By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

South Portland firefighters and police officers are going to be eating a lot of cake and working a few more overtime hours after six full-time city employees agreed to a one-time retirement incentive offered by the city earlier this month. 

According to a press release from City Manager Jim Gailey, three police officers, two firefighters and one bus driver accepted a one-time payment of $7,000 “pending separation from employment with the city” in lieu of 12 months health coverage.

“There is a significant savings by having long-time employees retire,” Gailey said. 

Gailey estimated the six employees received a combined $260,000 salary from the city and should all six positions be included in next year’s budget, the city could save up to $130,000 by hiring new recruits. Some money could also be saved in unused vacation time, Gailey said. 

“By having these employees retire we save 25 weeks of collected vacation time,” Gailey said. “New firefighters don’t get any vacation time until their second year and police officers get two weeks their first year.”

The incentive was offered to help save the city money, but could have other benefits as well, Gailey said.

“For a while things in the police department were a little stagnant, guys weren’t able to move up,” he said. “This will make some movement in the ranks, which is important.”

South Portland Fire Chief Kevin Guimond said the fire department is now four positions short of full staff – 60 employees – as two other firefighters had recently retired. 

“We’re using overtime to fill the vacancies,” he said.

Guimond said the fire department made use of federal grant money “whenever they could” to help keep operating costs down and he had recently visited the Legislature to look into the possibility of receiving some stimulus dollars.

“I don’t think we’re going to get any stimulus money,” he said. “I think we’re going to see a lot of money poured into the streets and bridges instead.”

If able to fill the vacant positions, Guimond said there is an active waiting list of potential candidates. 

“We’re treading water, [Gailey] is the boss,” he said.

South Portland Police Chief Edward Googins could not be reacherd for comment, but Gailey said the police department had already canceled plans to hire an additional officer last month after the Maine Mall decided not to renew their contract with the department.

As reported by the Sentry in April, the new police department vacancies come almost a year after the city council approved new agreements for both patrol and commanding, or supervisory, police officer contracts. The new contract implements an annual 3 percent increase for new hires and allows new officers to retire with two-thirds of their average final compensation after 25 years on the police force. 

“We will finally be on a much better playing field when we bring officers into the community,” Googins had said following council approval of the new contracts.

Gailey said he was still in the process of compiling a proposed municipal budget for the next fiscal year, a draft of which must be submitted to the council by March 16, per the city charter.

“I want to see what we can do in filling all of [the vacant positions] but I need to come in with a budget that the council will approve,” he said.