteers W2s and not give them employee benefits or requiring months of more training and at the same time compensate them for hours worked?

I’m a proponant of our current system for the record. Not so much a supporter of our administraion that put us in this predicament when unification was mandated.