VOLUME 3 ISSUE 43
Help Patriot Service Dogs win. OCTOBER 28 - NOVEMBER 3, 2022
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OH, MY GOURD!
MCFR, “a department in crisis” says union president By Morgan Ryan morgan@ocalagazette.com
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arion County Fire Rescue is having a difficult time retaining employees, having lost 70 firefighters, more than 10% of the department’s staff this year alone. According to documents associated with fire union contract negotiations obtained by the Gazette, the department has 68 positions open for firefighters and paramedics, or EMS, and 48 newly budgeted positions. Although the issue was not on the Marion County Board of Commission’s Oct. 18 meeting agenda, Danny Garcia, president of the Professional Firefighters of Marion County union, used a three-minute slot afforded to the public to tell the board why so many firefighters are leaving: poor wages and benefits. Garcia said better compensation is necessary for the county to keep current employees and attract new ones. “We need to recruit the best and the brightest to Marion County,’’ he said, “and we need to keep them here.” Garcia said the wages of Marion County firefighters are not competitive enough, resulting in them finding jobs in neighboring counties and contributing to “alltime low” department morale. According to the county’s website, the starting pay for a firefighter/paramedic is $16.68 an hour and a firefighter/EMT starts at $14. The Gazette’s review of nearby communities finds hourly wages starting anywhere from $2 to $5 higher than what Marion County is paying. The cost to train and outfit a firefighter in Marion County is about $15,000, meaning the loss of 70 employees this year is over $1 million in direct loss of investment, according to Garcia. Furthermore, Marion County firefighters are working significant amounts of overtime to compensate for the employee shortage, which Garcia says is not sustainable. The commission budgeted $1.1 million for MCFR overtime pay this year but has actually paid close to $5 million. Garcia said higher wages will help retain employees, which keeps training costs down and helps long-standing employees avoid burnout from working mandatory overtime to pick up the slack of being short-handed. “My presentation was just to demonstrate that we are already spending the money that it would take to stabilize our department,” Garcia said. The fire union and the county recently reopened contract negotiations. Although the current contract has only been in place since March of 2022, Garcia said he feels the situation’s “dire” circumstances necessitate reexamining the current arrangement. “We told them during the See Marion, page A4
Colton Baker, 8 months, picks out a pumpkin that was bigger than he was during the Ocala Pumpkin Patch at the First United Methodist Church on East Silver Springs Boulevard in Ocala on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. The Ocala Pumpkin Patch had already sold out of their pumpkins over the weekend, and on Monday, Forest High School students in the U.S. Air Force JROTC program were helping unload another semi-trailer filled with pumpkins from New Mexico. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.
The Ocala Pumpkin Patch celebrates fall and Halloween
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hallowed local Halloween tradition, the Ocala Pumpkin Patch at First United Methodist Church will be open daily through Halloween, Monday, Oct. 31. Admission is free to the Patch, and pumpkins of all shapes and sizes are available for purchase. All proceeds from sales at the patch will go to the Tuesday Ministries Outreach, which offers a hot meal, shower, free toiletries, praise music and a few words of devotion for people in our community who have fallen on hard times. Bring the kids to help pick out pumpkins, pose in a photo booth and check out the fun evening events on select nights. Want to help out? Adults or youth 12 years old or older are needed to volunteer at the patch. Volunteers can bring children, but they cannot be registered to volunteer. Hours are 4-8 pm. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon- 8 p.m. Sunday. For more information, visit fumcocala.org/pumpkinpatch.
Judson Lewis, 18 months, sits in the pumpkin patch.
Sheriff proposes absorbing safe school department The move would shift management of this department from the superintendent to the sheriff.
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods speaks during the Marion County School Board workshop in Ocala on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.
By Jennifer Hunt Murty jennifer@ocalagazette.com
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he Marion County School Board during its Oct. 20 work session discussed a proposal from Sheriff Billy Woods to absorb the district’s safe school department that
now falls under the authority of the school superintendent. The superintendent told the board the discussion was only meant to glean initial impressions of the board to the proposal before gathering more information and feedback from schools about the possible implications of the move.
Security is a major concern for the school district which, with a population of more than 50,000 students and faculty on any given Monday through Friday, is comparable to that of a small city. The workshop conversation gave some insight into some of the nuances the district must navigate when it comes to “policing” minors. According to the school district, the safe school department handles things such as “emergency drills and exercises at all schools, security enforcement and enhancement on all school district property (including School Board meetings and work sessions), security equipment including fencing, cameras, and entry access.” Additionally, “the department contributes to student programs including bullying prevention, fostering direct communications with school administrators regarding security concerns, responding to emergencies, alarms, threats of violence, and other safety concerns on any school property.”
As to handling discipline matters, the district indicated that the safe schools has input, but the actual processing of suspensions or expulsions are handled by area superintendents. The attorney for the district, Jeremy Powers, told the board that Florida statutes were broad on the district’s choices for staffing school safety: the use of school resource officers, private security, the guardian program, even creating the district’s own internal police department. The district, he explained, has adopted a plan that relies 95% on school resource officers staffed by the sheriff ’s office, the Ocala Police Department and the Belleview Police Department. These contracts for school safety cost the district more than $13 million annually. The district also has a Department of Safe Schools led by Dennis McFatten. The Gazette’s review of See Safe, page A4
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