Paramedics would work fewer hours for the same pay while the number of fire department ambulances on Chicago streets would be increased during most of the day, according to a proposal outlined Tuesday by Fire Commissioner Louis Galante.
Galante, testifying during the second day of City Council hearings on Chicago`s proposed $2.4 billion 1987 budget, said he expected the changes to be in place by April.
Under the proposal, paramedics would work 8-hour days, five days a week, for a 40-hour week. They currently work one full 24-hour day, then are off for 48 hours. That averages out to a 44.6 hour week.
Fire officials contend that the new work schedule would provide better overall delivery of emergency services because paramedics, by having shorter work days, would suffer less stress.
Galante said that under the plan, there would be 60 ambulances in service during the peak hours of 8 a.m. to midnight and fewer during the midnight to 8 a.m. period. Currently there are 49 ambulances on the streets around the clock.
Galante`s proposals were based on two recommendations from an oversight committee of emergency medical service specialists established in June. A full report is expected Nov. 15, but Galante had asked for an advance on recommendations for next year`s budget so he could explain them to the city council.
The Fire Department`s portion of the proposed budget is $219 million. The figure is $8.5 million less than the 1986 appropriation, which included a one-time cost stemming from the firefighters` contract.
Galante said the department currently has 4,390 firefighters and plans to increase that number to 4,735 in 1987. Another boost is planned for 1988.
When the hearings opened Monday, Sharon Gist Gilliam, city budget director, warned that the city lacks a contingency plan to replace lost revenue if the courts overturn the new nickel-a-gallon motor fuel tax.
Gilliam said she expects the city to successfully defend the tax against court challenges. But she added that loss of the tax, which went into effect Oct. 6, would cause a $117 million revenue shortage in 1987 as well as a $27 million shortfall in this year`s revenue. The $27 million is earmarked to abate a record property tax increase.
Mayor Harold Washington had promised that his administration`s financial proposals would help ease property tax burdens on Chicago homeowners, a key pledge in this mayoral and aldermanic election year budget.
Gilliam said that if the tax is overturned, she will recommend other funding sources as well as cuts in city services.
Revenues from the fuel tax are being held in escrow until the courts rule, Gilliam said.
Judge Earl Arkiss, of Cook County Circuit Court, is scheduled to begin hearings Oct. 28 on suits by the airline industry and local gas station operators who claim the motor fuel tax is a tax on occupations and thus a violation of the Illinois Constitution.
The airlines` lawsuit also challenges the city`s decision to eliminate a 1 percent sales tax exemption for the airlines that fly from O`Hare. That examption had been in place since 1981.
In a second lawsuit, Illinois gasoline dealers charge that among the reasons the tax is illegal is that the council approved it without public hearings and violated its own rules by passing it the same day it was proposed.
During Monday`s budget hearings, Police Supt. Fred Rice said he planned to keep the department at 12,500 sworn officers by hiring 700 recruits in 1987 to offset personnel lost through attrition. Rice also told of plans for a $250,000 auxiliary police project to that would use citizen volunteers.
Although he had come prepared to discuss the police department`s $493 million portion of the budget, aldermen, including those aligned with the mayor, quickly began airing their gripes.
Ald. Marion Volini (48th) asked about enforcing prostitution arrests and Ald. David Orr (49th) asked about abandoned cars. Ald. Ed Smith (28th)
triggered a strong reponse from Rice when he told of a constituent who had been ”shaken down” by an officer.
”I`m not going to sit up here and defend any criminal action,” Rice said. ”We`ve discharged more police officers in the last three years than in the history of the police department. That`s why I initiated psychological testing for all officers prior to hiring. But you`re criticized if you do something and criticized if you don`t.”
Questioned on the volunteer police program by Ald. Gerald McLaughlin
(45th), a former Chicago policeman, Rice said the unit`s potential was dependent on those who applied for the posts.
