City of Davis – UC Davis Fire Merger “Paused”

UCD Vice Chancellor Cites Compensation Disparity as Officials Insist Reports of Its Death Are Premature

He adds: “I make this recommendation with the strong belief that this approach will enable us to preserve our joint achievements, allow the campus to proceed on several management and service improvements, and position us to take the next steps to plan and implement consolidation when your labor negotiations are complete.”

Based on a number of reasons, Vice Chancellor John Meyer announced that as of January 31, 2012, the management services agreement was terminated and named Assistant Chief Nathan Trauernicht as UC Davis Fire Chief.

Officials, while acknowledging issues remain in the completion of a full merger, deny that this is a dead deal.

“We’re taking a pause,” City Manager Steve Pinkerton told the Vanguard.  “Sometimes it makes sense to instead quit while you’re ahead, pause while you’re ahead.  Take some time out and figure out what you’re going to do next.”

Interim Fire Chief Bill Weisgerber, on Wednesday night in a statement to the Vanguard asserted, “Having managed both Davis and UC Davis Fire organizations for the past 16 months, I know the departments are now in a place where a merger is an achievable goal.”

“A merger makes good fiscal sense, will support public safety and emergency response throughout Davis and the campus,” he continued.   He noted, “I look forward to continued progress in a number of ways in months ahead. “

He had words of praise for both organizations, “Both Davis Fire Department and UCD Fire Department are hard-working and well trained, and it’s been my privilege to know and work with all of the firefighting personnel involved.  For our part, the Davis Fire Department is a strong organization, ready to protect the public safety and respond to emergencies quickly and effectively.  I’m proud to lead the Davis Fire Department as we continue to look for ways to improve service to our community.”

The labor negotiations represent the critical backdrop of the concern.  The Vanguard has been aware for some time that a gap exists between the compensation for the City of Davis firefighters and UC Davis firefighters.

Most critically, Vice Chancellor Meyer cites what he calls a “significant compensation disparity” as a culprit.

“I am deeply concerned about the significant compensation disparity highlighted in the CityGate report,” he writes.  “The report suggests that UC Davis will increase its compensation in support of consolidation efforts. I believe such action would not be sustainable by UC Davis and should not be assumed in future planning.”

While the Vice Chancellor references the CityGate report, that report due out last summer has not been made available to the public.

Beneath the public veneer of good relations are festering problems that have slowed the progress, and now ground it to a halt.

Vice Chancellor Meyer’s letter, in fact, drew key highlights such as a white paper (like a statement of policy agreement) with former City Manager Bill Emlen in January 2010, a Davis City Council action to authorize a management services agreement effective September 1, and 50% of Interim Chief Bill Weisgerber’s contract covered by UC Davis.

According to Mr. Meyer: “The City and UC Davis initiated many actions assuming that consolidation would be deemed feasible. It was believed that these actions would improve cooperation between the two departments and provide improved service to our joint communities.”

And while there was initial progress toward shared administrative resources and joint operations along with joint planning, it appears that most of that progress occurred long ago, including the consolidation of fire dispatch effective on July 5, 2011 and the establishment of a pilot Battalion Chief Program.

The Vice Chancellor has announced they intend to maintain what they call the “successful” current fire dispatch function, which is under contract with the City of Davis.

Steve Pinkerton called that portion of the merger “a huge improvement of services and I think cements our relationship.  I think everybody is really happy with that.”

One should recall that, without joint funding, the city’s Battalion Chief Program was potentially a $400,000 expenditure.

The Vice Chancellor noted a lack of progress on implementation of Standard Operating Guidelines, a shared policy manual, dropping “boundaries so that the closest available unit responds to calls regardless of whether it is from the City of Davis or UC Davis,” and integration of UC Davis assistant chief and support staff into the city headquarters facility.

Wrote the Vice Chancellor, “The first three of these issues are believed by the city to be subject to meet-and-confer and thus we are unlikely to make progress until the City’s labor negotiations are complete.”

While the Vice Chancellor cited compensation issues as chief amongst his reasons for pausing this merger until after the city’s latest round of bargaining on new contracts for fire fighters, Mr. Pinkerton downplays this issue.

He told the Vanguard, “Salary surveys particularly in public safety are far more subjective than you might think.”

He said that he has analyzed the salary situation that show a range of figures from “15% less than UCD Fire to 7 or 8 percent more than UCD Fire depending on how you take into all different types of pay incentives, and retiree medical, pension costs.”

“As much as it seems like it’s a simple answer, it’s not,” he added.  “It depends on who you talk to.”

He suggested that he could answer the question about compensation better in three to four months as the collective bargaining process hopefully comes to a successful completion.

“Hopefully we’ll have a new contract [in three or four months],” he said, noting that they already have a new contract at UC Davis.  “Hopefully it will be easier to compare at that point.”

“I can’t get into any more detail than that because we’re in the middle of labor negotiations,” Mr. Pinkerton told the Vanguard.

—David M. Greenwald reporting

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