Part-time firefighters and paramedics in Oak Forest received a pay raise Tuesday to bring their compensation in line with that offered in neighboring communities.
The Oak Forest City Council voted to raise the rate from $13 per shift hour to $20, which Fire Chief Patrick Duffy said is the same as what neighboring Midlothian and nearby Homewood pay, and is similar to rates offered in Country Club Hills ($19 per shift hour) and Flossmoor ($21).
Oak Forest has used part-time firefighters to supplement their staff since 2009.
Duffy said the department has had trouble attracting sufficient numbers of part-time people to work, and has had to use career staff to fill shifts that were intended for part-time firefighters, which Duffy said winds up costing the city more money.
“A part-time slot is budgeted for an hourly rate of $13,” Duffy said. “When a career member fills that slot, the hourly rate skyrockets 77 percent to an average of $49 per hour.”
But boosting the part-time pay rate may actually help the Oak Forest Fire Department to find more people to fill the slots. Currently, the department has seven people working part-time slots.
He said the Fire Department has problems retaining part-time firefighters because the qualifications for the job are the same as that of full-time firefighters. Which means that other cities often hire away Oak Forest part-timers for full-time jobs when they have vacancies.
Duffy said during the past 90 days, Oak Forest part-timers have quit to take jobs in Sugar Grove, Manhattan, University Park and the Orland Fire Protection District – along with Memphis, Tenn.
In other business former Fire Chief Jack Janozik was approved to fill a vacancy as city clerk. He replaces David Neuman, who had held the post for two years before resigning last month.
Janozik had been with the Oak Forest Fire Department for more than 30 years until his retirement in 2017.
Also on Tuesday, the City Council approved without opposition a proclamation recognizing members of the varsity cheerleader squad for Oak Forest High School, who won a runner-up trophy at the Illinois High School Association state cheerleading contest.
Oak Forest officials said this is the seventh state competition where the squad has won something during the past 11 years.
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