ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A St. Johns County Commissioner is raising concerns over a campaign between Fire Rescue and the United Way.
That campaign allows firefighters to donate the monetary value of up to 24 hours of unused vacation time to their chosen local nonprofit through United Way of St. Johns and Putnam counties. The donation does not withdraw money from a paycheck. Instead, the campaign directs the value of unused vacation hours.
Commissioner Ann Taylor claimed it is putting pressure on firefighters to contribute, all while fire rescue is still under contract negotiations with the county.
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“The message that we have been given loud and clear is that they need more time off, not less,” said Taylor.
During a county commission meeting last week, Taylor brought her concerns to commissioners. One is that the county’s logo is attached to the bottom of United Way’s flyer.
The county administrator said she was not aware of any county commitment to participate in the program.
Taylor said the non-profit visited fire rescue stations between September 29th and October 10th to introduce the program.
“I am already hearing from people even within the fire department that they do feel pressured,” said Taylor.
Another concern for Taylor is she said is that fellow County Commissioner Sarah Arnold is a member of the United Way of Florida Board of Governors.
Taylor argued that it is a conflict of interest.
“The optics just don’t appear to be very good,” said Taylor.
Action News Jax sent an email to Commissioner Arnold to ask her about this.
We did not receive a response by the time this story was published.
While Taylor said she is all for donating to charities, she is calling for more transparency with this program.
“United Way is a wonderful charity,” said Taylor. “It has nothing to do with that. This just seems like an awful lot of pressure on our firefighters that are already are under so much pressure.”
The St. Johns County Professional Firefighters union put out a statement on social media, which said it expressed support for the initiative to voluntarily donate earned time to the United Way.
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