The city of Oneonta Fire Department wants make staffing additions, including a new firefighter and a new fire captain.
Fire Chief Brian Knapp said Monday, July 15 that the department has a spot reserved at the Utica Fire Academy for a new firefighter. The department also wants to promote a temporary captain who can continue to fill in for an anticipated vacancy.
Knapp said that each crew needs to have a minimum of six firefighters. In order to avoid understaffing with the promotion, the department needs a new firefighter.
The main issue with understaffing is overtime hours. Knapp said that when one of the crew members in a six-person crew takes a sick day or vacation time, the crew must work overtime to keep up with the duties of a full crew.
If the department has full seven-member crews, there would still be the six-person minimum if someone were to take vacation time or get sick.
“If we go into 2025 being fully staffed, it’s really going to drive down the overtime numbers for us,” Knapp said.
Knapp spoke to the Common Council’s Finance and HR Committee about the departmental change July 11. He said that a captain has been out for more than a year for a medical reason, but he couldn’t get into the details of the situation because it is a personnel issue.
The captain may retire, he said, but a date has yet to be confirmed and the department wants to prepare for the anticipated vacancy.
Knapp said that he’s looking for the council to pass a motion allowing for the new hire to join a crew and for the temporary captain to be promoted to the official full-time captain position.
Firefighter Mark DeGraw has been filling the position of fire captain since Feb. 7.
The move would bring the number of captains to five. It’s better to act sooner in order to prepare for future staffing issues, he said.
“We have Utica Fire Academy starting on Sept. 3,” he said, “so if we can hire an individual, up staff by one while we wait for the final determination on the other individual, and by the end of the year, we’ll be fully staffed and start 2025 with seven-person crews across the board.”
Scott Harrington, R-Sixth Ward, said he saw a similar situation with the Oneonta Police Department and fully supported the additions.
The addition of a new permanent fire captain would amount to five salaried captains for the department, including the captain on extended leave, and would exceed the allocated funds from the budget.
According to the committee’s staffing departmental review, filling an unbudgeted position would require a budget adjustment estimated at around $30,000 for September 2024 through the end of the year.
DeGraw’s temporary appointment expires on Aug. 7. Knapp said he would like DeGraw to take the position officially at the Aug. 6 Common Council meeting.