Mehlville Fire "In the News" : Mehlville Fire District newsletter has officials on defensive about pay

Mehlville Fire District newsletter has officials on defensive about pay

www.stltoday.com

Posted June 26, 2010

The latest edition of the newsletter for the Mehlville Fire Protection District points a finger at what it calls "jaw-dropping" benefits and salaries at three other fire agencies, raising the ire of some neighboring officials.

"Obviously it's an attack, but to understand how it benefits Mehlville or why we're being singled out, I don't really know," said Kenneth Black, chief of the Creve Coeur Fire Protection District.

Aaron Hilmer, chairman of the Mehlville Fire Board and author of the stories in the newsletter, said publicizing information about how taxpayer money is spent on fire protection is a public service.

"This is a great thing that the public is aware, especially in Mehlville, of how Mehlville stacks up against the rest," he said.

The main story includes a chart that compares the 2009 average wages and benefits for firefighter personnel with more than 15 years of service to the Creve Coeur, Pattonville, Metro West and Mehlville fire protection districts. (To view the "Hotline" newsletter, go to mehlvillefire.com.)

According to the newsletter:

Creve Coeur's average pay was $123,634, with an additional $47,478 spent on benefits.

Pattonville's average pay was $108,403, with $41,946 more for benefits.

Metro West firefighters earned an average of $99,623 in wages, with $37,374 more spent on benefits,

Mehlville firefighters made an average of $87,757, with $26,655 more in benefits.

None of the districts dispute the accuracy of the numbers.

In another story, titled "The best kept secret in St. Louis County," Hilmer writes that a third of the employees at the Creve Coeur district are paid more than Gov. Jay Nixon, who earned $133,820 in 2009. And a third story gives "a look inside the secretive world of fire districts and how MFPD (Mehlville) is different."

Bill Esterline, fire board member at Pattonville, said he was disappointed by the newsletter's suggestion that his district is hiding its finances.

"Our books are open to the public," he said. "We have absolutely run a clean and tight ship. We just finished an audit, and it turned out perfectly."

Mark Woolbright, a firefighters union official issued a written apology on behalf of Mehlville firefighters to firefighters mentioned in the newsletter.

"These men and women risks their lives to protect their residents and do not deserve the viscious character attacks for which Mr. Hilmer has grown so famous," it said. "Unfortunately, the first responders at Mehlville are used to these character assassinations. It now appears that he is taking his war to a new front."

Jack Cavanagh, attorney for the Metro West Fire District, had little to say about the controversy though.

"I've represented Metro West for 32 years, so I think I know them pretty well; we are the best," he said. "What anybody else does is their business."

The newsletter is the fourth that Hilmer has sent out since getting into office in April 2005. It will be delivered to approximately 55,000 households in the district by the end of this week.

Hilmer said that while some of the newsletter's content is different from the type of fire prevention information in similar publications, it does include stories about firefighter training, construction of a new firehouse and fireworks safety.

"It isn't like I just sent out a four-page supposed hit job," he said.

Since Hilmer was elected, he said, he has improved district operations by building two new firehouses Ñ with a third under way Ñ and bought three new firetrucks and five ambulances Ñ all without having to pass a bond issue. He changed the structure of the pension plan, which cut taxpayers costs in half.

He got a seat on the board one year after the district passed a 36 percent tax increase, and he successfully led the effort to get the issue back on the ballot. Voters became the first in the state to approve a property tax decrease.

The district's newsletter claims that the board's methods have resulted in 25 different lawsuits, employment and ethical complaints. That includes one from the attorney general's office challenging whether the district collected more taxes last year than state law allows.

Hilmer said that the lawsuit is still pending, but he is confident that the district will prevail, just as it has in the all of the other complaints.

He said firefighter pay is a topic that is a constant concern of his district's taxpayers.

"People are still upset about the compensation, and they want to know why we lose employees sometimes to higher paying districts," he said. "The answer is because we're not going to pay that high."

Ron Olshwanger, a Creve Coeur fire board member, said he feared the salary information might be misinterpreted, because Creve Coeur had not passed a new tax increase for more than 20 years.

"Some people will misread this stuff and think that we make too much money," he said. "There is no way you can overpay a firefighter, paramedic or policeman."

Hilmer said he doesn't understand why the districts are upset that he published information that is a matter of public record.

"At Mehlville, we could have all this information in five minutes for you, with just the click of a mouse," he said.

Posted in Metro, Crime-and-courts on Saturday, June 26, 2010 10:46 pm Updated: 10:50 pm. | Tags: Susan Weich, Mehlville Fire Protection District, Aarom Hilmer, Ron Olshwanger, Creve Coeur Fire Protection District, Pattonville Fire Protection District, Metro West Fire Protection District, Bill Esterline