All kind of makes you wonder how there was enough money to buy the parking authority building? (or pick any other shady deal of the recent past)......A speaker at the last council meeting was unfortunately exactly wrong when she said "I am not your ATM machine!"..........The reality is WE ARE the ATM machine........I for one am going to get more active. Maybe it is Don Quixote flailing at windmills but it is at least a noble fight.

Didn't the city eliminate the rank of lieutenant a few years back? So guys go from FF to Captain on promotions? There are an abundance of Captains compared to the number of FF.

this is a scare tactic.

instead of cutting out the fat from no show jobs, or people on city payroll doing nothing. threats of reducing city services make the headlines.

A company officer should be in charge of 3-7 men with the optimal being 5. According to the Incident Command System.

Every company needs to be staffed with a Captain.

The typical JCFD company is assigned 4 Captains and 12 Firefighters. 1 Captain and 3 Firefighters per shift.

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JCK, I won't pretend to know which end of the hose is wet but I can read. And when I read about fire companies in other cities with similar density, I find that they average 6 to 7 firefighters per Captain (or above).

Here in Jersey City, that ratio is 2.2 to 1. We seem to have three times the brass compared to other cities. You may very well be right that we need more firefighters. The first 100 should be demoted captains or replacements for said captains.

This is a Joke....

No firefighters are losing their jobs, but the reassignments should save the city on overtime costs, Healy spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said yesterday.


Time to CUT JOBS Mayor Healy. Cut Costs. Get rid of the bloated Bureaucracy.

I flipped through the budget yesterday and the category "OTHER EXPENSES" needs to be halved and then some as well.

FG

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Forestry is under the Department of Public Works. It was a joke on how they can get away with having 5 guys ride around in there trucks, but FD can't

You obviously have no understanding of the fire service. Jersey City as well as every other fire department in the state of New Jersey is understaffed.

Jersey City puts more companies on the intial box compared to New York City because they need the manpower.

Healy and his Team do not give a rats ass about public safety or the residents of Jersey City!

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Not that I agree with shutting down fire house, but....

FDNY typically staffs its engine companies with 4 firefighters, although some have 5.

See the following: FDNY staffing levels restored

I didn't realize that JCFD had any forestry trucks - are these actual engines, pick up trucks with slip ons, or what? I've never seen one around. Where are they kept?

Threatening to cut cops and firemen in an effort to cry poverty and scare the public into accepting a property tax increase is common practice in cities. Healy and that council are a menace. I don't know how Fulop gets up and goes to work every morning.

This is a complete joke. This fire department is under staffed already. Across the river engine companies have 5-6 firefighter per company and ladder companies have six firefighters per company. The JCFD has been averaging a few working fire's a day s over the past few weeks.

At least we have five guys driving around in the forestry trucks...

Public Safety should be #1 Concern for City Hall.

40 million dollars in tax increases and your cutting the fire department and not promoting in the police department.

CHANGE needs to come in City Hall!!

I thought the arson unit shrunk once Manzo got a pair of steel bracelets as a gift??? OOOOOOOPS

Healy cutting 4 fire companies, will shrink arson unit

Friday, January 15, 2010
By MELISSA HAYES
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy announced yesterday he's reducing the number of fire companies in the city from 26 to 22 and has slashed the number of firefighters in the city's arson unit from 13 to 2 to help cope with a budget gap.

No firefighters are losing their jobs, but the reassignments should save the city on overtime costs, Healy spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said yesterday.

In order to accept $14 million from the state in special municipal aid, the City Council rushed and introduced a $492 million municipal operating budget on Wednesday.

As introduced, the budget is $31.6 million higher than last fiscal year's and carries a $190 million tax levy, up $40 million from the previous fiscal year.

If the budget remains as is, taxes would increase $800 for the owner of a property assessed at $100,000, according to city Business Administrator Brian O'Reilly.

But in a statement yesterday, Healy said the budget is far from final, citing the elimination of the fire companies, which were not specified.

Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop was the lone council member to vote against the budget introduction on Wednesday.

"I can't begin to understand how the mayor and council could approve introduction of a budget they hadn't read," he said. "It wasn't on the agenda. There was no advance notice."

Ward D Councilman Bill Gaughan said introducing the budget with the $14 million in aid included was a way of making sure Gov.-elect Chris Christie, who takes office Tuesday, doesn't try to take the special funding away.