CONNEAUT — Depending on the speaker, overtime is the primary culprit or just a supporting player in the Conneaut Fire Department’s budget woes, City Council heard Tuesday night.

Council’s public safety committee met Tuesday to discuss the overtime accrued by full-time and utility firefighters so far — about $89,500 paid year to date — and whether that figure can be trimmed in 2009.

Some at the meeting, like Councilman-at-Large Jacob Chicatelli, feel the overtime issue is key to creating a balanced department budget next year. Others, including Fire Chief Bim Orrenmaa, say overtime is just a fraction of the $140,000 he must slice from his budget.

The city is seeking ways to overcome a six-figure general-fund shortfall projected by the end of 2009. Each department served by the beleaguered general fund has been asked to shave 15 percent off its next-year budget. For the fire department, that amounts to some $140,000, Orrenmaa said.

The contract negotiating team for Local 651 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents the full-time firefighters at Fire Station 1, participated in the meeting. While the union local may be willing to reopen the contract , members believe there are numerous cost-cutting options already available within the department without having to return to the bargaining table, the firefighters said.

Regardless of their position in the room, all present agreed the budget crisis is real and drawing closer.

“We believe what you’re saying is true,” said assistant fire chief Michael Castrilla, a Local 651 negotiating team member.

The full-timers’ contract details minimum staffing requirements and overtime procedure. Per the contract, no fewer than three firefighters work a 24-hour shift, and two of them must be full-timers. The third may be a utility firefighter, who is paid $8.32 an hour, a rate lower than the career firefighters.

Problems develop when the scheduling officer cannot locate a utility firefighter to work. If someone can’t be found, a full-timer must be contacted, and that’s when overtime kicks in.

Council learned the 12-hour shift now in place for part-timers may be an issue. It is a big commitment that can intrude on other jobs or family time. A more flexible schedule may allow the city to find more of the lower-cost utility firefighters to plug holes when the full-timers are ill or on vacation.

Orrenmaa said overtime is serious but just a small aspect of the department’s budget crunch.

“We’re focusing on a minute part of the problem,” he said. “We need to be looking at bigger things.”

Orrenmaa said many of his options, including staffing and scheduling changes, are governed by the contract.

“I have no options as chief,” he said.