By Shawn Wallace
Until Friday morning, the plan was to re-hire 30 firefighters and 55 police officers through two federal grants and a $2.5 million payment from the South Jersey Port Corp. But it was a last-minute call from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that gave Mayor Dana L. Redd clearance to re-hire one more firefighter. The 40-year-old Roberto Prado was the 31st man.
Clad in a Camden Fire Department shirt much smaller than his size, with someone else's name on it, Prado was sworn in. "I got the call 20 minutes ago," said Prado, who spent Thursday night praying to somehow get back to work with the department. "They told me I had to wear a (uniform) shirt, so I just grabbed the first one." He arrived at City Hall just in time for the 11:30 a.m. ceremony marking the return of about a third of the public-safety workers laid off on Jan. 18.
The ambiance in the council chambers following the swearing-in was joyous, but when the ones wearing the uniform first settled in, many said they thought of their colleagues who did not make it. In the wake of the $26.5 million budget deficit, the city had to let go of 336 workers, including 163 police officers and 60 firefighters. Redd had failed to win Council approval in February for an amended $163.3 million budget to raised the property tax 23 per cent to rehire 60 public-safety employees.
The council members worked on their own amended $173 million budget, which comprised a more modest 10 percent property-tax increase. The funds were to go towards severance payment for the laid-off workers, and not for re-hiring. Council members voted unanimously on Friday to adopt the 2011 fiscal year budget. "At this point, I'm just glad to close this chapter and move on," Redd said after the Council's vote, whose administration is already working on the 2012 fiscal year budget.
Redd had announced a $5.1 million Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant from FEMA last month, to rehire laid-off firefighters for at least two years.
