College Station Professional Firefighters Association asks city for higher, competitive pay

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – The City of College Station’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 would give city employees a 6% pay raise and a 12% raise for firefighters and paramedics. Still, the College Station Professional Firefighters Association (CSPFA) says that won’t be enough to remain competitive.

Last Thursday the president for CSPFA, Nick Sutton, spoke to the city council about an “alarming number” of firefighters leaving the department just when they’re attaining a “high level of proficiency. ” During that meeting, Sutton said people are leaving because they can’t justify living on their paycheck. Instead, they’re staying in College Station, but taking higher-paying firefighting jobs in other cities.

Sutton has been a firefighter with College Station Fire Department for eight years and has worked for the city for almost 10 years. During that time Sutton said raises have been consistent with cost of living adjustments, but inflation rates have hit them hard these past two years.

“A substantial raise to get us back to the market value, it just seems like we’ve been falling behind every year, so we never really had that big jump to keep us pushed up,” Sutton said. “We’ve brought the low end up to try to meet market value when I first started as a rookie, but then it seems like we’re just keeping on the same track and shorting what we’re given for the cost of living adjustments.”

The fire department has struggled to maintain trained firefighters who they’ve poured tens of thousands of dollars into, Sutton said. Just over the past six months, the department has lost at least 10 firefighters.

“It’s the taxpayers and the citizens that are paying money for people to go through firefighter academy or go through EMS academy or paramedic and it’s not only just the cost of the tuition, but it’s the time and energy spent into them,” Sutton said. “Three, four years we’re losing them, some are leaving even before they’re invested with retirement.”

It has also been a challenge for the department to find new recruits, an issue across the country.

“We have a great facility here in our backyard with TEEX, so we should kind of get first dibs on a lot of people, we should be showing them this is the place to be,” Sutton said. “It’s very difficult to get people in the door because it’s so competitive everywhere else.”

According to Sutton, the department is concerned the most about the future.

“Who is going to be replacing us, who is going to be responding,” Sutton said. “As we progress with the experience are we getting new guys that are coming through that are going to stay here, gain that experience, and create that level of trust, so we can better serve the public?”

Sutton said overall the city has done a good job providing what they can with what they have, and the plan has always been to return the department “back to market value.”

“We want to keep pushing the issue because in four to five years we don’t want to be further behind,” Sutton said. “Every time that we are a percent behind of the market value the next year we are behind 2-3% and that will just continue to expound on each other, where we get further and further behind.”

The College Station Professional Firefighters Association will continue to follow up with the budget meetings to learn the budget and suggest options.

“It’s not just for us the firefighters it’s for the entire city,” Sutton said. “We are not the only ones below market value, it’s the garbage truck workers, the secretaries, the people who sign our checks,” Sutton said. “We get to speak up and talk about it because of our union and we just step up and do it.”

Regardless of what happens, Sutton said the College Station Fire Department will still be there to answer the call every day.

“We’re going to continue doing our job and what we are trained to do which is to protect the citizens of College Station and be there on their worst days,” Sutton said. “While we do have frustrations with the city, working with the city, do know your firefighters are still there to protect you every day.”