Ease Residency Rules for Fire Dispatchers

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Governor Pataki last week signed a bill lifting the residency requirement for the city's 200 Fire Alarm Dispatchers, potentially alleviating a long-time recruitment and retention problem for the positions.

ROBERT A. UNGAR: Helps recruitment.

The measure was strongly supported by the Fire Alarm Dispatchers' Benevolent Association, which lobbied the Governor many times before on the same issue without success. The enactment of the bill came three weeks after the Bloomberg administration agreed to lift the residency requirement for members of District Council 37.

Cites Mutual Benefits

FADBA President David Rosenzweig was unavailable for comment, but spokesman Robert. A. Ungar said the union leader was "extremely appreciative of the efforts by State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and the Governor to get the bill passed."

Mr. Ungar said there were mutual benefits to the city and the workers in the bill's passage.

"For our members, the housing crisis in the city is a real serious problem. [As for] all middle-class workers, it's harder and harder to find housing, raise a family affordably and get good schooling for kids," Mr. Ungar commented.

Fire Alarm Dispatchers will now be able to live in the five boroughs or any of six counties surrounding New York City - Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Nassau and Suffolk. The change brings them into line with all other uniformed personnel in the Fire Department.

The expanded residency rules will have the added benefit of widening the city's recruitment efforts, Mr. Ungar said.

A Past Sticking Point

Recruitment of Fire Alarm Dispatchers has been problematic over the last decade, union officials have maintained, because candidates outside the five boroughs were reluctant to accept a job that required city residency.

Fire Alarm Dispatchers must have prior working experience with an emergency response system, either with other first-responder agencies or the military, or have worked as an air-traffic controller.

Governor Pataki in the past refused to sign off on legislation that sought to lift residency requirements for Fire Alarm Dispatchers. Mayor Bloomberg had also opposed such changes prior to the contract agreement with DC 37.

"In the past, the Mayor's legislative representatives in Albany have not supported [these bills]," Mr. Ungar said. "And there may have been a feeling among some that it was an issue for collective bargaining. I don't know what the Mayor's Office did on it this year, but he has taken a much more enlightened view on residency issues than the previous administration did."

Calls to the Mayor's Office weren't returned as of press time. The Fire Department also declined to comment.

Mr. Ungar said he didn't think the residency change would affect the pending contract talks between FADBA and the city.