If fire department overtime costs reach the same amount in fiscal 2016 as this past fiscal year, Mayor Flaggs said, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen may have to increase taxes for the fiscal 2017 city budget.

“The fire department overtime is more than the revenue we are bringing in,” Flaggs said Saturday. “If we don’t increase our revenues, we will have to consider a tax increase.”

“We have $2 million in one-time money in this budget; that’s money that’s not coming back,” he said. The city’s revenues, he said, are increasing by a rate of about $200,000 a year, or about $16,666 a month. Firefighter overtime, which totaled $813,535 for this past fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, averaged about $30,000 to $35,000 month. The city’s debt service, its payments on loans and bond issues, for fiscal 2016 is $2.163 million.

Flaggs’ comments followed a more than two-hour Saturday morning meeting with about 13 Vicksburg firefighters at the City Hall Annex to discuss overtime and other issues affecting the fire department.

The majority of the firefighters attending were captains and lieutenants. Fire Chief Charles Atkins and the department’s deputy chiefs were not invited to participate.

The firefighters declined to discuss the meeting as they left the meeting, although one captain described it as productive.

Flaggs said he called the meeting because he wanted to talk directly to the firefighters and get their thoughts on what’s needed in the department.

“I wanted the guys to know I wasn’t the enemy of their future, I was the one who wants to assist them in the most professional way I can, and to address some of the problems that have plagued us in the community in terms of recruiting and retaining the very best in people our community,” he said. “I was a little surprised that more people didn’t come, and some of the same ones who criticized me publicly were not there.”

He said the discussions involved overtime and concerns by the firefighters over how manpower was being utilized in the department.

“They said it’s going to take time,” he said, adding, “They understand the city’s situation with the overtime issue.

“I got a lot out of it, and I’m going to speak with the chief and the deputy chiefs to try to implement some things that would enhance the opportunities for people who want to be on the fire department and enhance the opportunities for the firemen we have now so we can retain them,” Flaggs said.

“I think the firefighters had some great ideas, and some I’ve already proposed, but have not been able to get through to the chief on some of those ideas.”

Saturday’s meeting was the latest chapter in Flaggs’ ongoing attempt to reduce unscheduled overtime in the fire department and get Atkins to make changes in how the fire department is managed. Based on the comments from the meeting, he said, “I’m convinced the (overtime) problem is manageable from within (the department).”

Vicksburg’s firefighters work 24-hour shifts. Under city policy, they work 2,912 hours a year and have 230 hours of overtime per year built into their pay, which is known as built-in overtime. Unscheduled overtime is overtime a firefighter receives if they are called to fill in for another firefighter because of illness or because a station is short-handed. And unscheduled overtime is the culprit.

The $831,535 paid out for fiscal 2015 was for a total of 46,223 hours overtime, with unscheduled overtime accounting for more than half that total.

The board took a step toward curbing overtime in September, when it voted 2-1 to close Fire Station No. 7 for eight months — from Feb. 1 to Sept. 30 — beginning Feb.1 and reassign the firefighters there to other stations to beef up manpower and reduce overtime.

Atkins countered with a plan to idle Engine No. 4, a pumper at the Central Fire Station, and reassign the firefighters for that truck to shifts at Station 7. He said the captain and lieutenant assigned to the truck would fill in as needed at other stations. If there are no openings, he said, they two men would stay at Central as the crew for No. 4 if it is needed as a backup at a fire.

Flaggs gave Atkins’ plan 90 days, adding he would compare overtime costs for that period with overtime for the same period in 2015.

“It is my understanding from him (Atkins) that it will save $85,000, and I can’t question that until we get to that time period,” he said. “Let’s see a savings in those 90 days, and that way, I can compare this year with last year.”

Either way, overtime has got to be reduced, Flaggs said.

“I don’t believe they’ll reduce it to zero, but they can at least approach it,” he said. “I don’t expect to reduce the overtime as drastic as they may think, but we ought start trying to reduce it so we can start using some of that money for raises. I intend to give the police department and fire department and other city employees raises in the last year of my administration.”