PFFPNC/IAFF Brace for Hurricane Florence
With Category 4 Hurricane Florence expected to hit the North Carolina coast on Friday morning, PFFPNC is distributing this e-newsletter to readers.
“While North Carolina is no stranger to hurricanes, Florence appears to be a storm of historic size and destruction,” said PFFPNC President Tom Brewer, who produced a short video giving an overview of IAFF/PFFPNC services. “We are not only hoping and praying for those in teh path of the storm, including fire fighters, EMTs, fire responders and their families, but we are putting services on the ground to help our members and their communities.”
Brewer reports the IAFF opened a Disaster Reflief Center at the Charlotte Fire Fighters Association Union Hall on Wednesday to serve as an on-the-ground response to PFFPNC members across the state. A Center also has been set up in Greensboro.
Services provided by the IAFF include financial assistance to members who are displaced from their homes due to the storm, providing limited generators for power outages, providing tarps to members who need those for roof leaks, providing clean water and providing peer support counseling in times of disaster. Other goods or services as needed by an on the ground assessment.
PFFPNC will provide updates on its Facebook and Twitter pages and in next week’s e-newsletter.
So What Happens to HB340 Now?
Technically, HB340|Separation Allowance is still alive as the General Assembly’s adjournment resolution requires the legislative body to return in a lame duck session on Tuesday, Nov. 27, a couple weeks after election day.
This is in contrast to past adjournment resolutions for a short session, in which the General Assembly adjourns sine die, which means adjournment without a day being set for reconvening. In other words, sine die adjournment is a final adjournment resolution.
However, fire fighters are advised not to put much optimism that a November legislative session will bring enactment of HB340.
Instead, PFFPNC will be preparing for the 2019-2020 legislative sessions and the reintroduction of separation allowance bills – one in the House and the other in the Senate – that will likely have new bill numbers.
Rep. Nelson Dollar (R-Wake) said he wanted to meet with PFFPNC in the fall to lay out a bicameral legislative strategy for separation allowance in 2019.
Separation Allowance Bill Fails to Move as Session Adjourns
The General Assembly adjourned the 2018 short session Friday, June 29, without the Senate moving HB340|Separation Allowance in a committee.
“We are very disappointed first and foremost that fire fighters were not given an open hearing in a Senate committee on the bill,” said PFFPNC Political Director Josh Smith. “The House initially had the same concerns the Senate had over the $300 million overall cost to municipalities but Speaker Tom Moore gave us an opportunity to make our case in that body’s committees to show savings to municipalities, and we changed hearts and minds. We were not given that privilege in the Senate, and it’s very disappointing.”
PFFPNC lobbyists pressed senators all the way until the end, including a conversation with Senate Pensions/Retirement Committee Chair Andy Wells (R-Alexander/Catawba) on Thursday afternoon, and he reiterated that he was not opposed to separation allowance but wants to find a state funding mechanism that would assist municipalities in funding the benefit.
Sen. Wells said he welcomes PFFPNC to meet with him in Hickory in the interim leading up to the 2019 legislative session. He would include the NC League of Municipalities, the organizer and chief messenger in opposing separation allowance for fire fighters.
Other offers to work with PFFPNC on separation allowance in the interim including Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham/Guilford), Rules Chairman Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick/New Hanover/Pender/Bladen) and Se. Trudy Wade (R-Guilford).
Smith said he appreciates the offers to work with the Senate on their funding concerns, and he commits PFFPNC to that process. However, Smith reserved his greatest appreciate for the House, specifically Rep. Nelson Dollar (R-Wake) and Rep. Jason Saine (R-Lincoln), who worked tirelessly to find legislation to amend with separation allowance until the gavel fell on Friday.
PFFPNC will follow up on this story and a 2017-2018 wrap up in future Legislative Briefing newsletters.