Since 2022, Cape’s City Council and the city administration have been focused on bringing financial stability and economic efficiency to the city’s operational budget. This year’s General Fund budget dedicates 72% of all its expenses to personnel, and dedicates 62% of expenses to public safety, which includes the Cape Girardeau Police Department (CGPD) and the Cape Girardeau Fire Department (CGFD). These two statistics reflect what we believe to be a top community priority of strong public safety, and better paid forces.

Lately, much has been shared in the public from the local fire union IAFF 1084 (the Union) regarding ongoing negotiations with the City of Cape Girardeau. Negotiations are continuing in good faith. What follows is an update for the public on progress that has been made for the CGFD and the Union since 2022, including key areas of disagreement that remain.

CITY CONCESSIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS
MADE SINCE 2022

1) Union Requests during Negotiations, and Concessions made by the City:

Pay increases have been made across multiple fire ranks.

• Captains & Captain/Paramedics: additional $255,379 annually
• Cadets, Firefighters, Driver/Operators, Battalion Chiefs and Paramedics: additional $69,904 annually

The City also began cancer screenings in 2025 at no cost to the employee, as well as pre-employment psychiatric evaluations.

2)  Significant City Initiatives to Enhance the CGFD, pay, retirement, and benefits—all implemented during ongoing negotiations:

• Top-Tier LAGERS retiremen thas been implemented, which is the highest retirement benefit level in LAGERS, at no additional cost to The additional cost for Fire Personnel is $759,198.

• New Captain Training Officer positions have been added, with an additional annual cost of $97,000.

• The City has absorbed all health insurance increases for the past 3 years, with no additional cost passed to employees. The additional cost for Fire personnel has been $458,148.
• Two additional paid holidays have been added.

3)  Staffing & Workload Improvements:

• Three new Firefighter positions added, to reduce overtime and strengthen work–life This has created an additional annual cost of $222,873 to the City.

4)  Competitive Pay Levels at CGFD Already Achieved:

Competitive Pay Levels at CGFD Already Achieved

The list below shows regional pay comparisons from the first quarter of 2025: Joplin – $36,720

Festus – $43,794 Poplar Bluff – $45,563 Jefferson City – $46,258 Springfield – $46,904 Jackson – $50,350

Recent pay increases have made the department competitive with regional markets. These investments reflect the City’s proactive approach—strengthening pay, benefits, and staffing before a contract is even finalized. Nevertheless, key areas of disagreement with the Union remain.

KEY AREAS OF DISAGREEMENT,
BASED ON UNION REQUESTS

1) Pay Structure Requests

From 2021–2025, fire personnel expenditures exceeded approved budgets by more than $2 million, with overages reaching in excess of $700,000 in 2024 alone. The abuse of overtime pay policies, in addition to non-compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), drove up personnel expenditures. Despite this, the City still increased pay across all fire ranks.

There are Union requests that would drive costs significantly higher:

• Automatic Overtime is being requested for any hours outside scheduled shifts, regardless of total hours worked.This eliminates the ability to manage overtime responsibly.
• Stacked Leave is being This would combine leave with worked hours, and will create paid hours beyond hours budgeted.
• Minimum Staffing Overtime is being requested, which would create automatic overtime anytime staffing falls below a minimum threshold—regardless of available staffing options.

If implemented, these three provisions alone would dramatically escalate overtime, remove City administrative oversight, and create budget overruns that will prevent the City from funding other critical services, such as those found in the Police Department or Public Works.

This budget overrun situation has been seen over the past 9 years, as these kinds of requests were included in the 2016 contract with the Union, which ran through June 2022.

The data below shows the actual budgeted expenditures for the CGFD per year, compared to the variance in expenditures (actual vs budgeted expenditures) that occurred:

Actual Budgeted Expenditures for the CGFD Per Year

The significant data point here is that CGFD budget overruns increased from $856 in 2017, to $896,111 in 2024.

