Managers get bonus for work they don't do

Tampa, Florida -- When Hillsborough Fire Rescue heads out to an emergency, many times the firefighters are using their skills as paramedics. All new firefighters must be also certified as a paramedic within two years of being hired or they can't stay on the job. Many agencies pay the firefighters what's called an incentive bonus for also working as a paramedic.

Hillsborough Fire Rescue Personnel Chief, Chip Branam says the paramedic bonus, which is common in many agencies, is part of the union contract. The bonus adds about $6,000 a year to the firefighter's salary. Branam says if firefighters weren't given the bonus for being a paramedic they probably wouldn't do it.

The bonus was designed to pay people who work as both a paramedic and a firefighter. However, there are managers in the department who also collect the bonus. They are qualified paramedics but they no longer serve in that role. The average salary for those managers is $102,000 a year without the bonus.

Although Branam admits that managers are no longer working as a paramedic, he says it would be hard to recruit people into management positions if they had to give up the bonus. Branam says the county salary cap on management also contributes to the problem.

Hillsborough Fire Rescue provided us with a list of at least 22 agencies that provide incentive bonuses for managers who are no long on the street. However, several other agencies including Tampa Fire, only give the incentive bonus to working paramedics.

Those agencies refuse to pay managers who no longer perform paramedic duties. Branam says Tampa is a municipal authority which is different from a county fire department.

However, people we talked to didn't like different way the county fire department operates, especially the fact that it has cost taxpayers $162,000 dollars over the past 8 years.

Diana Pietras' response was typical. Pietras says it isn't fair to pay people a bonus for something they are not doing. The department says it has to increase the pay scale for managers.

We asked Branam if the department was trying to finagle the books to come up with the money. According to Branam, everybody knows what the fire department is doing. Before this report, not everyone knew managers were receiving a bonus for something they didn't do, but now you do know.