Three Warren Fire Department Employees Collected More Than $200,000 in 2020

Three members of the Warren city fire department were paid more than $200,000 in 2020.

A fire department captain collected $206,411 in gross pay in 2020 while a firefighter was paid $204,993 and a fire department sergeant collected $203,320.

Three other fire department employees were each paid more than $190,000 in 2020.

Mayor Jim Fouts said the high pay came from overtime pay rates incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fouts said the city has agreed to minimum-staffing requirements in the fire department union contract. The clause requires the city to maintain a certain level of staffing at all times.

He said that COVID-19 also made it difficult to replace retired firefighters because the organizations involved in searching for new firefighters were hit by the pandemic.

Fouts said two fire department employees worked 2,000-plus hours of overtime, and another nine employees in that department worked 1,000 or more hours of overtime.

The city of Warren refused to release the name of its employees when asked to do so in a Freedom of Information Act request.