There are other cost escalators put forth by the Union that have not been agreed to. These include:

• A 5% Advanced EMT premium is requested, which is equivalent to a Paramedic incentive, despite fewer job duties.
• Specialty Team Pay is requested, with no cap on team With no cap, there is no ability to estimate yearly cost.
• 5% Out-of-Rank Pay is requested, but there is no ability by the City to estimate yearly

2)  Scheduling and Time Off Requests

The Union is requesting unlimited trade days, which presents multiple challenges:

• The financial impact associated with unlimited trade days is huge. In one example, during a six month period of 2024, circumstances surrounding the use of trade days resulted in costs totaling $155,638. Another real example includes overtime paid because the department had to call in an overtime shift that the substitute agreed to work, but did not. Combining trade days, vacation and sick leave has also been allowed to accumulate lengthy consecutive days This creates overtime to maintain minimum staffing.
• Safety concerns are Some employees are working 72 consecutive hours.
• Unstructured staff scheduling has allowed unlimited trade days and has created staffing The City now allows 12 trade days annually (6 days per 6 month period), and has added 3 staff positions to support flexibility without compromising safety.

The Union is also requesting vacation payout with no notice requirement. This will escalate staffing gaps and overtime costs.

3)  Benefits Requests

• A Retiree Health Benefits guarantee is requested. The Union is requesting health insurance coverage for retired firefighters, until they reach Medicare Our firefighters can retire at age 55. Currently, 7 CGFD employees are eligible. Citywide, 76 employees are eligible. To maintain equity, extending this benefit to all eligible City employees would cost over $1.6 million per year. The Union declined a City compromise guaranteeing benefits for Year 1.
• Wellness enhancement requests are being made. For example, the Union is requesting annual mental health check-ins. In a compromise, the City has agreed to pay for voluntary bi-annual check-ins through Year 5. The City already pays for Personal Assistance Service (PAS) to all Full Time employees, which provides 6 free visits per episode with a counselor. Additionally, the Union is requesting annual cancer screening while on duty, at no cost to employees. The City began paying for Cancer Screens in February of 2025 by testing all firefighters. Subsequent testing will be paid for tri-annually.

4.  Management & Policy Requests

These requests represent the Union’s attempt to violate the City Charter and City Personnel Policy, and would prevent the City from managing the department:

• Overtime control – The Union wants to eliminate the City’s overtime
• Grievance procedures – The Union wants to ignore the City’s Grievance Procedure that is used for all employees.
• Mandatory arbitration – The Union wants mandatory arbitration, where the City must pay a third party (usually an attorney) to decide employment disputes.
• Negotiate salaries – The Union wants to negotiate salaries on an annual
• Evergreen clause – The Union wants an Evergreen Clause, which means the contract can never expire.

5.  Staffing Requests

• The Union proposes reducing cadets from 11 to 9. Cadets already hold FF I & II and First Responder certifications, and the City pays for EMT certification and training Limiting the level of Cadets increases overtime for other employees.
• The Union requests increasing minimum staffing from 17 to 18 per Daily minimum staffing of the fire department has been increased from 15 to the current level of 17. It is established that overtime is called in to meet these minimum staffing needs.

The City added 3 Firefighter positions, resulting in available staff to cover minimum staffing needs without requiring overtime. This helps respect the work-life balance for our employees. The additional staff allows flexibility in scheduling. For example, scheduling utilizing the 3 additional firefighters can achieve the needed coverage for the airport.

The City of Cape has gone above and beyond to support our firefighters in recent years. The reality for the City, however, is that budgetary constraints always control the City’s ability to cover cost escalations. Balancing budgets as the Cape Girardeau Fire Department’s costs escalate will reduce funding availability for other public service expenditures and initiatives. The remaining Union demands will escalate costs, create an open-ended cost structure that taxpayers cannot sustain, and will prevent the City from funding other key city services conducted by the Police Department, Public Works, the Parks and Recreation Department, and the Airport.

The City will continue to prioritize competitive pay, enhanced benefits, improved staffing, and long-term sustainability of departmental services—for the benefit of our employees, and for the citizens of Cape Girardeau. The City will continue negotiating in good faith with the IAFF 1084, but must ensure any agreement is fair, financially sustainable, equitable across departments, and responsible to the community.

Mayor Stacy Kinder and the City Council of the City of Cape Girardeau