Buffalo city officials and fire union leaders blame short staffing for much of the unprecedented overtime that is keeping the Buffalo Fire Department fully operational.

But the staffing level isn’t much different than those in similar-sized cities in the Northeast and Rust Belt, a review by The Buffalo News has found.

Buffalo has 613 active firefighters, about 23 for every 10,000 residents.

The ratio is about 25 per 10,000 in Rochester, about 21 in Cleveland, about 22 in Pittsburgh and about 24 in Newark, N.J.

So why is Buffalo having so much trouble?

One problem is the 27 percent jump in one year in the Fire Department’s sick and injured time—about twice what it is in Rochester. Some say that reflects Buffalo’s aging work force. Others claim low morale.

But beyond that, Buffalo isn’t the only city in the group having trouble with staffing.

Pittsburgh’s situation, for example, is somewhat similar.

Although it recently appointed a new class of firefighters, Pittsburgh — like Buffalo — still doesn’t have enough manpower to cover all its shifts, after accounting for vacations, personal days and general work assignments, according to Fire Chief Darryl Jones.

So the city pays overtime every day to fill vacancies. This year’s budget, Jones said, contains about $10 million for overtime — roughly what was spent last year in Buffalo, where, in the last five years, annual overtime hours increased to 238,673 from 55,444 and overtime costs rose to $10.6 million from $2.2 million.

“If I had 30 more firefighters,” Jones said, Pittsburgh would not need the overtime.

Much as in Buffalo, the situation in Pittsburgh creates an overtime bonanza.

But unlike Buffalo, Pittsburgh distributes overtime without seniority considerations. It also offers overtime on a departmentwide rotation, regardless of rank. If the department has an opening among captains and the next person on the overtime rotation is a firefighter, the firefighter is called in on overtime, and others on duty will bump up to fill the captain and resulting openings.

The procedure is designed to eliminate “spiking”— when retiring firefighters find a way to get more than their proportionate share of overtime, said Joseph King, longtime president of the firefighters union in Pittsburgh.

“Spiking” was a problem among Pittsburgh firefighters in the past, especially among ranking command officers who apparently were able to coordinate their sick time with each other to benefit those planning to retire, King said.

“That doesn’t happen any more,” King said, now that the rotation is departmentwide, rather than kept within ranks.

Pittsburgh, like Buffalo, faces tough financial times. City officials decided that bringing in firefighters on overtime is less expensive than fully staffing the department, Jones said.

One study found that a new recruit costs about $74,000 in salary and benefits, while filling a position through overtime comes to about $56,000, said King, the union president.

Rochester, on the other hand, hires 20 more firefighters than it needs to meet minimum staffing levels and tries to keep overtime to a minimum, Chief John D. Caufield said.

“The extra 20 cover vacations, sick, injury,” he said.

Buffalo would need about 50 more firefighters to be staffed at Rochester’s level.

That is about the number of new recruits Buffalo Chief Michael S. Lombardo says he hopes to hire once the city’s fire exam is approved. But by that time, the Buffalo force is expected to have lost more firefighters to retirement.

In Buffalo and Pittsburgh, the fire departments are contractually obligated to have at least four firefighters on a truck. Rochester doesn’t have a contractual rule, but generally abides by the four-firefighter minimum for safety reasons.

“Four is good practice, the minimum acceptable. But it’s not in stone in Rochester,” Caufield said.

Even with its staffing levels, Rochester typically spends about $1.6 million on overtime to meet the minimum manpower level, Caufield said.

The Rochester firefighters contract allows “overtime swapping,” which results in veteran firefighters ready to retire sometimes getting big chunks of overtime. But keeping overall overtime down has resulted in much smaller amounts than in Buffalo.

“I think our biggest was $25,000,” Caufield said.

Generally, Rochester needs overtime because of sick time and injuries. The department had about 57,000 sick and injured hours last year.

In Buffalo, sick and injured time increased by 27 percent to 109,538 hours in fiscal year 2007-2008 from 86,128 the previous fiscal year.

City officials say the increasing sick time partially reflects Buffalo’s aging firefighting force. With no hiring since 2001, the average firefighter age now exceeds 47, compared with an average in the mid-30s for departments of similar size, Lombardo said.

But beyond that, city officials have suggested that the increased sick time reflects a disgruntled work force, angry that the city has not agreed on a contract.

Daniel Cunningham, president of Local 282, Buffalo Professional Firefighters Association, doesn’t blame firefighter attitude for sick time, but acknowledges the work force is disgruntled over the lack of a contract. Union members voted down the last two offers from the city.

“It’s overwhelmingly givebacks,” Cunningham said. “They don’t want to bargain in good faith.”

“The last [offer] in November was a good contract” Lombardo counters. “Yes, there were givebacks, but it was very fair.”

Sick time is not a problem in Pittsburgh, partly because of shifts, Jones said.

In Buffalo and Rochester, firefighters work eight-to 10-hour day shifts followed by longer night shifts, averaging 42 to 48 hours a week. With compensatory time, the work week averages 40 hours.

In Pittsburgh, firefighters work eight 24-hour shifts a month and rarely call in sick.

“When you only work eight days a month, there’s no need to call in sick,” Jones said.

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