Revere mayor says firefighter layoffs possible

REVERE – Mayor Thomas Ambrosino decides as early as next week if firefighter layoffs will be added on top of a month’s worth of fire service reductions.He is asking firefighter union members to follow their police counterparts and delay negotiated pay raises.Votes by police patrol and superior officers’ unions to delay payments of $280,000 in raises agreed upon last year, including retroactive payments, reduced but did not eliminate the impact of city spending shortfalls.After signing contracts with the police unions last November, Ambrosino warned in a letter to City Council members, “I am well aware of the disconnect that exists between these contractual agreements and our expected future financial difficulties.”Ambrosino has been grappling since February with reductions in state local aid to the city. Local aid combined with property tax revenues account for most of the city’s revenue. A start-of-the-year, $1.2 million aid reduction triggered hours and pay reductions for 45 city workers and a failed attempt by the mayor to raise retired teachers’ health care premiums.Even with police union votes to delay pay raises, spending cuts forced six police layoffs and left three officers undergoing training unhired. The Fire Department has held the line on spending or reduced costs by placing trucks and crews out of service on an alternating basis since March 24.”We’re playing some form of Russian roulette with the citizens of Revere, I hate to say it,” Fire union president James Caramello told City Council members on Monday.Caramello said trucks and crews assigned to stations across the city, not just one neighborhood, have been placed out of service for one or more days on an alternating basis since March to hold the line on department spending.Ward 5 Councilor John Powers Monday urged fire officials to spare East Revere service cuts, especially during summer months when heavy beach use prompts medical and traffic accident calls.”I think there is a valid concern there on the part of residents,” Powers said.Tuesday afternoon’s influx of teenage sunbathers to the beach and reports of fights and a stabbing also prompted an extraordinary city police response along with state troopers and transit police.Even as he works to balance this year’s budget, Ambrosino estimates the city faces $3.7 million in city spending cuts for the spending year beginning July 1.