Airport fire protection debated.

Byline: Joe Harwood The Register-Guard

The decision over whether to privatize firefighting and emergency medical services at the Eugene Airport simmered Wednesday, but the City Council turned off the heat before the volatile issue boiled over.

Seeking to save airlines that service the airport about $250,000 a year in fees, city officials have been studying whether to hire a private firm to provide emergency services more cheaply than the unionized Eugene Fire Department.

The union, Eugene Fire Fighters Local 851, has strenuously objected to the proposal, arguing that its professional members are better trained and provide a higher level of service than any private sector provider.

The privatization proposal has emerged as a point of friction between City Manager Dennis Taylor and some council members.

The city charter gives Taylor broad authority over personnel decisions, but council members Scott Meisner, Betty Taylor, David Kelly and Bonny Bettman argue that privatizing emergency services is a policy decision best addressed by elected officials.

"Police and fire are the face of the city," Kelly said, adding that emergency first responders should be public employees.

Bettman said privatizing airport firefighters would result in a lower level of service for Eugene residents. "When we have public employees out there, we have accountability," she said, adding that that might not be the case with a private firm.

At Wednesday's work session, the council was supposed to vote on whether Taylor could bring in a private contractor to perform airport emergency services, or to direct him to not pursue that path.

Instead, the session spilled into a debate over usurping Taylor's authority while the city is in the midst of negotiating work-rule changes for the firefighters who staff the airport station.

Sharon Rudnick, an attorney for the city, said that directing Taylor to steer clear of hiring a private contractor at this time would put the city at a disadvantage. Not allowing Taylor to consider subcontracting fire services at the airport would tie his hands in negotiating with firefighters on cost issues, she said.

Following her comments, Councilor Nancy Nathanson made a motion to table the issue until negotiations are finished.

The vote split among familiar partisan lines, with councilors George Poling, Jennifer Soloman, Gary Pape and Nathanson voting to table, and Meisner, Betty Taylor, Kelly and Bettman voting to decide the issue now. Mayor Jim Torrey broke the tie in favor of delaying the issue.

While most of the council members signaled their preference that emergency services such as police and fire remain in the public realm, Pape, Poling, Soloman and Nathanson said they wanted to give manager Taylor the authority to decide such issues, especially in the midst of the ongoing labor negotiations.

Meisner called Nathanson's motion and the subsequent vote "outrageous" and then said to Nathanson "congratulations on your election, Nancy."

Meisner was alluding to Nathanson's failed mayoral bid. She lost to Kitty Piercy, who won the endorsement of the firefighters' union during the May primary election.

Gary Nauta, president of the firefighters' union, said he was heartened by the council's overall direction to Taylor - which was a preference to keep Eugene firefighters at the airport.

He said the council was misled into thinking it would be interfering with the bargaining process, because no progress has been made in the negotiations for several months.

"The point missed today is we have been at impasse for months," he said. "There are not going to be any more offers crossing the table."

In order to shave costs for staffing the airport fire station with Eugene firefighters, Nauta said the union has offered to have its members do additional work. The city "rejected that offer," he said.

Rudnick said she doesn't see the negotiations at an impasse.

But Nauta does, and said he will be filing an unfair labor practices complaint with the state because he alleges that the city is engaging in bad-faith bargaining.

"The city has never moved from saying they need to save $250,000 a year," he said. The city charges airlines for the cost of the fire service. So cutting the cost "doesn't save the city one cent," Nauta said. "We're talking about savings for the airlines."

The airport wraps the cost of fire protection into the overall landing fee it charges airlines. Steadily increasing firefighter pay and benefits have contributed to the rising in the landing fee that the airport charges airlines.

As part of its push to attract new airlines, officials at the city-owned airport want to lower fees.