St. Petersburg lays off five firefighters — for now

ST. PETERSBURG — The city will have to lay off five firefighters on Oct. 1.

St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Chief James Large broke the news himself to those five on Tuesday.

"It's probably my worst day as fire chief in 31/2 years," he said Wednesday. "I hired these guys, and had to tell them they're laid off."

It could have been worse. St. Petersburg actually lost a total of 17 positions. Three were lost to budget cuts, Large said, and another 14 had to be cut because the city lost its annual $2 million contract to provide service to Tierra Verde. The chief said that he was able to save 11 jobs thanks to retirements, attrition and extra funding. So six firefighters were originally set to be laid off.

But then rescue Chief Bill Ward announced his retirement after 28 years of service, according to Large, saving a job.

The chief said his hand was forced because the city fire department's long-standing contract to provide fire service to Tierra Verde is set to end Sept. 30.

But the layoffs could turn into furloughs. More retirements and attrition should allow the department to bring those five firefighters back in 2010. Three should be recalled by June, according to Large, and the other two by December 2010.

The five who lost their jobs were the last to be hired. All started Feb. 23. The chief said he was unsure what they planned to do until they can return. The starting salary for a St. Petersburg firefighter is $36,589.

Large said he did everything he could to avoid the layoffs, and the union mostly agrees. Yet union president Winthrop Newton still gently chided the city for not finding some way to keep them. He said St. Petersburg was just wasting the money it had already spent to train those firefighters.

"To let them go for a month or two and slowly bring them back just isn't good business sense," Newton said. "You risk losing them to other agencies."

Large said that's not likely. Budget cuts are slamming fire departments across the state, he said.

Jamal Thalji can be reached at thalji@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8472.