City approves proposal to retire three firefighters

Deputy Chief/Fire Marshal Shawn Bell

Fire Captain Ken Chapman

Fire Captain Kenny Joe Hines

Wayne City Council approved a proposal to eliminate three positions from the Wayne-Westland Fire Dept. by having three firefighters retire immediately. Deputy Chief/Fire Marshall Shawn Bell, Fire Captain Ken Chapman and Fire Captain Kenny Joe Hines with Bell having close to 20 years of service and Chapman and Hines having 24 years of service in Wayne.
This move will save the City of Wayne $22,000 in the current budget and $456,484 next year and will prevent the city from having to lay off lower seniority firefighters.
According to finance director Jim Ghedotte there are currently 20 budgeted firefighter positions plus one administrative clerk in the city’s budget. There will be 17 budgeted positions after the Council action.
Interim City Manager Ramzi El-Gharib said this would not affect service to residents. The firefighters’ union has accepted this plan and service and revenue will still be the same.
There will be the same amount of firefighters on duty in the city. After the failure of Public Act 345 El-Gharib asked city departments to come up with a plan to cut their budgets by 15-20%. Wayne’s current fire department budget is approximately $2.77 million.