"At 5:30 p.m. tonight, we delivered a baby on the shoulder of Route 80," he said. "We don’t need the training. We’ve already got the experience. Why do you want to start over?"

Tompkins’ question continues to be asked by members of the Hackensack community as more than 80 people in attendance at the meeting stepped forward to query the municipal authorities about the controversial fate of the eight paid civilian city EMT workers.

City, EMTs locked in struggle since February

The dispute over the future of the eight EMTs currently working under the aegis of the HFD began on Feb. 26 when the city announced that it had reached an agreement with the hospital to transfer control of its emergency medical services to HUMC. Under the agreement’s terms, the transfer would be effective by August. As a result of this change, the eight paid city EMTs who work with the fire department are scheduled to be replaced by workers hired by HUMC.

According to Hackensack City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono, the shift will save the city more than $600,000 a year at a time when municipalities statewide are facing budget crunches. Opponents to the move, led by firefighter John Linquito, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2081 – Hackensack Professional Firefighters and EMTs Association, and Charles Grieco, a deputy HFD chief and president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 3172 – Hackensack Uniformed Fire Officers Association, disagree with this assertion. They claim that the EMTs contribute significant revenue to city coffers by billing for their calls, thus offsetting any costs that they incur.

Supporters of the EMTs also point to HUMC making a one-time, $1 million payment to the city in exchange for permission to build a new cancer center on Atlantic Street adjacent to the hospital as part of the agreement. Many EMT supporters have inferred that the city and the hospital made a deal to the remove the EMTs from HFD control as a condition for the agreement to be finalized. City officials, including Lo Iacono, have denied that any deal took place.

A March 25 closed door meeting between city officials and the firefighter and EMT union representatives yielded no results regarding any potential result that would keep the eight EMTs on the job under HFD command.

Both sides of dispute aired

The public comments of the council meeting began when city firefighter Michael Shiner called into question the City Council’s approval of the $2.5 million purchase of the former Greene Uniform property on Anderson Street. The 3,250-squre-foot office space property, which includes more than 26,000 square feet of warehouse space, will be used to move some municipal workers from City Hall, as well as probably police and Department of Public Works equipment, according to Lo Iacono. Shiner questioned the city’s approval of the sale of $2.375 million of bonds to finance the purchase of the property at a time when the city is looking to cut the EMT positions.

The public continued to quiz the council about the EMT decision. Doreen Perfetto-Petrizzo, 41, works in Hackensack and lives in South Hackensack. A former volunteer ambulance corps member, she called on her experience when asking the council to keep the EMTs working with the HFD.

"I finished my EMT course. Big deal," she said. "It’s a big difference when you go out on the road. It’s like taking someone who just finished boot camp and sticking them in Iraq. My son is going to start Hackensack High School in the fall. If there is an ambulance call for him, I know who I want there. How many years of experience do these other people have?"

Lo Iacono, a longtime member of the Lodi volunteer ambulance squad, attempted to answer additional questions from Perfetto-Petrizzo regarding the outcome of the March 25 meeting.

"Regrettably, at this point nothing has come from this meeting," he said. "Effectively, there has been no change in the city’s position. The union continues to ask for information, and the city continues to provide all the information the union asks for. We’re trying to answer every question so everyone has a full understanding of what we are doing…I am always willing to talk, but at some point the city has to make a final decision."

Some solutions suggested

Longtime city resident Howard Williams, 77, stepped forward to ask a basic question about the possible consequences of that decision.

"What happens to these men after they are laid off?" he said.

With that, Councilman Marlin Townes offered a suggestion based on personal experience.

"Probably the same thing that happened to me," he said. "I’d search for another job."

Several members of the crowd subsequently suggested throughout the course of the evening that the members of the council may also have to search for another job after the May 2009 elections, a contest during which some audience members said they would actively work to remove them from office.

Mayor Jorge Meneses looked at this potential electoral gambit and seemed ready to roll the dice.

"Elections are coming next year," he said. "Let the residents of Hackensack vote us out if they are very displeased with the way that we are doing our job. I feel your pain, but we as a council had to do what’s best for the city. If that’s going to be our downfall, then so be it."

One member of the public seemed to still have hope that some sort of compromise could be reached.

"I’m all for the cancer center, but not at the expense of these guys’ jobs," said Justin Derevyanik, 32, a Hackensack firefighter and former EMT. "Let’s take a page from the hospital and come up with a cure for the problem and not eliminate these jobs."