Council Independence and Staff Ingenuity Leads to Possibility For Fire Reform

Commentary – Let’s be honest, does it surprise anyone that when the city announced in its council agenda it had reached agreement with three bargaining units on a new contract, that neither Fire nor DCEA were among them?

What we do not know at this point is whether the Davis Fire Department and the Davis City Employees Association are holdouts, believing that they should not have to take the same concessions as the other bargaining units in the community, or whether they are closing in on deals of their own that are comparable to the others.

The story of the Firefighters Local 3499 should be a cautionary tale to all bargaining units in the city.  For a ten-year period, the firefighters’ union ran city hall.  They elected 7 of 9 councilmembers.  They were able to push through 3% at 50 and four firefighters on an engine.

They got a huge 36% salary increase from 2004 to 2008.  And a room full of firefighters convinced a council majority of three to vote not to read the report that the city paid for.

But times have changed.  In 2008, the Davis Firefighters spent $20,000 to re-elect Don Saylor and Stephen Souza, and narrowly missed electing a third councilmember, Sydney Vergis.

Two years later, the firefighters could not find a council candidate who would take their campaign contributions.  The same thing happened in 2012.

The result is that there will be five members of the Davis City Council sitting at the dais on Tuesday night that owe more to the citizens of Davis than they do to the Davis firefighters.  The firefighters will undoubtedly stack the chambers on Tuesday night, but they will be looking at five members, none of whom have taken a cent from them – ever.

On Tuesday, for the first time, the Davis City Council will have a chance to undo the damage that was done to the finances of the city back in 1999.  There are two critical proposals.

First, the change in staffing will mean we will have three engines with three personnel on it.  It will also mean we have a stand-alone rescue unit.  The staffing change not only will save the city a lot of money, it will also make for smaller and more flexible units that can respond to medical emergencies and fires with speed and flexibility.

In November, when Union President Bobby Weist spoke during public comment, he was critical of the report and proposed changes, saying its “flavor seemed to be money – nowhere in there did it say it was going to improve the service, that it’s going to give the citizens a better service than they’re getting – I don’t think it can be done without another station and continuing what we’re doing.”

But he is wrong.  The staffing changes and creation of a stand-alone rescue apparatus may well make the citizens of Davis safer by allowing the units to better utilize their staffing numbers.

The second part of the equation is even more critical to public safety.

The Davis Enterprise, in its Sunday editorial, made a strong case on this point.

“Interim Fire Chief Scott Kenley told the Davis City Council the boundary impairs safety and slows emergency response times,” the Enterprise writes. This refers to the response boundary between Davis and UC Davis fire departments.

In his fire audit report, Chief Kenley wrote, “… the departments should drop the boundaries between the two entities and develop station distribution and response strategies as if they were one department.”

As the Vanguard learned from sources in the UC Davis fire department, Bobby Weist has long been an opponent of the boundary drop.

The problem with the boundary issue becomes clear in the Enterprise example where the firefighters from Mr. Weist’s downtown fire station become tied up in Wildhorse on a medical call, while another emergency occurs close to campus on Rice Lane.

The Enterprise notes, “The Rice Lane patient is 3.1 miles from the West Davis station, about an eight-minute drive. He is 3.3 miles from the South Davis station – nine minutes.

“Due to the current boundary restrictions on first responders, UCD firefighters cannot respond to the Rice Lane patient. Yet Engine 34 on campus is less than a mile away – three minutes. They would not be allowed to respond first even if the Rice Lane house were on fire.”

Indeed, the Enterprise argues, “The Rice Lane patient might die waiting for a crew from one of our outlying stations to race across town.”

So how is it exactly that Mr. Weist is concerned about public safety above all else, when for 18 years he has essentially, through political power and influence, blocked this very common sense change?

The council now has it in their hands to fix these problems, along with making sensible adjustments to the unrealistic five-minute response time goal.

The councilmembers each made this moment possible when they, independent of one another, decided not to take money from the firefighters.  Now they owe nothing to anyone but the public.

But a lot of credit here goes to City Manager Steve Pinkerton and Interim Chief Scott Kenley.

It was clear at the time that Scott Kenley was brought in that he had a reputation of not being a union guy.  Previous analysis from Citygate – a company run by retired firefighters – consistently failed to articulate a way for the city to reduce its personnel on fire engines, while maintaining its current level of public safety.

What made Chief Kenley’s report exceptional was the thorough and meticulous manner in which it laid out all scenarios and allowed the council to make the critical determination of how to proceed.

Is it a perfect solution?  By no means.  We still have not had a report allowing us to re-think how to deploy first response medical aid.  Though this report does begin to take us in that direction by allowing for the stand-alone rescue apparatus.

Nor does it offer us a reduction down to ten firefighters – though it has two alternatives with ten that is presented to the council before ultimately recommending the compromise staffing of 11 that seems to give us savings, with enhanced public protection.

But for all his good work, if this council owed its allegiance to the firefighters, this would be DOA – just as it would have been back in 2009.  In the end, the council’s independence could be what saves the city from the fiscal ruin of the last 15 years of policies.

For that, we should all be grateful.  Now the council needs to finish the circle and approve the recommendations on Tuesday night.

—David M. Greenwald reporting

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