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Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Fire Fighters Sue City To Stop Department Budget Cuts
Firefighters marched on City Hall Monday to protest budget cuts.

Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters asked two courts this morning to order Mayor Nutter's administration to stop plans to eliminate five fire engines and two ladder trucks until the safety of the budget cuts can be further studied.  Rick Poulson, Local 22's attorney, said actions were filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and the state Supreme Court.

The local lawsuit, Poulson said, cites contract language added in 2005 that allows the fire fighters to file a grievance on workplace safety issues.  The union did just that on the budget cuts on Dec. 3.  The city has not responded, Poulson said.  The lawsuit asks a judge to issue an injunction stalling the cuts until the grievance process is completed.

The filing with the Supreme Court also asks those judges to step in and stop the budget cuts because the fire fighters are appealing a decision on another lawsuit.  The city appealed a 2005 contract provision on the procedure for closing fire companies but lost in the Court of Common Pleas.  The city appealed that decision and won in 2007.  The fire fighters appealed and the Supreme Court this year agreed to hear that case, which is scheduled for a March hearing.

The fire fighters, Poulson said, consider that hearing a good sign that they could win.  "We think the city is attempting to ram through these closures before the Supreme Court renders a decision," he said. "In our view, we see it as an end-run around the court."

Nutter and his staff have emphasized that no fire fighters are being laid off and no fire stations are being closed.  The engines and ladders being eliminated are currently staffed by fire fighters working overtime, who will be reassigned to other posts in the department.

UPDATE:  City Solicitor Shelley Smith just responded to the fire fighter legal action this way:  "I think the fire fighters should acknowledge that they’ve already lost this issue. The current state of the law is that the city has the right to close fire companies. That’s what it has done. And it had done it, mindful of the safety of the fire fighters and the safety of the citizens."

Posted by Chris Brennan @ 11:58 AM  Permalink | 9 comments
Comments   
Posted 01:21 PM, 12/16/2008
CleanupPhilly
I agree with firefighters -- the city has not in fact done it's job in collecting overdue property taxes. There is $522 million, half a BILLION, owed the city in overdue property taxes that can be sold at sheriff sale. The city must foreclose on this debt and collect. To risk public safety to avoid collection of property taxes is morally bankrupt and wrong.
Posted 01:25 PM, 12/16/2008
CleanupPhilly
The city allows empty houses to sit for years, decades, even, and not pay taxes because they are being "inherited." This is nuts. You can stop a sheriff sale for back taxes if you are "heir" to a property that owes property taxes, and this is killing the city right now. The city needs to change this judicial order by law or in the courts: "Joint General Court Regulation No. 2008-01: Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Pilot Program DEFENDANT’S CERTIFICATION THAT PREMISES ARE RESIDENTIAL and OWNER OCCUPIED and REQUEST FOR CONCILIATION CONFERENCE (Prothonotary Code: CERDO) Pursuant to the Order issued by President Judge C. Darnell Jones II and Administrative Judge D. Webster Keogh on July 17, 2008, I hereby certify as follows: 1. I am the owner or an owner or an heir to a deceased owner of the property...." from the CERDO form on www.phillysheriff.com -- that's how to pay for a quality fire department in a city full of 100+ year old housing stock. Property tax collection makes a lot more sense to me than cutting the fire department. Let's use common sense and not easy votes to dictate public safety.
Posted 01:29 PM, 12/16/2008
CleanupPhilly
Here's the money the city needs now: $522 million is owed now by 130,000 owners in long overdue unpaid property taxes: http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary
Posted 01:31 PM, 12/16/2008
CleanupPhilly
Shelley Smith will be pleased to find out that the city is in violation of state law on the implementation of full market value property tax assessments, and the firefighters might contact Brett Mandel of Philadelphia Forward at wwww.philadelphiaforward.org to get in on the lawsuit to force the city to do it, and request that cuts be postponed until such a time as the city has fixed the problem standing in the way of a balanced budget.
Posted 01:38 PM, 12/16/2008
alcsmith
I would bet dollars to donuts that these house are mostly in west and north philly, which is the home of the "working poor" so they claim they can't pay the tax's. They get state assistance, which delays things, and delay things and delay's things. you want those house gone, you get rid of them. you want them to pay their taxes you knock on their doors. the city sure as hell won't do it. They are still trying to get the eagles to pay off their 8 million dollar debt.
Posted 01:43 PM, 12/16/2008
CleanupPhilly
The city doesn't have the right to make critical cuts before making every reasonable effort to 1. collect what is owed it in overdue property taxes and 2. update its assessments according to a legal, objective means.
Posted 02:56 PM, 12/16/2008
Shabba Rommel
And what money does the union expect the city to pay with? Can pay what you dont have. That is the reason we are here to begin with.
Posted 03:17 PM, 12/16/2008
Manny-Mann
Cleanup, WHo is going to buy this property at sheriff sale? There are really no buyers.
Posted 03:59 PM, 12/16/2008
betsy72
Shabba Rommel - see comment from CleanupPhilly.
9 comments
About Chris Brennan and Catherine Lucey
PhillyClout
Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.

Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002. Since then she has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. For the past two years, she covered the 2007 mayoral election. Now that the battle is over, she has moved down to the City Hall bureau where she will report on the Nutter administration.

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Catherine Lucey
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